Perhaps you are like me and don't have the luxury of being completely "out" as a Steampunk at work. As a university professor (ok, technically adjunct) and a young one at that, I have to be taken seriously by my students and co-workers, and sadly many of the more overtly SP fashion trends would probably have the opposite effect! However, that doesn't mean I can't steam it up with some culturally acceptable style (and feel wonderfully subversive in doing so). I'll be posting examples of my daily outfits that I feel could qualify as Steampunk in some way.

Today's:



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My first convention - if you can call it that - yes that sounds cynical, I suppose it was just a little bit of a letdown. I went with my boyfriend (who earned the nickname "man-pet" there which actually is pretty cute) on Sat the 23rd of October, and we trekked across the bridge to St. Pete where it was being held at the Hilton near Tropicana Stadium. We decided that at $25 a pop, it was just too small and unimpressive of a convention to pay for passes, so we just went around to all the free areas (and snuck in to the non-free hallway, where there was nothing we wanted to do anyways).

It was my steampunk "coming out" and I was a bit embarrassed about my Hot Topic plastic-boned corset and matching arm warmer, and my last-minute Etsy-bought goggles (plastic painted, with leather straps replacing the original elastic ones), but surprisingly I got great compliments on my outfit and at least three people mentioned how much they liked my goggles. !!!  I guess I've been reading Brass Goggles too much, since I was half expecting some upturned noses at not being authentic or Making my own things. I need to learn to say "Thank you!" and be confident even about the most humble outfit ;-).

I enjoyed seeing all the vendors' wares and strolling through the Art room, which sounds much more lofty than it actually was (mostly badly drawn copies of Fantasy greeting cards like unicorns and wolves and fairies), and chanced upon a couple musicians who played me a song. Here we are:



Then back to the vendor area where I was tempted by a very cool and very expensive necklace piece of gadgetry (may end up buying it, so more on that later) and a wide leather tool belt, but ended up buying my first corset on a whim after just trying on a size 22" to see how it would fit. It is GORGEOUS...but...it just wont' go any smaller than at most a 2 inch reduction, even after warming it up and tightening gradually. I'm wondering if it's just one of those tubular shaped ones. Will do a full review of it later (it's a local Ft. Meyers corsetiere), here is how it looks:


Purple and black striped with a damask pattern at the top

And finally, me and the man-pet:

Awwww!

Reviews of the corset, goggles, and clockwork necklace I'm wearing in that pic are forthcoming. I also just acquired a number of other corsets through eBay and will be reviewing those as well.

I think that this will be my landing place for all things related to my current obsession, steampunk. I love the darker and more visually diverse side of steam - Victorian jewel tones, Gothy touches like black lace, freely mixing different SP styles - and while I do wear plenty of brown and brass, I support both color and creativity when it comes to what steampunk "should" look like. I'll be dipping my toes experiementally in the pool of Making Things as time goes by.

You can expect to see plenty of pictures of my projects and outfits, reviews of things like corsets and other indulgences, the occasional article or op/ed, and whatever other fancies strike me at the moment.

Why Tempo Fantasia?  Partly because I am a professional musician and get a kick out of describing my blog in musical terms, and partly as it means "Time Fantasy" in Italian, fairly self-explanatory why that would make total sense to a steampunk ;-)