Unlacing the Victorians

courtship "tools" of the 19th century

2012-02-14T11:10:00.003-05:00

In honor of Valentine's Day, let's take a look at a variety of items in the 19th century that was used to help courtship remain pure and innocent- or restrictive, depending on how one looks at it.

Note- I'm not sure who exactly wrote the article "Valentine's Day antiques reflect Victorian values," but it was either a Dr. Lori of the Discovery Channel show "Auction Kings" or Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson. Either way, what I am about to discuss is taken mostly from the "Treatures" column of the Pocono Record.

The courting lamp

What, exactly, was it?

Resembling a typical oil lamp of the day, the courting lamp was enhanced with graduated markings on the glass to indicate minutes. The marks showed the amount of time left before the fuel source expired...Of course, the reasoning behind such a lamp was to keep track of two un-chaperoned lovers. As the fuel burned out and time grew short, the lovers would be warned of the impending darkness. When the fuel was gone and the light was extinguished, the young male suitor had better be on his way home!

Here are some examples of courting lamps I have found on the web. Where, exactly, are these markings of which the above mentioned article speaks?

image source: Round Top Hill Antiques

image source: Writing in the Blackberry Patch

image source: Through My Back Door

The love seat

So you think you know what a love seat is, right?

Think again.

Victorian love seats had two sections presented in an elegant S-shape curved form. This allowed a couple to sit together but not too closely. As antiques reflect society, the love seat exemplifies the Victorian interest in a controlled courtship.

image source: One of a Kind Antiques

image source: Lovely Unique Weddings

image source: http://www.middlefieldma.com/

Hair "crafts"

Yes, Victorians made many trinkets, objects, and art pieces out of human hair. According to the article:

Victorian women saved their hair in a small ceramic bowl with a hole in its top called a hair receiver. After accumulating a good amount of locks, the hair would be used to make a hair picture or bracelet. These hair crafts were the result of years of saving actual human hair.

Intricately woven hair crafts became love gifts from 1850 to 1910. Hair jewelry was used for sentimental remembrances and as gifts to loved ones. On Valentine's Day, women believed that giving their beloved a hair bracelet or hair watch fob would serve as a love charm and ensure a long and happy relationship.

One of the most popular and beloved antiques is the hair picture. These hair pictures were devotional objects coveted by families. One of the most common Victorian Valentines featured the symbolic rose or forget-me-not flowers made from hair locks of one's beloved.

[F]ramed hair pictures grew from love signs to memorials. Images made of hair related to the lover's lifestyle, occupation or hobbies including landscapes featuring family homesteads, anchors to symbolize a marine, or still-lifes of fruits or flowers symbolizing the bounty of love and long life.

The following items are, indeed, made out of human hair:

image source: Thread for Thought

image source: thisnext

image source: Forbes.com

You can read the entirety of the article "Valentine's Day antiques reflect Victorian values" here.

The courting bench

While not mentioned in the article, I thought I would share a tidbit I learned while on a tour at the 19th century Edmondston-Alston House in Charleston, SC:

Apparently the "courting bench" was a long, rocking-chair like contraption that young lovers used to bend the rules about sitting near each other. The young man would sit at one end and the young lady at the other end, where they could converse at a "safe" distance. But they could also "bounce" slightly down the rocking bench, eventually making their way closer and closer to each other. If they were really lucky they might actually end up sitting next to each other.

While I am not sure this is the "correct" use for the bench, that is the story we were given at the Edmondston-Alston House.

image source: Carolina Joe

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

snowy days and steampunk ways

2012-02-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

The 'Burgh was hit with blowing snow and below freezing temperatures this past weekend. What is a girl to do? Put on her ankle-length skirt over thick nylons and two other skirts, pop on an underbust corset over a blouse, and hit the town!

Well, sort of. All I managed to do in this outfit was cautiously drive to the South Side to visit Slacker, an alternative clothing store that sells corsets supplied by Black Hearts Clothing. Black Hearts is a local retailer that sells corsets for very reasonable prices- about $40-$50 a pop.

After chatting with Cy, the proprietor of this clothing line who was working at Slacker that day, she found out that I have purchased two corsets previously from them (one of which you can see in this post). Also discovering that I was a follower of the steampunk scene, she very generously gifted me with a brass and resin rose necklace:

In all fairness I did spend $80 while I was there specifically on Black Hearts items, but nevertheless it was a wonderful gesture, one that few businesses do anymore.

Oh, and I also stopped at a local Roman Catholic church for Saturday evening mass, sans the corset. I received lots of compliments on my hat in the parking lot!

shhh! my flowers are talking!

2012-02-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

"A Victorian Bouquet" by William Powell Frith
image source: British Paintings: since about Victorian times

First of all, the topic I am about to write about has been previously researched and revealed to the blogosphere by another Victorian enthusiast- Ms. Lou at The Neo-Victorian Parlor. While her post "Floriography-the Secret Language of Flowers" is better than the article I am about to discuss concerning the history of flower language and the meanings behind a wide variety of blooms, I thought the following article, written more for the masses rather than Victorian nerds like myself, is an interesting, concise, albeit less informative piece.

Gerald Filipski, a freelancer for the Edmonton Journal, recently wrote an article entitled: "Say something special with a Valentine's bouquet: Each bud has its own meaning, according to Victorian lore." In his article he gives a brief overview of the 19th century European fad for conveying secret messages in ordinary objects:

In the 19th century, a craze swept Europe. It began in Turkey and involved sending secret love messages through objects. The recipient had to guess the meaning through rhyme. The idea reached Europe through the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Turkey, but it was only the floral element that survived.

Why did this fad catch on? In Puritanical Victorian England, meetings between a man and a woman were chaperoned and messages were difficult to convey through ordinary means without creating scandal or getting into trouble with your parents (or both). Who knows if that servant you entrusted to give that letter to your lover read it and/or gave it to your father instead?

The meaning of flowers was particularly important in Victorian England, however, as courtship back then was nothing if not discreet. So a gentleman sending flowers to his lady would make use of the secret code to send a message to his be-loved. The code was so elaborate that lists of the various meanings were circulated. In The Meaning Of Flowers, the authors say, "the number of leaves on a decorative branch might indicate the date and time of a secret rendezvous . the fragrant tuberose became an invitation to dangerous pleasures. A double daisy was said to mean, 'I feel as you do.' "... For the Victorians, orange blossoms were always a part of the wedding bouquet. The tradition is believed to have originated in China, where the flowers were emblems of purity, chastity and innocence.

Although the fad faded in popularity with time, some people in our own century still analyze the significance of flowers:

In modern times, much speculation has surrounded Kate Middleton's wedding bouquet, with the myrtle meaning love, white hyacinth for beauty, sweet william for gallantry - and undoubtedly for the groom - and lily of the valley for happiness.

Mayhaps one should pay a little more attention to those flowers in one's V-Day bouquet. Your lover just might be telling you something special.

As an added bonus, The Art of Manliness wrote this article on how manly and romantic it is for a man to actually think about the flowers he will buy for his preferred female instead of just "grabbing a bouquet out of the case at Wal-Mart."

"turn me on" with a clockwork key

2012-02-11T14:48:00.004-05:00

French DJ David Guetta and Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj have paired up to create a music video for the song "Turn Me On" set in a steampunk world. The DJ creates a lifelike doll in the form of Minaj, making all of the other dolls jealous.

What do you think? Should the pop music industry be allowed to continue making steampunk-inspired music videos or should they stay far, far away?

My personal opinion is that steampunk-inspired music videos shouldn't only be the property of steampunk bands. This attempt is much better than Justin Bieber's steampunk inspired "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." I was very impressed with the depiction of the doll being constructed and with Minaj's Vneo-Victorian clothing. The "naked" dolls, however, creep me out. Maybe it's due to that mannequin nightmare I had when I was six rather than a bastardization of steampunk. I am not a fan of the song itself.

I still rank Panic! At the Disco's "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" as the best use of steampunk by a mainstream pop band/musician

"let me in your window-oh-oh-oh..."

2012-02-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick and dirty (not in the risque sense) post for you today: Pat Benatar's version of "Wuthering Heights"- inspired by the tragic Victorian novel of the same name by Emily Bronte. While I loathe the novel, I happily rediscovered this song on a random mixed CD I popped into my car's CD player yesterday afternoon- a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" by Pat Benatar.

Ironically, I was driving through a cemetery when this first came on. I have dedicated this past week to paying my respects at the graves of deceased relatives buried in the greater Pittsburgh area. Unlike this song, however, I can't say any of them are trying to haunt me.

Now for some random asides:

My paternal Lithuanian great-grandparents were 14 years apart in age- Steponus was born in 1884 and Tekla in 1898.
Yellow flowers are considered to be mourning flowers in Lithuania. So I appropriately left yellow daisies on their graves, as well as at the grave of my paternal grandfather.
Emily Bronte and I share the same birthday- July 30.
My boss is afraid of ghosts. I've told him that certain wooded areas or buildings were haunted before just to watch him flip out and flee.
I've actually gone ghost hunting before at an 18th century battlefield. It was a joke, largely due to our interactions with the paranormal team conducting the hunt. First of all, the women were all over 50 and claimed to be empaths, while all of the guys were under 25 and only worked the technical equipment. The women felt lots of "sadness," the entire team thought that a wild animal call was a Native American war cry, and they were convinced that a radio scanning the T.I. song "Dead and Gone" (featuring Justin Timberlake) was a sign from a spirit.

happy 200th b-day charles dickens!

2012-02-07T11:21:00.002-05:00

image source: Most Odd- Facts of Interest

Full Name: Charles John Huffam Dickens (early alias: Boz)

Date of Birth: Friday, February 7, 1812

Place of Birth: No. 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, Portsmouth England

Parents: Father-John Dickens (1785-1851); Mother-Elizabeth Dickens (1789-1863)

Education: Approximately one year at William Giles' school in Chatham, Kent (age 9-11); nearly three years Wellington House Academy in London (age 13-15); beyond this, largely self-educated.

First Published Story: A Dinner at Poplar Walk, published in Monthly Magazine (December 1833)

Marriage: Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens (1815-1879) : married April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea. Separated 1858

Children:

Charles Culliford (Charley) Dickens (1837-1896)
Mary (Mamie) Dickens (1838-1896)
Kate Macready (Katie) Dickens (1839-1929)
Walter Savage Landor Dickens (1841-1863)
Francis Jeffrey (Frank) Dickens (1844-1886)
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (1845-1912)
Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (1847-1872)
Henry Fielding (Harry) Dickens (1849-1933)
Dora Annie Dickens (1850-1851)
Edward Bulwer Lytton (Plorn) Dickens (1852-1902)

Date of Death: Thursday, June 9, 1870 (stroke)

Place of Burial: Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

Major Works:

Sketches by Boz (1836)
Pickwick Papers (serialized monthly 1836-37)
Oliver Twist (serialized monthly 1837-39)
Nicholas Nickleby (serialized monthly 1838-39)
The Old Curiosity Shop (serialized weekly 1840-41)
Barnaby Rudge (serialized weekly 1841)
Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized monthly 1843-44)
Dombey and Son (serialized monthly 1846-48)
David Copperfield (serialized monthly 1849-50)
Bleak House (serialized monthly 1852-53)
Hard Times (serialized weekly 1854)
Little Dorrit (serialized monthly 1855-57)
A Tale of Two Cities (serialized weekly 1859)
Great Expectations (serialized weekly 1860-61)
Our Mutual Friend (serialized monthly 1864-65)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - unfinished (serialized monthly 1870)

Minor Works

American Notes (1843)
Pictures from Italy (1846)
The Life of Our Lord (1846)
A Child's History of England (serialized weekly 1851-53)
Reprinted Pieces (1858)
The Uncommercial Traveller (1861)

Christmas Books:

A Christmas Carol (1843)
The Chimes (1844)
The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
The Battle of Life (1846)
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)

Weekly Magazines:

Fun Facts:

The episode in Dickens' childhood when his father was imprisoned for debt and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory to help support the family is absolutely essential in knowing and understanding Dickens. This episode seemed to put a stain on the clever, sensitive boy that colored everything he accomplished, though he never told the story except obliquely through his fiction.
In 1846 Dickens co-founded Urania Cottage, a home for the redemption of “fallen” women where accepted candidates could learn skills, often domestic, and re-integrate into society.
Dickens was keenly interested in the paranormal, and has even been linked to the famous paranormal investigation group “The Ghost Club” of London.
Dickens kept a pet raven named Grip, which he had stuffed when it died in 1841.
Dickens was preoccupied with looking in the mirror and combing his hair - he did it hundreds of times a day. He rearranged furniture in his home - if it wasn't in the exact "correct" position, he couldn't concentrate. Obsessed with magnetic fields, Dickens made sure that every bed he slept in was aligned north-south. He had to touch certain objects three times for luck. He was obsessed with the need for tidiness, often cleaning other homes as well as his own.
Hans Christian Andersen was Dicken's close friend and mutual influence. Andersen even dedicated his book Poet's Day Dream to Dickens in 1853. But this didn't stop Dickens from letting Andersen know when he'd overstayed his welcome at Dickens's home. He printed a sign and left it on Andersen's mirror in the guest room. It read: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed to the family like AGES."
When The Old Curiosity Shop was published in serial form in 1841, readers all over Britain and the United States followed the progress of the heroine, Little Nell, with the same fervor that audiences today followed Harry Potter. When the ship carrying the last installment approached the dock in New York, 6,000 impatient fans onshore called out to the sailors, "Does Little Nell die?" (The answer? Read the book for yourself).

Facts taken verbatim from the following websites:

sewing projects: simple neo-victorian skirt

2012-02-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday I finally finished the project on which I had been working on and off for the entire month of January: a brown neo-Victorian skirt from a Simplicity pattern.

Here it is:

I tried to follow the pattern as closely as possible, but discovered at the end that certain things don't look as nice when done according to the instructions- like the overlock stitch that was recommended for the "hemming" of the ruffle around the skirt. And they told me to use a different colored thread for the overlocking stitch, which is why the ruffle has a tint of red around it.

The ruffle was, by far, the most difficult part. Learning to gather the material with a long machine stitch without pulling so hard that one breaks the thread was not easy on this rather heavy material I chose for the skirt, and I ended up having to pull all of the work out and start over again twice because of that or the ruffle not fitting right to the overskirt. But once I got the hang of it it was fairly simple, albeit time-consuming. And messy-looking. Good thing the instructions also said to add a braid around the offensive stitching (which was also an interesting lesson in the ability of my machine to handle thicker materials).

Overall there is a ton I learned just from making this skirt which I predict will help me in future projects. Despite the mistakes, I am looking forward to more challenging projects and picking up more skills as I go along. Now to make a petticoat for this skirt to make it flare more like it's actually from the 19th century...

own your own '1872' gun cane!

2012-02-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

As some readers may be aware, I am not the biggest fan of Clockwork Couture. Don't get me wrong- they have absolutely gorgeous steampunk clothes that appear to be of high quality craftsmanship. But their prices make me cringe, especially because I have seen several of their pieces sold for as much as 70% cheaper through other vendors, although 45% seems to be the normal savings one will receive getting their corsets and skirts from elsewhere (see previous posts "to tighten the wallet as much as the corset" and "clockwork couture not so cheap?").

My twin sister Leigh, however, hit upon one item offered by Clockwork Couture that I strongly doubt you will find cheaper anywhere else- the '1872' Empire-Remington Catalytic Gun Cane:

Despite the hefty price tag of $299.95, this gun cane is "WINNING" (Leigh's words) for the following reasons:

It's much prettier than most other gun canes I've seen- just do a Google image search on them or check out the following examples:

It looks nonoperational, which means that it's not actually illegal to carry around. See my previous post on real gun canes for more information on laws regarding gun canes as concealed weapons.

I do wish that this particular piece of merchandise explained who made the gun cane and its "history" and significance in the steampunk world for which it is intended in the item description. It's still quite a unique piece. Thanks Leigh

the few rings to rule them all!

2012-02-01T21:54:00.001-05:00

VictorianKitty at Sophistique Noir has decreed that the Monthly Theme for February be rings!

Rings are the jewelry item I lack the most. It's not because I don't like rings. It's actually because I bought a goodly amount of cheap rings as a teenager, but have since left most of them at my parents' house. Instead I cherish a select few, most of which I blasphemously wear on my left ring finger. I use my right hand to write with, so wearing rings on the right always makes me feel rather uncomfortable unless I am going out for a daytrip or at night with friends. If I start out wearing rings on my right hand at the beginning of the day by mid-morning they always end up in my pocket, my boot (for safekeeping if I don't have any pockets), my desk, or my left hand anyway.

The first ring is a little hard to see. It looks like a plain silver ring, but it actually has the inscription "Fear Not" carved on it. The phrase has religious connotations for me- it is what the archangel Gabriel first said to the Virgin Mary when he came to deliver his message of her Immaculate Conception. I've had this ring since I was a teenager and, although it is rather tarnished and scratched, I wear it still as encouragement whenever I feel as if I am getting a bit afraid of what life's throwing at me.

The next set are my beloved cameo rings, both purchased within the last 18 months. The larger of the two is from Forever 21. It goes perfectly with several of my steampunk outfits. The smaller pink one on the right was purchased at an open-air stall in Riga, Latvia, this past September. I think I got ripped off on the price. But the smaller one is nice when I'm not in the mood to wear the clunkier one on the left.

This next ring is a particularly unique one- a copper bejeweled flower with an enamel butterfly hovering above it. I purchased this one in a village in France when I was 17, and always receive compliments whenever I wear it. I would wear this one more often than I do except it's actually rather uncomfortable- it rubs against the pinkie and middle fingers as well as the knuckle beneath my ring finger. It also leaves a nice green ring around my ring finger after even short uses. Despite these drawbacks I will probably never get rid of this ring- it makes me think of France and spring every time I see it.

This next ring is the most valuable, price-wise, in my collection of not only rings but of jewelry in general. As a result I am wary of wearing it anywhere except to church or wedding receptions. It was once my Aunt Mary's, who died of ovarian cancer over eight years ago. While my aunt herself did not give away any of her personal belongings to her nieces and nephews, my grandmother did, giving each of my three sisters and I one precious stone ring out of her collection to remember her by. This ring is a slender gold band adorned with three small sapphires.

This final ring is the most precious to me personally. It's a genuine Irish Claddagh. My mother purchased it when she was backpacking through Ireland with some college friends nearly 30 years ago. My mom used to let my sisters and I take turns wearing this ring on St. Paddy's Day. I loved it so much that I yearned to have one of my own. So when I was in junior high or high school I began a quiet search for one just like hers. Unfortunately I am not fond of the thin bands on the Claddaghs I've seen here in the U.S., so I could never find one I liked as much as my mother's. I finally told my mother how much I loved her Claddagh and was disappointed I was that I couldn't find one just like hers when she verbally gave it to me on the spot (we were at an open-air market in Charleston, SC at the time, so I couldn't physically receive it until we returned to Pennsylvania nearly one week later.)

I wear this ring practically all the time- so much so that some people thought it was a clandestine engagement ring, while others yelled at me when I was single for wearing it on my left hand instead of the appropriate right hand. I do wear the crown pointed in the correct direction for whatever my dating status is at the time though.

While I do have another Claddagh- a gift from a close high school friend- it is one of those thin-banded ones of which I am not so fond, and it just doesn't feel right wearing it. My mother's Claddagh is just so special to me in a way I can't explain that another Claddagh would never do.

Does anyone else have a Claddagh? If so, how do you wear it?

recollections outfit #2

2012-01-31T10:30:00.000-05:00

Continuing yesterday's post about my recent purchases from historical clothing website Recollections, I will now feature the second (and my favorite of the two dresses I ordered- the Silk Ensemble:

Just two questions for you readers:

Which one do you like best?
Should I be smiling more in these photos? I swear I am not normally so serious! Just... camera-shy.

recollections outfit #1

2012-01-29T07:30:00.000-05:00

At the end of November the Victorian historical clothing business Recollections had a sale. Your blogger hemmed and hawed for literally hours over whether I should spend my hard-earned money on items as frivolous as Victorian dresses. Just ask Scott- I was whining so much about wanting the dresses and yet not having enough money for them that he turned to me several times and told me that if I wanted them that badly he'd buy them for me- probably just to get me to shut up.

While I didn't take him up on the offer, I did end up caving in and purchasing two dresses. They arrived last week. While normal circumstances dictate that most of Recollections' dresses are made and shipped three weeks from purchase, their Christmas rush obviously delayed my merchandise from arriving sooner. But the quality of the material and the craftsmanship on these outfits are just amazing. They both don't quite fit- I was between sizes, so I ended up going for the next size up on each. As a result the dresses fit just fine in length, but are too big around the torso area. So now I just need to figure out if I want to take them to my grandmother for altering or attempt it myself.

The first dress to be featured on this blog is the Josephine:

impulsive victorian house-buying

2012-01-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

Have any of you dear readers ever had an "impulse buy"- something that either you knew you had to have at the moment of purchase despite having no idea what you would do with it, or purchased only because it was cheap?

A few weeks ago I was hunting around JoAnn.com. I had a 50% off coupon that expired that evening and, seeing as it was 10:30 of the night of the coupon's expiration date, I was eager to use it. Unfortunately the coupon could only be used on one full-priced item, and none of the fabrics or larger sewing accessories were on sale. Since it wasn't worth me using the coupon on smaller accessories as the shipping costs would cost more than the savings I would accrue with the coupons, I began to accept the fact that the coupon would go to waste.

Then I saw this Greenleaf Dollhouse Kit.

With a few quick second thoughts I put it in my virtual shopping cart and proceeded to checkout.

As to this day I have no idea why. Impulsive buying isn't something I'm known to do, but I guess I just wanted a dollhouse and saw an opportunity to get one for relatively cheap. It's not like I've ever had a real wood dollhouse or had a real desire for one; sisters or cousins young enough to enjoy such an item; or any nieces to give it to. My youngest sister, who inherited a rowhouse styled dollhouse from a deceased aunt, used to build dollhouse accessories for fun until she was 12 or 13. But she's 18 now and has no need for another dollhouse to sit and collect dust in my parents' basement.

I think my rationalization of this purchase was as follows:

It's for my mom for Mother's Day! (This was under the assumption that the house was already painted, which it's not. Besides, despite her love of Victorian houses and furniture, I am not sure she would actually appreciate this gift as much as I wanted to believe when I first purchased it.)
It might make a cool decoration for our apartment (Reader, it does not. We have an ugly apartment that is already choking under the mixed styles of: a mismatch of furniture from my grandparents' house, plastic patio chairs used as kitchen table chairs, and the array of appliances, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous items hanging out on our mantelpiece because our apartment has zero closet space; my flea market Victorianesque knickknacks; two prints depicting American military warfare ranging from 1750-1815; and nearly a dozen framed 8x10 black and white movie star photos from the 1930s-1960s.)
It could always be used in a raffle for an event with the Steel City Steam Society (This has been the only realistic notion thus far).

But as soon as the package arrived bearing my new mini Victorian cottage, I realized that the project was much more extensive than I at first guessed. So now I have a disassembled plywood dollhouse sitting in my apartment and no idea what to do with it.

I did chat with my youngest sister about it though. Even though she thinks it's incredibly bizarre of me to just randomly purchase a dollhouse, she is willing to help me construct it, as she will be attending college at one of the nearby universities next year. I would like to make it into a steampunk-style dollhouse. She would rather make it into a normal Victorian-style house. We will see if this project comes to fruition.

Have you ever made a random or impulsive purchase? If so, did you regret it, or did you put it to good use?

fascinator fashion

2012-01-25T08:09:00.000-05:00

So I was feeling rather adventurous fashion-wise this past Tuesday and decided to declare it fascinator outfit day. I based an entire outfit around this fascinator I purchased last November at a steampunk Chinese auction:

Why? Just a spontaneous fashion urge- one that makes one declare: "I will wear whatever I want today!... as long as it's mostly work appropriate...."

Not that I usually have a problem with dressing appropriately for work. I have had a few fails here and there (too-tight, low-cut lacy corset-influenced top wasn't a win as I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried moving around in it all day, and neither was my purple hair after my part-time job coworkers recovered from the initial first week's shock enough to politely ask me when it was going back to normal) but my full-time boss doesn't give a damn what I wear as long as I don't come to work naked. And even then it might take him a good long while to notice, as he is usually in a head-bent-down-toward-his-iPhone sort of position whenever he first comes into the office.

But he certainly noticed when he ran into me as we were crossing the path between his office door and my office door wearing this:

Which is amazing, because once it took two hours of waiting for him to comment on a women's shirt imported from his native India that I had inherited from another Indian friend before I finally broke down and asked him if he had noticed it.

Not that I was planning on wearing the fascinator in the office. I wore it on my walk to work, but I took it off as soon as I entered the office, as I do with all of my hats. I just happened to be getting ready to make a quick run to Staples when he came in for the first time that day, and so put it on for going out.

The full outfit:

The boots were ordered from DSW- gray-colored heels with a sexy lacing down the back. The rose-patterned gray fishnets are from Target. The sweater is an old blue one with ribbon decoration on the left side of the chest from Forever 21, while the skirt is a fishtail design from Anthropologie that I have previously featured here. Since the weather was unseasonably warm on Tuesday, I wore the same plum-colored wrap I purchased at the Carlow flea market just a week and a half ago instead of my typical puffy winter coat. Now THAT also impressed my boss, especially when I told him I had snagged the wrap for only $1.

We sometimes speculate in our office whether he isn't actually one of those fashionably gay men that hides his sexual preferences due to some sort of Indian cultural taboo against homosexuality, as he is one of the best dressed men I know. We do clash in some ways- he loves expensive brands, while I am a notorious penny pincher on both his business expenses and my clothing purchases.

But he does appreciate my fashion sense. When I came back from Staples he was surprised and, dare I say it? even disappointed that I had taken my fascinator off, demanding to know why I hadn't kept it on. I've also heard him brag to some of his sales reps about the uniqueness of my style.

men's neo-victorian fall fashions 2012

2012-01-24T10:56:00.002-05:00

Kudos to Julia Rose from the Steel City Steam Society for alerting our steampunk group to Prada's Fall/Winter 2012 men's line, which borrowed quite a bit of inspiration from the age of steel and steam and Queen Victoria.

All images taken from The Sartorialist:

Now the only question is: How do I convince Scott that it would be totally awesome for him to attire himself in this sort of garb?

end of an era- 'poe toaster' is nevermore

2012-01-22T11:21:00.001-05:00

I meant to comment on this sad current event earlier, but work and life got in the way.

Every year since 1949 a treasured tradition occurred where a mysterious man in a wide-brimmed hat and white scarf left three roses and a bottle of cognac on the grave of 19th century author Edgar Allan Poe on the date of his birth- January 19. Dubbed the "Poe Toaster," this personage was never stopped and few attempts were made to reveal his identity. The "Toaster" himself did not remain the same- in the 1990s the tradition was passed to a younger individual, with a note being left that the original Toaster had died the year before.

image source: RAVEN-OUS!

But in 2010, the Poe Toaster failed to show up. In 2011 several imposters showed up. How do we know that? Poe House and Museum curator Jeff Jerome says that he and the Toaster have worked out a signal to determine if the "Toaster" was the real one- something the Toaster did at the grave every year why leaving his offerings.

This year a crowd kept vigilant and waited for the iconic figure to show up until nearly dawn. More imposters showed up, but the real Toaster did not stand up. The tradition was declared "over" by Jerome.

So what happened to the Toaster? Did he die suddenly? Did he not take his duties as seriously as the first Toaster? Or did he find 2009, the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth, an appropriate year the end the tradition?

What do you think happened? Do you think the tradition is better left over and done with, or do you think a new "Toaster" should step up and continue the tradition?

News articles relating to this event:

Washington Post- "Edgar Allen Poe 'toaster' tradition is no more"
Los Angeles Times- "Sorrow for the lost 'Poe Toaster': no cognac, roses left at grave"
Gainesville Sun- "Edgar Allan Poe fans call an end to 'Toaster' tradition"
United Press International- "'Poe Toaster' a no-show at author's grave"

"gotham by gaslight" and batfit #3 progress update

2012-01-20T14:39:00.000-05:00

image source: Comics Alliance

In an intriguing article entitled "'Gotham by Gaslight' and the Steampunk Batman Game That Never Was" on Comics Alliance, writer Chris Sims tells the tale of a 19th century themed Dark Knight video game. The pitch?

The idea of Batman jumping across Victorian rooftps in Gotham City circa 1889 to slug it out with muttonchopped thugs, tracking trails of blood through shadowy streets, and having an epic confrontation with the real Jack the Ripper in a gothic graveyard on the graves of his own parents?

The article never offers up a reason why this delightfully dark Victorian adventure never made it to a gaming console near us in the 1990s. But it does give one the opportunity to wonder: what if?

You can read the article in its entirety here.

image source: Comics Alliance

In other news...

So far my BatFit Challenge #3 has had mixed results. Not enough impatience or perfectionism issues to note writing down. Regarding my waking up challenge, however...

I utterly failed on Monday, but on Tuesday and Wednesday managed to surprise myself by only laying in bed a few minutes after my alarm went off before neglecting the warmth of my fleece sheets for the frigid winter air of a run-down Pittsburgh apartment bedroom. It was nice on Wednesday especially as I ended up going to work super early to make up for time spent at my counseling appointment later that morning- thus getting rid of the necessity to stay longer to make up for the missed hour. Thursday morning I failed again- I never heard my alarm and didn't awaken until one of my roommates woke me up an hour and a half later.

But I am not disheartened. I am still striving to make this waking-up-on-time-on-a-regular-basis thing a reality. Even if I have to do this:

image source: WINNING AT EVERYTHING

picks from picard: health

2012-01-19T15:11:00.000-05:00

This blog post on Liza Picard's Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870 will focus on Victorian health, medicine, and all such related topics.

image source: Musee McCord Museum

There were general hospitals, hospitals specializing in certain ailments (such as consumption) and even children's hospitals. Hospitals were "voluntary"- this means that they depended on voluntary contributions to operate. No state-run medical centers here. As a result admittance to a hospital was very difficult for non-emergency cases. One had to submit a petition and a properly filled out form to have their case examined and decided whether they would gain admittance to a hospital. Money and influence helped "applicants" get their foot in the door during the Weekly General Admittance Day.

Medical schools connected to hospitals rose during the nineteenth century. Before that a system of apprenticeship to a doctor was the more common method, although it still was used in the 19th century to produce doctors and other medical professionals in place of formal schooling.

Nursing training, however, was rather poor until the mid-19th century, when Florence Nightingale hit the nursing scene. At this time nurses were either members of some religious order, well-meaning but sadly untrained society ladies, or a secular individual who, more often than not, tended to have a reputation for ignorance in their trade and the habit of drinking, especially while on the job. At the time there were differing opinions on the purpose of nurses:

What was a nurse supposed to do? Should she look to the religious orders, and offer the patients spiritual consolation, ignoring their need for a bed-pan? Or was she there to look after their verminous, stinking, diseased bodies and follow the doctor's...instructions? Was she to be a lady or a ward maid? (p.185)

Florence Nightingale, a a reclusive upper class woman disinterested in the normal female pursuits of marriage and family, worked tirelessly and obsessively to solve the problem, opening up a School of Nursing in 1860, to create sober, educated, quiet, clean, organized angels of the hospital wards.

Scientific methods of examining sick patients was replacing the leechings of the 18th century. Stethoscopes, clinical thermometers, antiseptics, and improvements in microscopy were coming to the forefront. It was beginning to be suggested that bandages not be used more than once, especially on gangrenous patients, and that operating rooms and surgical implements be disinfected with carbolic after each use. There were old fuddy-duddy holdouts who wanted to do things as they had always done them, of course, but the connection between cleanliness and infection was beginning to be understood by the younger generation and applied.

Another advance was in anesthesia. Before the anesthetics available were opium and alcohol. By the 1840s chloroform had been found to be very useful for knocking out a patient for surgeries, and was even used by Queen Victoria and other Victorian women to lessen the pain during several of their childbirths.

Many people were afraid to go to hospitals out of fear that their bodies would be taken away for dissection, which happened quite often to the poorer classes. Deathbeds were watched closely, but if a person had no relatives or friends to take their body away from a workhouse or flat then the body usually ended up on the dissecting table.

Quack medicines were rampant, as were morphine and laudanum. People easily overdosed on laudanum, a derivative of opium, but no restrictions were placed on the sale of these chemicals. Only the sale of arsenic was regulated due to its common use in poisonings.

Epidemics were common- smallpox (despite the availability of a vaccine), typhus, cholera, and influenza to name a few. The smallpox vaccine was enforced in both 1833 (not strongly) and 1867, reducing the cases of that disease. The causes of these diseases were not always understood- some people believed in the miasma theory, where a bad smell directly caused people to be ill. But during the Great Stink of 1858, in which parts of the Houses of Parliament became too smelly to use, no epidemic of any disease occurred.

For home nursing, the following "medicines" were commonly used for various ailments, although were by no means the only methods:

wine and gin
exercise- walking combined with the use of dumbells
reading aloud
willow bark for the ague
arsenic (for what diseases it doesn't say)
cold-baths and sea-bathing for consumption (or tuberculosis)
apply a bellows or the "kiss of life" (a.k.a. basic rescue breathing) for those who have appeared to died from drowning
a warm bath and laxatives for chickenpox
wine and "even" spirits for typhus
laxatives and leeches, along with "keeping up a state of nausea and vomiting" for the whooping cough

Florence Nightingale also wrote on the care of a sick person in the home, advising such small helpful comforts as: placing the sickbed near the window so the sick person could look outside; keeping the patient informed of developments so they are not apprehensive about the state of their condition; visits from babies; pet animals in the sickroom; sunny and open rooms; outdoor exercise; plenty of amusement and play; less schooling; and good meals.

flea market finds

2012-01-18T12:24:00.000-05:00

Despite hibernating most of this past weekend due to the below freezing temperatures that descended on the great Steel City itself, I managed to get out on Sunday morning to an advertised flea market at Carlow University. After parking illegally in a deserted permit-parking only lot, I found the Antonian theater and had an enjoyable look around.

I ended up purchasing the following items:

Three candlesticks. The tapers were purchased separately.

A velveteen wrap. It appears to be plum-colored, although it also looks brown and black in the light.

A doorknob. This purchase was mostly made to complete a walking stick accessory I have been planning for some time now.

The flea market will be going on all month, so if you are in the Pittsburgh area stop by Carlow for antique goods and junk. There is a "decorative: cast-iron stove there, as well as a nice tea set and a bunch of drug store bottles and candlesticks.

adventures in sewing

2012-01-16T13:02:00.000-05:00

Note regarding yesterday's post: Le Professeur Gothique reminded me that I need to replace the negatives with positives. So here they are:

Replace oversleeping with using that time that I would have slept to either write or exercise before I go to work in the morning.
Replace perfectionism and impatience with more "me" time, or asking for more "me" time from my friends and boyfriend.

Now on to today's planned post.

The sewing machine that Scott got me for Christmas has already seen much use. Besides leaving the apartment weekly for the steampunk Stitch 'n Bitches that I regularly attend, I have also been using much of the little spare time I have in trying out new projects.

Oddly enough, I never seem to work on my Stitch 'n Bitch project- a brown Victorian skirt- in my own apartment. Instead I've made a pair of completely useless transparent curtains for three windows in our apartment and a pre-measured apron sewing "kit" from Wal-Mart that just needed to be sewn together and assembled. The apron, a gift for my twin sister who is currently residing in Germany, is pictured below:

The model is yours truly in fully unfashionable work clothes.

All I have to do is add real buttons to the stupid fabric "buttons" printed on the actual apron.

There are a ton of mistakes on these projects, but I have only seam ripped items when I know I didn't follow the directions right, not when I actually made some sort of thoughtless stitching blunder. Otherwise I would have to do both the unevenly cut curtains and somewhat oddly cinched apron over again.

Keeping these mistakes is, I hope, something that will help me curb my tendency toward debilitating perfectionism that sometimes prevents me from finishing projects or works in progress.

It certainly helps when I think of them as simply "learning tool projects" rather than actual gifts or useful items. The apron I am sending to my sister as is only because she can only take so many items back with her when she leaves Germany, so if she wants to throw out my apron I have no problem with it. The transparent curtains will be pitched or reused for another project when I move out of this apartment- whether that's in eight months or 5 years.

I have learned many things from just the apron alone- such as the uses of topstitching and what an overlocking stitch is. It took me forever to discover how to actually do the latter, but the research I put into it gave me greater understanding of its function, which made me appreciate it all the more.

Yesterday I was shopping around JoAnn Fabrics when I discovered that Simplicity was having another sale on its patterns- this time $0.99 a pattern. So I decided to buy the following Victorian-era patterns, even if it might be a good long while until I get to them:

While I am not a fan of Civil War fashion, I just loved this dress.

Hey, no one will notice gross mistakes on your historical undergarments. Unless you'r wearing only these garments to an Emilie Autumn concert...

I really only bought this pattern for the Western dress on the lower left and the simple slutty skirt on the upper left.

For Scott! What good is a boyfriend if he can't be a guinea pig?

I am extremely excited to keep learning more about sewing various items. So far I am spending more time and money than is actually profitable compared to buying something online, but hopefully that will change sometime in the not too distant future.

batfit challenge #3: good and bad habits

2012-01-15T15:04:00.002-05:00

While I have not posted one of Le Professeur Gothique's Bat Fit challenges before, I do know there is a lot I need to work on to get to a happier, healthier me overall. No, I don't need to lose weight- but I need to exercise on a more regular basis. No, my eating habits aren't terrible- but I've developed a sugar addiction that resulted in a drinking habit (because alcoholic drinks are sugary) which resulted in drinking too often which resulted in the depressant role of the alcohol kicking in and making my depression worse than it was. I only kicked the drinking by eating more processed sugary food, so I've got a bigger sugar monster than I had previously to boot. My social life is relatively healthy, but I still shut people out all too often. And I am unhappy with my current job situation.

So in response to Le Professeur Gothique's Bat Fit Challenge #3:

For this Bat Fit Challenge you are to give up a bad habit,
and in turn, replace it with a good habit.

I will strive to give up the following three bad habits:

Oversleeping and not getting up to my alarm. While this may be a symptom of my depression, I have always been terrible with waking up and getting out of bed since about junior high school. Since I have a job that is extremely lax on when my actual working hours are as long as I put my hours in, I tend to not rush with waking up, sometimes getting to work as late as 11 a.m. I also commonly sleep for ten hours straight. Not a healthy habit.
Impatience. I am a NOW NOW NOW type of person and want immediate results. Unfortunately the waiting game is part of getting a career-type job, and I too often jump straight to despair when my resumes are not responded to or interviews are not forthcoming.
Perfectionism. This evil is the main reason I have not written many stories in the past six years. I keep thinking everything has to be absolutely perfect before being sent to a publisher. I am hoping that my new sewing hobby will kill that to an extent- I've already let small mistake remain that way, instead of ripping the seams out and starting all over again with a section of work.

Oddly enough, the first one will be the hardest. I have actually managed to kick the habit and regain it numerous times already. I just didn't kick it for long enough to make waking up with my alarm a habit in of itself.

memorable vintage weddings a la steampunk

2012-01-13T13:02:00.001-05:00

I am not really into big wedding ceremonies. In fact, most of my friends and some of my family predict that if I finally decide to tie the knot I will simply just elope. I've done nothing to convince them that such a assumption is erroneous.

That being said, I would certainly agree to a more traditional wedding if it looked more like this steampunk ceremony posted on Ruffled, a vintage wedding blog:

image source: Ruffled

The details are just amazing- from the clockwork on the tables and bouquet to the bales of hay as seating and the pearl-strung stick-crafted gazebo cover for the wedding altar.

image source: Ruffled

future planning- cons

2012-01-12T13:53:00.001-05:00

There may be a lack of posts for a while. I've picked up a part-time job on top of my current full-time position that promises to turn into a more secure full-time job if I play my cards right. While my current work situation is secure for now, its stability shakes or totters at certain moments, and money is becoming a worrying issue. Not getting paychecks on time on a regular basis and being lied to or having information withheld from one does frighten the average person in these trying economic times. I am grateful to have a job, but it only becomes volunteer work if the money stops coming in- and I don't love what I do that much to work for free.

Since money is tight, I will have to forgo a European vacation this summer. Instead I am going to spend my "vacation" time going to various steampunk conventions. I am not sure exactly how many or which ones I want to attend, but I believe I have it narrowed down to the following:

Steampunk Empire Symposium- Cincinnati, OH from April 27-29
Steampunk World's Fair III- Piscataway, NJ from May 18-20
World Steam Expo- Dearborn, MI from May 25-28
Teslacon III- Middleton, WI from November 30 to December 2

I will have to calculate gas, hotel and food cost for these events. The Cincinnati one can easily be a one-day trip for me, getting rid of the need for a hotel. Fortunately I can also carpool with some steampunkers for some of these events, saving on gas and, potentially, hotel rooms.

I will probably do two or three. It will also give me a reason to finish my steampunk sewing projects all the more quickly.

Will any of you be attending any of these conventions?

filling the pantry- cheaper now than then

2012-01-09T17:20:00.001-05:00

image source: Village of Second River Bellevield, NJ blog

While web surfing this afternoon I found yet another reason why I much prefer to be in the technologically-advanced 21st century of refrigeration and speed shipping rather than in the Victorian era.

According to the article "Groceries are 13 times cheaper than 150 years ago" by Michael Lloyd on the website Totally Money, we pay much less for groceries than the average Joe of the 19th century.

[The magazine The Grocer] calculated the increase in prices by applying an average earnings measure of inflation to the 1862 prices of a basket of commonly-bought goods. The study looked at 33 items such as a dozen eggs, bread, hot chocolate, grapes, a toothbrush and a litre of sherry.

The analysis found a Victorian shopper would need to spend a third of their monthly income on food. Today, modern consumers spend less than 10% of their income on groceries. The magazine, which carried out the research to help mark its 150th birthday, put the price disparity down to rising wages and the increase in cheaper foreign imports over the course of the last century and a half.

While the price differentials may be easier for my UK readers to understand, there is such a large number gap between the calculated costs that I doubt too many people should have difficulty understanding that food was more costly in 1862 than now. Such examples include the following:

A pineapple would have cost an 1862-shopper the equivalent of £149 in today’s money, compared to the £1.72 the fruit was available for last week – a fall over the last century and a half of 8,553%. One kilogram of grapes was found to be 7,419% cheaper in today’s money than in 1862, while a melon is now 5,971% more affordable than 150 years ago, according to the calculations.

All of the above are non-native fruits that have fallen in price dramatically as foreign imports have become cheaper.

The cost of 250g of tea was 2,713% higher in 1862 than it is in real terms today, while our Victorian ancestors would have been forced to shell out and extra 1,138% and 451% respectively for their butter and bread, compared to the prices consumers can expect to pay today.

You can read the rest of the article here.

What do you appreciate about the 21st century that the 19th century either lacked or did differently?

"the electric jesus"

2012-01-08T11:36:00.001-05:00

I apologize for being MIA the past few days. This new year has been extremely busy workwise. As a result I am not sure how much time I can dedicate to this blog.

Although I do not condone binge drinking, I thought it might be appropriate for this blog to give some attention to the hilarious series known as "Drunk History" on Funny or Die. In this webseries, various narrators drink to excess and then discuss historic events while completely plastered. I don't know what would possess anyone to destroy their bodies so much for the sake of "comedy," but I hypocritically enjoy their efforts nonetheless.

Such as the following skit on Nikola Tesla, that demi-god of the steampunk world (WARNING: There is explicit vomiting in this particular skit):

Drunk History vol. 6 w/ John C. Reilly & Crispin Glover from Drunk History

review: changeless

2012-01-04T12:11:00.000-05:00

For Christmas I received Changeless, the second novel in Gail Carriger's steampunk paranormal sci-fi romance series, The Parasol Protectorate series. My review on the first novel, Soulless, can be read here.

The second novel begins three months after the last novel ended. A humanization weapon has touched down upon England, restoring immortals such as vampires and werewolves to a human form, and exorcising ghosts within a certain radius. Former spinster Alexia Tarabotti, now Lady Maccon, muhjah to the British government and wife of the Earl of Woolsey, must find out what this weapon is and destroy evidence of it before evil scientists, supernaturals, and fearful daylight folk can use it to the greater harm of the global supernatural community. The mission takes her from an eccentric hat shop in London to a dirigible in the aether to the Scottish Highlands, where much tea is consumed, fashion discussed, near-murders committed and relationships explored.

For the second book in this series I have quite a lot of good things to say, as well as some unsatisfactory items of note.

image source: Fangs for the Fantasy

To start out, the transition from the previous book to the next is terrific. One is instantly thrown into Alexia's new world as Alpha female of the Woolsey pack, with her still learning her new places as a wife and as a political figure while still using her razor sharp tongue and incomparable wit to keep her husband and combative supernaturals in place. Several interesting new characters are introduced, while bits of Lord Maccon's past come out and one learns that a parasol can be a very useful technologically advanced weapon indeed. The plot moves along swiftly and to an exciting conclusion of the mission in a logical but sometimes too-obvious way, the actual ending of the novel is leaves the reader with a revelation and a cliffhanger that is completely unexpected and completely Victorian.

As a result I have to read the next book in the series, Blameless, to find out what happens next.

While sequels often do not handle relationships between main characters whose romances blossom in the previous story very well, Changeless was a refreshing read. Lord Maccon is just as in love (and in lust) with his wife as he was in the first story, and Alexia acts as her practical, less sex-driven self would behave. Both characters are constantly verbally sparring with each other as well, in a more sarcastically loving way, and despite both being Alpha personalities, still assume aspects of their stereotypical Victorian gender roles as man and woman (with Alexia screaming about a "cockroach" while Lord Maccon calmly stomps it to death).

As I was promised by karen! there were less romance scenes in this novel- very much appreciated by yours truly.

And kudos to Carriger for considering that Victorian dresses would be completely unsuitable on a windy dirigible- that is, unless they were weighted. A nice little made-up fashion detail that has one thinking- "Oh yeah, airship travel would probably have that difficulty."

The cons were few but I believe need to be pointed out. I must complain that Carriger's minor characters are way too flat. Their motives are always obvious and one can almost nearly always guess what their next move is going to be. Ivy Hisselpenny in particular was rather too stupid to be justifiable as more than a passing character in this novel. Despite being stinking drunk, to comment on the inappropriateness of a friend's undergarments showing while she is hanging on for dear life on the side of a dirigible is just plain ridiculous. And the villain of this story was just as thoughtless as the villain in the last- getting way too sloppy and not paying attention to details at the end.

Also, I am not sure if this is a flaw with the author's writing or I am just brilliant in picking up the clues, but I knew who the spy was and what the weapon was way before the other characters knew. I'm pretty sure that it's not the latter though, so I guess that the clues dropped were too obvious. I could discuss them here, but I would rather not spoil the story for someone else. It's not like the foresight ruined my enjoyment of the story though.

The last complaint- for a character that apparently doesn't pay attention to fashion, Lady Maccon certainly thinks about it and comments on it way too much. I would rather Carriger just admitted that Alexia is interested in fashion- even if it's considered to be to a lesser degree than other girls.

Overall I did thoroughly enjoy the story and am currently considering whether to find out if the cliffhanger resolves itself in the next book, Blameless, sooner rather than later. I had planned to read Fydor Dostoevsky's The Idiot first, but that novel is at least 800 pages and may take me a good two-three months to get through. Methinks that Changeless's dang cliffhanger is just too titillating for me to ignore for that long.

disney's just steaming!

2012-01-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Scott recently shared with me an interesting page he found on BuzzFeed that depicts DeviantArt artist Mecanique Fairy's digital drawings. The best part about her creations is their unique takes of classic Disney animated characters in steampunk form.

Five of the eleven images are shown below:

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty
(Everyone should own a clockwork raven)

Captain Hook from Peter Pan
(Finally, a Captain Hook who doesn't look like Charles II of England!)

Hades from Hercules
(He looks actually evil. Love the boiler meter on his shoulder where his toga pin usually is)

The Beast from Beauty and the Beast
(steam-powered magical flower anyone?)

Clopin from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(It so fits, and I can't even explain how except to say that he's as wonderfully lanky as he was in his jester outfit... but I know there's a better way to describe it.)

Check out the rest of Mecanique Fairy's artwork on her DeviantArt account here.

ringing in 2012

2012-01-01T01:57:00.000-05:00

What better way to ring in the New Year with a steampunk friend at an intimate house party than in neo-Victorian fashion?

The black skinny jeans are from Ann Taylor, while the shoes are Steve Madden from DSW. The red undercorset was ordered from BlackHearts Clothing, a local Pittsburgh corsetry and lingerie retailer, while the high-necked Victorian-influenced white tunic with back trim is a second-hand shirt from another steampunk friend. The undercorset is actually hiding a rather large coffee stain that came with the shirt (not exactly why my friend parted with it, but certainly a good excuse to for me to wear an undercorset.)

Yes, that is a Yellow Angry Bird on the tree. Due to our lack of a star my roommates and I had to substitute with what we had on hand.

And in case you were wondering what the pieces of paper on the tree say... let's just say that my boyfriend decided to give the tree a little more of a personality after December 25:

"Feed Me Elves and I poop presents!"

neo-victorian new year playlist

2011-12-31T18:58:00.001-05:00

Happy 2012! I hope you all will be blessed with:

100 % good health
80% increased happiness (can't be too happy because then you won't appreciate it as much)
60% increased wealth

To start off your new year right, BuzzFeed has provided a list of 21 Steampunk Songs for the New Year. They include tunes from This Way to the Egress, Clockwork Dolls, Hellblinki, and the Men Who Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing.

Check out the artists who made the list here.

review: the suspicions of mr. whicher

2011-12-30T13:00:00.000-05:00

image source: Downszone

Recently I reread a book that I had been given as a gift a few years ago- The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale. Written in the style of a murder mystery novel, it's a story of a country house murder at a country house and the mystery surrounding it.

In the summer of 1860 a body is discovered at Road Hill House in the village of Road (known today as "Rode") in the county of Wiltshire (which later fell under the jurisdiction of nearby Somerset). This incident quickly explodes into a classic "Whodunnit" as the secrets of the family pour forth for all public scrutiny and suspicion falls upon each family member and servant in turn. Was it Samuel Kent, the patriarch of the family, caught in a sexual encounter with the nursemaid? Was it any of the four eldest children, products of the father's first marriage? Was it the 8-month pregnant Mary Kent, the second wife and once governess to the older children? Was it the cook or the housemaid? Or the 18-year-old gardener who had just given notice for not receiving a pay raise? Or the shoemaker who had discovered the body in the first place?

As pressures mount and public outrage grows over the failure of the police to find the murderer, a Scotland Yard detective is requested. That is how Jonathan Detective-Inspector Whicher enters the picture. Would this man, born into the lower classes and known for his keen attention to detail and observation, be able to use the new art of detection to find out the murderer? Or would his airing out of the dirty laundry of this respectable middle class family be his downfall?

Summerscale outdoes herself in research for this book. Not only does she investigate the murder, but she reads countless newspaper articles, books, and novels, drawing the connections between the murder and its influence on modern day fiction. She also delves into the world of the detective- how the public viewed this new personage, hired to find out and divulge the dirty little secrets of every day, ordinary people and things. The views of the middle class on their privacy and decency and how they could get in the way of a police investigation of the Victorian age, as well as the great inexactness of detection and the dependency on the art of the culprit making a mistake or even confessing are also explored in great detail.

For a detailed account of middle class life, detection and detectives, and Victorian crime, this book is an excellent and easy read. For a murder mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end, go no farther than the pages of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.

an unlaced christmas

2011-12-28T11:10:00.000-05:00

Christmas is always very festive in our house- much to most everyone's chagrin. While I love Christmas and all of its trimmings, it can be overkill with my dad.

My dad is the obnoxious one playing Christmas carols nonstop, insisting everyone sit in the "Christmas Tree Room" (a.k.a. the living room) complaining like a little kid when certain Christmas traditions are no longer honored (the fact that everyone in the house is now a legal adult has left him rather heartbroken that Santa no longer gets cookies and milk and the "toys" have switched from Legos and Barbies to crock pots and sewing machines) and meticulously setting up his 1940s train to go around the Dickens' ceramic Victorian London buildings he has set up on a platform beneath the decorated evergreen.

I was sick this entire weekend. Instead of letting me veg out on the couch with the remote, my dad ended up plopping himself down next to me, acting like I wanted to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas as if I was still eight. I have nothing against Christmas movies, but if you're in my family you see the same ones every single year, and so are genuinely sick of them. But I had bowed out of most Christmas movies during my high school and college years, so I played along and let him put the DVD in. Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up it was two hours later and we had apparently already watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and were in the middle of A Christmas Story. I just went upstairs to bed at that point.

On Christmas Day proper I was very grateful when my mom switched off one of the many versions of "Silent Night" in favor of her new Adele CD.

I got a pretty nice haul of Christmas gifts- mostly clothes, and nothing neo-Victorian. With the exception of my twin sister Leigh and my little sister Jordan, my family does not really understand my love of neo-Victorian clothing. I find that rather odd because my mom proclaims she believes she was reincarnated from the Victorian Era. But her love for that historical period seems to stop at the trappings of a Victorian home. Victorian fashion would have suited her if she had, in fact, been born in Victorian times, as she's always about the most recent trend in popular mainstream fashion styles.

But as a subcultural fashion style? Definitely not. My parents, being the respectable middle class family they are, trying so hard to fit in with the masses, tend to look down on anything they deem to be too bizarre or odd compared to the bizarre and odd things the majority of American society does according to the dictates of pop culture. In the past it has resulted in verbal insults, snide comments, or put-downs. With me and my interests, however, my mom gave up trying to put me down in any way since this past summer because I just don't respond to it as if I care what she thinks, so she knows such a task would be futile.

That doesn't change the fact that the majority of my family members think there is something freakish and unnatural in my explorations of the neo-Victorian fashion world.

The best example is a recent exchange that occurred between my older sister and my mom regarding my steampunk interests:

Lindsey: She's 24 years old and still playing dress-up! How immature!

Mom: Well, at least she's not doing drugs...

There is hope, I guess, because my mom "defended" my interests by pointing out how it could be worse.

On Christmas morning I opened a box containing a beautiful black metal bracelet with purple gems on it- a piece of regular retail costume jewelry from The Limited, pictured below.

image source: The Limited

I was pleased with the item- it goes with my normal work wardrobe and any other outfit with an element of black in it. But then my mom shocked me by excitedly saying, "See, it's steampunk!"

My jaw dropped as I realized that my mom thought she was trying to help out my "freakish" fashion interests.

Now I was faced with a minor dilemma as a dedicated advocate of the fashion. Do I try to educate her on how the bracelet, while it would be a nice accessory for a steampunk-inspired outfit, is by itself not steampunk? Or do I shut up and thank her for being so thoughtful?

I chose the latter. She was obviously pleased with herself for "successfully" understanding my fashion interests. And she had cared enough about my happiness to try and support something that I enjoy doing, even if she does find it beyond weird.

My dad, meanwhile, bought the family a collective gift to represent our love of a certain 19th century literary figure (and a Sullivan's Island watering hole that we visit every year dedicated to said figure and his brief military service on that island)

image source: OhanaWinds

If you guessed that that flying spinner yard decoration is a raven, then you are correct. I just wonder if Edgar Allan Poe has turned over in his grave as a result...

picks from picard: victorian clothing

2011-12-26T14:57:00.000-05:00

Although I promised the first installment of posts on Liza Picard's Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870, the post never came. A cold had me pretty run down for the past week, and this was too long of a post for me to focus on.

So here it is.

Clothing has always had a role in society for showing off the wealth and status of those who own it. The Victorian era was no exception- people even in the worst conditions clung to any aspect of respectability they could through their clothing. While a strange sight, it certainly was not an unusual one to see a man in a workhouse laboring in a rock pile next to convicts in his tailcoat and top hat. They wore these clothes literally until they fell apart.

image source: eriding.net

The second-hand clothing trade thrived in London, where old and worn clothes were purchased from the middle class to be sold to the lower classes. These clothes were then sold in the second-hand clothing exchanges- in Petticoat Lane or Seven Dials in London.

Used underwear- called "inner wear"- sold well, as the patches and mending did not show (ew.)

One thing absolutely required to be worn of all respectable men was suitable headgear. Hats were reblocked, repurposed, refitted and used until they fell apart. Sellers of hats would pile their goods on top of their heads- one after the other- creating a tower so they could maneuver through a crowd and keep them safe from thieves.

The type of hat worn could differentiate classes and occupations. Costermongers and artisans wore cloth caps while middle class and upper class men wore tall hats a la Abraham Lincoln or bowler hats.

Hats were such a respectable necessity that collapsible opera hats were created so the Victorian men could put the cumbersome thing under their arms and out of the way during an opera (weren't hat rooms and cloak rooms invented yet?)

The only men who were bare-headed were laborers.

image source: Mister Crew

Men's clothes were usually subdued in color- although Picard does not say which colors were preferred. Apparently until the 1860s the dark three-piece suit in one cloth became the staple for businessmen, and have remained that way to this day, with suits changing very little since then. Neckties could be colorful, however- a band of cloth tied in a bow or a cravat held in place with a pin. Wellington boots- which could be pulled on rather than laced of buttoned- were the fashion of the day. Shirts were frilled for the evening.

Ready-made clothing was coming into the market around this time. Stores such as E. Moses and Son (for working men's clothes), Swan and Edgar's (for dresses) and the Family Mourning Warehouse (for a sudden death) provided pre-made clothes for those who needed them.

image source: Database of Mid-Victorian Illustration

For women, shawls were the requirement for women of all classes between the 1840s and 1870s. Shawls were even worn in the summer.

A parasol almost always accompanied the upper and middle class women out of doors. Useless in rain, they were meant to protect the fair complexions the Victorians so desired.

For the middle and upper classes dresses were made with narrow shoulders and sleeve tops cut so that Victorian ladies could not lift their arms. The necklines were high during the day but almost scandalously low for evening wear (think lower than Queen V's own racy secret portrait). Dresses could be made for both day and evening- with removable sleeves and two types of bodices with the appropriate necklines for day and evening.

Just as our fashion borrows from other eras, Victorian fashion did too. Brocade materials and 18th century fashion influences were prominent in the fashion of the day.

One of the greatest inventions was aniline dye in 1856. Unlike the vegetable dyes of the past, these new dyes allowed for vibrant dress colors- making purple a much more affordable color.

While costerwomen wore dresses short enough to show off the boots underneath, middle and upper class preferred dresses long enough to sweep the floor- literally. these dresses were lined and edged with stiff braid to pick up the surplus of the dirt. The braid was brushed when the dress was taken off, and could be removed entirely when it was so filthy that it could not be repaired. There is mention of a cord-pulley system inside some skirts so the dresses could be lifted a few inches from the ground, however.

Despite the existence of trouser-like riding "skirts" for women, bloomers were a short fad that never really caught on. A type of Turkish "harem pant" was introduced by a Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer of New York, but London was just scandalized. One brewery tried to dress all of their barmaids in these loose-fitting pants to utter failure (my question is, who wore them in New York?)

An illustration for Godey's Lady's Book, 1874 edition
image source: Fashion-Era.com

Until the sewing machine came into more common use in the 1850s and 1860s, dresses were hand-stitched. This sort of work allowed for some dressmaker shops to exploit their workers when they advertised 24-hour services for a dress. The customer came to the shop to choose the pattern and material of her dress, be measured and then left, assured that she would have her custom-fitted dress the very next day. Then the measurements and pattern were given to several women working at the shop, who were expected to slave away all night creating the promised dress. During the summer season of fashionable parties and balls these women had to get five or six dresses done a night.

The downside to the sewing machine was that it put many dressmakers and seamstresses out of work.

A family making a pair of trousers.
image source: Victorian Durham

Women wore shoes and ankle-length boots of satin or kid while indoors. Outdoors they wore boots.

As for underwear, the fashions changed over the years, but seem to have been the following at various times:

petticoat- a skirt underneath a skirt- not necessarily underwear, but sometimes worn for warmth or to give one's skirts a desired shape
crinoline- originally the name for a stiff fabric made of horsehair and wool used with petticoats, by the 1850s the word stood for a stiff petticoat or a wire or whalebone frame-structure used to spread a woman's skirts about her.
corset- tight-lacing had been popular until the advent of the crinoline, which provided a bell-shaped bottom that made a woman's torso look more like the desired hourglass figure created by tight-lacing. Corsets came back in the late 1860s when crinolines declined.
bustle- a frame or pad placed on the buttocks to support or enhance the fullness of cloth on the back of a dress. These first came into popularity in the 1870s.
drawers- the closest to our idea of panties that the Victorians ever got to- a loose pant-like garment joined at the waist.

merry christmas 2011

2011-12-24T04:33:00.000-05:00

image source: victorianera.org

the boyfriend and neo-victorian crafting

2011-12-22T23:18:00.000-05:00

Since we will be apart from each other for this holiday weekend, my boyfriend Scott and I celebrated Christmas early. We exchanged gifts after dinner on Saturday evening.

My gift was big and somewhat heavy. Scott thought I had some idea what it was. I had absolutely none. Ripping off the wrapping paper, I was stunned by what I saw- a basic Singer Simple sewing machine:

He had heard me say that I wanted one to work on further sewing projects. Despite having requested one for Christmas from my parents, I was pretty sure the hefty price tag of one would discourage them from getting one for me. And now it makes sense why my JoAnn Fabrics purchases of last week interested him so much...

As far as what I was looking for, Scott hit all of the right marks. I haven't used a sewing machine since my junior high Home Economics class, so I wanted something simple- no real frills or confusing buttons. This machine included bobbins and instructions and extra needles. What more could an inexperienced seamstress like me want anyway?

Although Scott's tendency to purchase me these sort of things has me wondering- what's his motive?

According to him, it's to encourage my "hobby." Scott loves his hobby- painting wargamining miniatures. He assembles and paints lead and plastic toy soldiers for the fun of it. He's absolutely obsessed with it and has been for much longer than we have known each other.

I think the other benefit he could find from me having a creative hobby like sewing (and the suspected motive for his gift) is that I could sew while he painted and we could have a full conversation. Currently I try to write while he paints. What commonly happens is that he starts talking and I am so engrossed in my writing (or reading something that I am writing about) that I don't hear most of what he is saying. But I don't currently have anything else, other than reading aloud to him, that I can do while he is painting. And a lot of our time together is spent with him painting.

Scott apparently also wants me to be a crafter, or so this recent (nonChristmas) gift I received from him tells me.

I had expressed a need for a hot glue gun while making my failed clockwork doll key last week, as there were several instances during that experiment where a glue gun would have been much appreciated. The boyfriend was a little surprised when I informed him that the pattern on this fancy glue gun that he purchased for me was a very Victorian pattern.

He knows me so well, even subconsciously.

porcelain doll makeup tutorial

2011-12-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is my makeup tutorial for a porcelain doll look. Yes, this is the first time I have appeared on video on the internet. It's a bit scary, actually- I made numerous "word" mistakes in my nervousness. Writing is such a safer way to go, and involves less set-up to boot. You have NO idea how much trouble I had with the lighting- there were about five different lamps, filched from various parts of my apartment, around the room, including lamps laid on the floor and shooting up at me I also somehow managed to break a five-headed lamp after I unplugged it when "shooting" wrapped up, something that I am not too happy about.

I have no idea why the video did this, but it seems that upon being uploaded to Blogger the sound is very delayed compared to the image. I apologize if that gives anyone any difficulties. The small video, however, can be enlarged to full screen by clicking on it.

Below the video I've included written instructions as well. Enjoy!

You will need:

foundation that's lighter than your natural skin color
foundation in your skin tone (optional)
white eye shadow
black eye liner
white eye liner (I substituted this item with more white eyeshadow)
thick lash mascara or fake eyelashes
red blush
red lipstick or lip paint

Wash face clean of all other makeup. Tie hair back.
Apply a light layer of regular foundation to your face to balance out skin color, especially if you have red blotchiness like I tend to get (optional).
Apply foundation that's lighter than your natural skin tone (but not too light- you want to look like a doll, not a ghost) to your skin. Cover everything- eyelids, eyebrows, lips, ears, neck, and any other skin area of your choosing. Make sure the makeup is blended well.
To make your eyes seem larger and more glassy, apply white eyeshadow to eyelids.
Add a very thin layer of black eyeliner to the inside of your upper eyelid to just barely highlight the eye.
Add a layer of white eyeliner to the inside of your lower eyelid (I substituted white eyeshadow for the eyeliner and, obviously, had to lightly dust the outside of the lid, not the inside).
Apply two to three layers of mascara to your eyes.
Give the mirror a big, obnoxious smile. Apply a heavy amount of red blush to the apples of your cheeks in big, round circular motions. Don't be discreet with the blush- dolls rarely had natural looking cheeks. The redder the better.
Purse your lips. With lip liner, draw on the curves of your lips, but instead of going to the corners of your mouth stop about halfway between the corner of your mouth and the center of your lip and make a straight line downward on each side. Apply red lip paint or lipstick to your lips.

Some curled hair, a corset, and jerky machine motions, and voila! You are ready to be a life-sized clockwork Victorian doll.

review: a game of shadows

2011-12-18T11:33:00.000-05:00

This past Friday evening I had the opportunity to see Guy Ritchie's sequel to his Sherlock Holmes (2009). If you were expecting more action-packed thrills, slow-motion battle imagery, and intrusion into the personal lives of Dr. Watson and Mary Morstan by Mr. Holmes, then this is the movie for you.

*Warning: Here Be Spoilers for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Do not read if you do not want the movie ruined for you*

image source: geek tyrant

Transitioning perfectly from the events of the first film, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opens up with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), apparently having served her time in prison, continuing her role as henchman for Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). One raw fistfight, explosion, biological weapon, and stood-up date later, and Watson (Jude Law) returns to Baker Street to banter with Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) about conspiracies, urban camouflage, and stag parties. Did I mention that the good doctor will marry Miss Mary Morstan on the morrow and wants to leave bachelorhood in style by honoring that precious old tradition?

Holmes, meanwhile, has other intentions, leading to a series of events that threaten Watson's pending marriage, honeymoon, and own existence. But he is soon reconciled to Holmes' meddling in his life when he realizes that the fate of Europe rests in their abilities of observation, fighting, and gunslinging.

image source: Gotcha Movies

There is much to be said for this new installment of the Sherlock Holmes franchise. While the beginning of the movie had a few old gags, for a sequel it managed to contain itself, instead of adding all of the same old characters and dragging down the plot by giving old, somewhat irrelevant faces more screen time. Rachel McAdams' cameo appearance was handled beautifully- short, sweet, and relevant to the plot.

New characters were delightful as well. Madam Simza (Noomi Rapace) was treated as most of the women in the original Sherlock Holmes stories are treated- as a plot device, not a romantic interest or an intellectual equal. She has a goal, and she works her way to fulfill that goal by helping Holmes. But she never has conversations with the two main characters that have nothing to do with the actual problem to be solved (i.e. no confidences about personal relationships or romantic overtures)- a refreshing thing to see.

image source: Gotcha Movies

As for Professor Moriarty, I am pleased to say that the casting was perfect. Jared Harris plays a remarkable Moriarty- a nice mix of the nondescript academic that he actually is, the intellectual and rationally defined cruelty inherent in his nature as the Napoleon of Crime, and an emotionless demeanor when confronted with Holmes. His "moral depravity" is clearly buried beneath the surface, popping up only a few times in a cool, calculated way- even when he plays an opera on a phonograph and starts belting out words while torturing a person dangling from a hook. He is the perfect match for Downey's Holmes, and it was a genuine pleasure to watch their intellectual sparring.

The only significant new character that I was pretty disappointed with was Stephen Fry's depiction of Mycroft, the unsocial older brother of Sherlock Holmes. I felt that Fry's personality is too bubbly in general for the normally withdrawn Mycroft.

I did thoroughly enjoy the following:

The lightening of the "bromance" aspects. Scenes such as Holmes making sure that Watson got to his wedding on time, if hungover and the worse for wear, demonstrated Holmes as a good friend in his own way, even if he did ruin the stag party.
Watson's scarf.
The "neat" disposal of Mrs. Watson from the train.
The depiction of the struggle by Reichenbach Falls.
The mental depiction of the final fight to occur between Holmes and Moriarty- shown in such a way that it appears that they share the same thoughts. They certainly are shown to possess a nearly identical mind in that scene, leaving all doubts of their mental capacities being equal to be blown away by the Swiss mountain air which they breathe.

The plot, meanwhile, was a little slow to start and somewhat difficult to follow, and I am still not sure I completely understand the importance of certain plot devices or details. As a result I will probably see this movie again soon. I get what the overall plot was, but how Holmes figured out that his trail of clues led from Point A to Point B to Point D was rather confusing to me.

Action fans will not be disappointed. There were plenty of fistfights and gun battles, many in that slow-motion shot technique that Ritchie seems to so adore for physical confrontations and dangerous situations. My opinion was that there were too many of these "slo-mo" scenes at times.

There was also plenty of new humorous scenes, although a few may have been way over the top. For example I wasn't a fan of Holmes' rooms looking like a jungle when Watson first entered- it seemed like they were trying to outdo the first movie in making Holmes look eccentric. I did love Mycroft's old manservant.

My complaints are quite a few, but many of them became satisfactory to me when their purposes were resolved as the movie progressed- such as Watson doing nearly as much detecting as Holmes in several scenes, and the infamous "urban camouflage". The ones that weren't were the following:

A scene where Holmes and Watson are dancing at a ball. It looked very improper for Victorian times, even if their intentions were to find an assassin (on that note, it made them very conspicuous as well)
Mycroft standing naked in front of Mary Watson (who started the movie as Mary Morstan). Despite Mycroft being considered even more eccentric than Holmes and less acclimated to society, it just seemed unrealistic that such a high government official would not consider covering up after bumping into a Victorian lady. And while Mrs. Watson did avert her eyes, the fact that she did not run out of the room immediately also doesn't seem to fit into the image of a Victorian lady.
An entire brick structure falling on Holmes and Moriarty and no one sustaining any serious injuries from that incident.
Moriarty not noticing that his little red book had gone missing and was replaced with a duplicate until Holmes told him so. Wouldn't he have updated his accounts at some point, if he was so obsessive about this particular little red book?
The lessening of the "bromance" of the last movie in favor of some extreme homosexual imagery. I am mostly thinking here of the tussle between the two heroes in the train carriage after Watson learns that his new wife was thrown off a moving train by Holmes. While hilarious, it was also way over the top for my liking- as if the director was trying too hard to make Holmes and Watson out to be repressed homosexuals finally letting their sexual urges out.
Holmes and Watson being able to take out way more men without more than a few bruises. But that's my complaint with most action films.
Watson performing chest compressions on Holmes. This method of restarting a heart hadn't been invented yet.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone hoping to see a good action flick this winter. The jury's still out as to whether it was better than the first one. I do think I need to see it again. Such a dilemma, however, does suggest that this sequel was at least on a similar level of quality to its older brother.

a mechanical doll costume

2011-12-17T12:35:00.000-05:00

Last night there was a steampunk/pirate event at the Lava Lounge in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood. Not having any recent steampunk clothing purchases to show off and not wishing to recycle an old look, I decided to channel my energies into coming up with a persona who could use my few steampunk items to create a whole new look.

The persona: a clockwork doll.

I decided to use my classic Emilie Autumn concert look- the infamous gold and cream colored one that I have featured on this blog many times before, the purple mini skirt, and the white ripped up stockings from those concerts (which have not yet disintegrated into a jumbled ball of threads).

I also went with my very first steampunk clothing purchase- the tan skirt with lace trim. But to make the skirt look different I decided to bunch it up with gold-colored ribbon. I added a pair of low brown shoes and voila! the outfit!

Originally, to complete my wind-up doll look, I had made a large gold-colored clock key shaped piece of cardboard to attach via a cut up wire clothes hanger that was to wrap around my skin and be secured in place with some very tight lacing. The specifications for this clockwork key roughly followed one creative soul's instructions on the Steampunk Fashion LiveJournal. This key had been a pain in the arse, as it had not only taken up a decent amount of time, cutting, recutting, painting, repainting, and numerous supply purchases to secure parts of it in place; but it had also resulted in a disagreement that culminated into a verbal confrontation with one of my apartment complex neighbors in our dark back alley at night over the fumes (the crazy neighbor even damaged someone else's bike that had been residing on my shared back porch, erroneously assuming that it was mine.)

The key in one of its stages of transformation (when it was still copper-colored).
I ended up recutting the middle of the key to secure the shaft of the key
further into the actual key to make it less top-heavy, but to no avail.

But when I finally managed to put the troublesome prop on I realized that I had made the key too damn big despite my attempts to resize it. One of the hanger ends broke off completely.

Fortunately I had applied my makeup in such a way that I was confident that I looked every bit the porcelain doll of Victorian times and could use my own body to mimic the mechanics of clockwork motion, so the prop was discarded.

With an application of foundation a little lighter than my normal skin tone on my entire face, neck, ears, eyebrows, and lips; a very light dusting of flesh-toned powder; an unsubtle amount of blush applied with a large brush and rounded motions; white eye shadow; a very thin amount of eyeliner on the top lid; three layers of mascara; and a carefully applied amount of painted lipstick on the center of the upper and lower lip, I think I succeeded in cinching the essence of a doll look:

I'm so pleased with the look that resulted that I will be posting a makeup tutorial on this blog within the next week or so. I certainly shocked my roommates, and the boyfriend was especially amazed by the transformation. I did not look at all like my normal self.

The entire costume certainly got a lot of comments and compliments. One creepy guy even followed me around the venue a good while for some reason that is completely beyond me.

The show itself was terrific- from Patricia Wake's haunting vocals to The Bloody Seamen's rock hard pirate-themed style. Scott went as the Phantom of the Opera, but took off his mask upon our entrance into the bar.

Scott is absolutely wonderful for accompanying me to these events, dressed up in clothing that he despises, just to see me have fun with other steampunkers.

steampunk hipsters scared by justin bieber

2011-12-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

Why does everyone assume that steampunkers are going to jump airship as soon as aspects of the subculture become more mainstream?!

The Washington Post recently published an article entitled: "Justin Bieber, Macy's co-opt steampunk subculture" in their Lifestyles section. While the opening lines of the article would have one believe that steampunkers are dropping the genre like a hot potato by the thousands, the article actually shows more trepidation on this "infringement" by the mainstream than any actual running away from the scene. Understandable, considering how mainstream culture tends to twist various subcultures such as goth or neo-pagans into something they're not (cutting practices, devil worship, spell casting and blood sacrifices anyone?)

But one can't necessarily disparage Justin Bieber and Macy's for using their own take on steampunk, that imaginative 19th century world that never was to inspire their "works of art." The set design, costumes, and even concept are all pretty remarkable for Bieber's video- well thought out, fitting in with the steampunk theme very well with the toymaking gears of the workshop, the 19th century/modern mix of clothes for the workers, and the clockwork doll. For crying out loud The Nutcracker, that most famous of Christmastime stories, features in the Christmas party scene four clockwork dolls made by Herr Drosselmeyer (Clara/Maria's uncle/godfather/grandfather, depending on what version your story goes by). These dolls eventually become the Nutcracker Prince and the three fairies (Dewdrop, Snow, and Sugar Plum).

Besides, if you watch the video for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with the sound off, it's easy to imagine industrial music to go along with the movements of that mechanical doll and breakdancing workers in place of the pop music nightmare that I consider Bieber's music to be.

After asking a few steampunk people I know what they thought about Bieber's video, the most common response received was "meh." No one really cared as long as Bieber didn't go around claiming that he was now steampunk. One person even thought it was good that the artist who made Bieber's armgear made so much money off of the tween pop sensation.

Also, who would fault Macy's window displays just because they sell "popular" clothing items such as UGG boots? I personally think that the displays are absolutely gorgeous and perfectly enchantingly appropriate for the Christmas season:

image source: The Washington Post

Isabella “Captain” von Pumpernickel, a steampunker quoted in the article, put it best when she said that true enthusiasts would not be turned off by a teenage boy and a department store from indulging in their love of an altered historical era:

“If you think steampunk is dead because the ‘mainstream’ has noticed it, well then you weren’t really into it that much. ... You are not a steampunk, you are just a hipster."

Once again, let's not be steampunk hipsters! Indulge in your love of steampunk and don't give a flying f*ck about what has gone mainstream if the subculture is really that important to you.

steampunk hellboy

2011-12-15T14:43:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you take two metal crafters who happen to be comic book enthusiasts, discarded car parts, a studio in Thailand, and a popular new subculture and mix them all together?

Steampunk Hellboy, that's what:

image source: Earth911

Made by Kreatworks, the 7 1/2 ft. tall, 770 lbs. sculpture can be purchased on Etsy for $7,400.00 The steampunk inspiration comes from the spiraled wires on the chest, as well as the wires on the superhero's neck.

If you think plain old wire designs don't make something steampunk, at least these guys didn't "Just Glue Some Gears On It (And Call It Steampunk.)"

queen victoria was actually... sexy?

2011-12-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

Queen Victoria's private "affairs" can't get a break from public scrutiny, can they?

First her "unmentionables" were displayed for all the world to see at an auction last month. Now this royal personage who gave her name to an era known for its modesty (i.e. prudishness) of dress and rigidity of ideas on proper social decorum is revealed to be a rather sexy little vixen of her time- at least behind closed doors.

Exhibit A:

image source: The Daily Mail

According to this article in The Daily Mail, this image of a sensual young Queen Victoria, at age 24, was given to her husband Prince Albert as a surprise birthday gift in 1843. Painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, the picture was considered to be so racy that Albert kept it in his writing room in Windsor Castle and did not let anyone else look at it.

In fact, its existence was not even publicly known until 1977.

I must say, while I have never considered Victoria to have been a beauty, this is certainly a very flattering portrait of her. Despite the book that I am currently reading on the Victorian Era saying that ball gowns of the time period were quite often that low, it was probably not considered even remotely acceptable for a female monarch to show that much skin.

This portrait and other British royal artifacts spanning hundreds of years of English history will be discussed in detail in eight half hour radio programs on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

picks from picard: miscellaneous fun facts

2011-12-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

I am currently reading Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 by Liza Picard. Although I have not yet finished this book, I have already learned so much. I thought it would be appropriate to do for Ms. Picard's well-researched book, which depends on primary sources such as Henry Mayhew and others, to write blog posts about certain topics much as Scott did with the series of posts about crime and criminals in Victorian London entitled "The Mayhew Files."

I will start with Victorian clothing next week. For now I want to pick a rather random selection of facts I discovered so far from reading this book:

The first dentist drill worked by clockwork was invented in 1863.
Queen Victoria used chloroform for several of her childbirths to reduce the pain of labor.
The Thames was terribly polluted and stank, especially in the first part of the 19th century. The problem came to a head when the Houses of Parliament had to be evacuated in June 1858 due to the terrible stench rising from the sewage and trash in the Thames. This event became known as The Great Stink.
If you thought 21st century traffic jams were bad, try 19th century ones, with no right-of-way laws, traffic signals such as lights and stop signs, and solid gridlock in some streets where carriages, carts, and pedestrians shoved their way in any open spot available. There were policemen at some intersectons regulating traffic, but Picard doesn't indicate how useful this was.
The first traffic light was installed in 1868 around the Houses of Parliament, with a red lamp for "stop" and a green lamp for "go."
There were 78 toll bars or turnpike gates within six miles of Charing Cross, which were not cleared away until 1864.
When Queen Victoria took a train from Slough to London in 1842, the 44 mph train ride was not enjoyable- she asked her husband to tell the rail company to "please go more slowly in the future."
Ever heard of an "earth closet?" Henry Moule created one in 1860 as a different take on getting rod of human waste than the water closet. According to Picard it looked and operated like this:

There was a hopper behind the seat, containing fine, dry earth. It had to be dry, to ensure that it was free-running: suitable earth could be dried in the kitchen oven. A substantial wooden slab like a low table on four legs had a nicely rounded hole in the middle, with a metal pan fixed under it, and a smaller hole convenient to the occupant's right hand, housing a handle which could be raised to release a flow of earth from the hopper into the receptacle under the seat. It was simple to maintain and repair, easy to clean, and the floor under it could be swept and scrubbed.

Single, poverty-stricken parents could sell offspring which they either didn't want or couldn't afford to take care of to a "baby farmer" for £12-20. The fate of the child? Not always murder, but more often than not left in a different part of the city to die or become some good Samaritan's responsibility.
Umbrellas were considered to be effeminate- therefore men did not commonly use them until about 1860, when thousands were being sold in the streets for use in wet weather.
On that note, one could also "rent" an umbrella for a few hours in case of an unexpected downpour from the heavens.
A weak solution of arsenic could be used to remove facial hair- a good excuse to keep it in the home, available to a poisoner.

steampunk at the movies

2011-12-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

Our Steel City Steam Society at the Sunday evening showing of Hugo last week. The Doctor had just arrived from the Steel City Con, hence why he is the only acceptably not steampunked personage in the group. Besides, how does The Doctor NOT fit into a steampunk photo?

Yours truly (kneeling next to The Doctor) went as an airship pirate, while her favored gentleman Scott (second from the right standing) made an attempt at another Professor Elemental look with pith helmet, khakis and button-down shirt:

Apparently our little group got some bizarre and/or irritated looks from some people, and my boyfriend got bad customer service from the theater's Starbucks from what he thought was a distaste for our clothing (I think it was more from a lazy employee being, well, a lazy employee, but I wasn't the one dealing with the guy who made my Earl Grey). But at the local Eat 'n Park that we patronized after the show, we actually made rather a bit of a hit. We were all polite and generously tipped our waitresses, while one waitress not even serving us came up to us and asked the females for corset purchasing tips.

Something of note: The Doctor, who was last in line to pay his bill at the diner, said: "Stanton, the manager at Eat-n-Park said that he really enjoyed the atmosphere we brought, and seemed very pleased to have us."

So I guess the SCSS might be freaks, but we are nice freaks?

sewing goodies for an amateur seamstress

2011-12-11T19:32:00.001-05:00

This afternoon I braved the nightmare that tends to be McKnight Road (just north of the city) to have a Robert Griffing print custom framed at JoAnn Fabrics today. The print had been sitting in my apartment for over four months, safe in its cardboard wrapping, but sadly not displayed for the world to see in all of its macabre glory:

"The Victory Coat" by Robert Griffing
This Eastern Woodland Native American is trying on the dead enemy's coat for size.

When I arrived at the chain fabric and craft store I realized that I had left the print in my apartment, totally defeating the goal of my excursion. Irritated, I went inside anyway, as I had also planned to look at some fabric for a potential sewing project.

Unbeknowst to me, JoAnn's was having an amazing Super Sale weekend. I ended up getting three yards of this beautiful brocade material for under $18.00. The goal? To make my own corset, with the help of Ruth, one of my new steampunk friends:

The mostly blue side is the predominant color.
I just thought the other side was too pretty to not show.

Then I decided to look through the patterns, even though I was pretty sure that I wouldn't find anything relating to my personal steampunk and neo-Victorian needs. I was wrong. This Simplicity pattern set for a Victorian jacket, skirt, and bustle, was on sale for $1.99. That's a steal compared to its original sale price of $17.99:

Don't expect any of my attempts at sewing corsets or skirts to pop up on the blog for a while. For one, I don't yet have possession of a sewing machine. I am waiting to see if Santa brought anything (Despite being full-fledged adults, he still leaves myself and my twin sister and older sister rather rather generous pile of gifts each year, the same size pile as my high-school-aged youngest sister. My parents claim that that will happen until I am married. So... don't get married, and keep getting awesome gifts from Santa?)

Other hindrances to posting any new hand-made costumes will be the amount of time I can commit to these projects, patience, and my damn obsession with perfectionism, although I will try my hardest to record my failures as well as my successes. I am the type who would rather buy an item than make it if I think it's worth the money I spend for the time I will save in not doing it. But I have recently joined a "Stitch 'n Bitch" group run by Ruth, where we can sew and discuss steampunky and not-so-steampunky things, so having a project to do at these things other than my current project of sewing clockwork onto a flannel bag would be nice, and make me feel good about creating something with my own hands.

I am better at building props, so expect a tutorial on making a "clockwork doll" costume later this week. That costume is currently in the works, much to the annoyance of one of my neighbors, who just confronted me in the back alley of our apartment building over the smell of the spray paint I am using to make a life-size cardboard clock key more metallic in appearance.

(As an aside, after making these purchases I went back home, retrieved the forgotten print, and returned to JoAnn Fabrics, where I was treated to another 50% off of my custom frame job. I am currently in love with this store. )

you know you're a steampunk enthusiast when...

2011-12-09T11:12:00.001-05:00

You spend more money on Victorian or neo-Victorian clothes and accessories than you do on 21st century clothes.
You practice an authentic British accent.
Brown is the go-to color in your wardrobe.
Tesla is your idol, while Edison is just a dirty crook.
Buying toy guns doesn't make you childish- it just spices up your outfit.
The search for affordable and large clockwork parts takes up most of your online shopping time.
Broken objects or appliances, mechanical or otherwise, end up in your home to be "requisitioned." In my case this has gone from a wine bottle opener to a plastic, gold-colored Christmas bulb.
You troll Craigslist's "Free" section and antique stores for such broken appliances and objects mentioned above.
You want to try absinthe simply because it was made popular in the 19th century drink. And you want to try it the "legitimate" way- dripping water onto a sugar cube, not setting it aflame.
You know how to properly wear a corset.
The majority of your readings have to do with the Victorian era and its inventions, contributions to modernity, dress, and mannerisms.
You drink tea like a fiend.
You talk about Jules Verne like he's an old friend.
You have enough neo-Victorian inspired music to play it nonstop for 12 hours without repeating songs.
Your entire family knows that as long as a gift looks somewhat Victorian you'll probably like it.

This list doesn't exactly display all of my own personal attributes as a steampunk enthusiast.

Anyone have anything they want me to add?

review: hugo

2011-12-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday I went with the Steel City Steam Society to see Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011) at a local movie theater. Yes, we were in full steampunk gear. Yes, we received strange looks. And I think the guy sitting in one of the rows we ended up occupying in the theater did not appreciate our presence. But we were respectful and quiet when the film started, and settled in to a 3-D experience involving much clockwork, dogs, snow, and even an automaton.

Set in 1930s Paris, the film follows the story of Hugo Cabret (played by Asa Butterfield), a young orphan living behind the walls of the Gare Montparnasse railway station, where he steals to eat and winds the station's clocks to deter suspicion that his uncle, his legal guardian has been missing for the past few months. In the process he must avoid Inspector Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen), the station inspector, who has a keen eye for thieving orphans, if not a quick-springing mechanical leg brace.

image source: Front Row Reviews

As a tribute to his beloved and deceased father, Hugo steals clockwork parts to complete an automaton that his father had been trying to fix before he died. His attempts to honor his father in dishonorable ways gets him into trouble with the station's resident toy maker, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley), and eventually a relationship (albeit usually hostile) develops between the two. Soon Hugo begins to discover a mysterious link between his father's automaton and the old toymaker. With the help of Méliès' goddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), he tries to unravel the mystery.

First things first: despite the plethora of gears and clockwork integral to this movie's setting and plot, this movie is not steampunk. It didn't appear to be so from the trailers, but one has to investigate anyway.

That being said, there is a lot to recommend this movie to a steampunk or Victorian enthusiast or a history buff such as myself. The history of motion pictures, from its early days in the 1890s to about WWI, as well as the machinery that went along with the new art of cinematography at that time, was certainly explained concisely for the audience. The story also follows the biography of the real-life Georges Méliès very closely, something that I was pleasantly surprised to discover when I actually researched the movie further when I got home from the theater.

Another historical plus is a dream sequence that mimics the Gare Montparnasse railway derailment of 1895. I was not aware of the details of that incident until I saw this movie, although I have featured images of it on my blog before:

image source: Wikipedia

One remarkable thing to note about this movie is its ability to transcend labels. Although advertised as a "fantasy family film," I would strongly recommend it to any adult to go see by themselves. There weren't any corny bits, the kids didn't act like idiots, and even the somewhat "comical" Station Inspector is not unrealistically so for the most part.

But movie's message really cinches the universality of this story. It is, at heart, a reminder that everyone has a purpose in life. As Hugo himself tells his friend Isabelle:

I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason.

The only cons was the entire 3-D experience. I had a mild but sharp and consistent headache from the previews to the credits. It did nothing to add to the story, and often took away from looking at other aspects of each scene. Why is 3-D such a big trend now? *groan*

creepy christmas carols

2011-12-06T12:44:00.001-05:00

Last night I had mostly completed a review about Hugo written up and saved on Blogger... or so I thought. But for some reason I can't find it, and I fear it has been lost in the aetherspaces of the Internet, never to be recovered again.

While I work on another one I'll treat you all to something not so Victorian, but certainly very relevant to the season: creepy Christmas carols.

My favorite is, by far, the infamous "Carol of the Bells." Although the lyrics are bright and cheery, the music itself is just completely epic and dark. Once, using that song as inspiration, I wrote a short story a very long time ago about a depressed girl who contemplates suicide. I would share it here but it's actually more of a teenage angst tale, one that I am not particularly proud of today. The point is, I used a Christmas song to write a story about rather dark and depressing things.

The best cover of that song is, in my opinion, the rock mash-up by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" intro doesn't hurt either, especially as I consider that my favorite of the "non-creepy" songs:

Next in line is "Coventry Carol," a song from a 16th century miracle play. Usually performed entirely without vocals, I wasn't even aware that there were lyrics to this song until about this time last year. Then I discovered, somewhat to my horror (but mostly to my morbid delight) that this song is mostly about the Massacre of the Innocents, that episode recorded in Matthew 2:16-18 where King Herod of Judea orders the killings of all of the young children in and around Bethlehem in the hopes of destroying the newborn Christ, who he believes is a threat to his throne. I find it a fitting reminder of one of the darker sides of the Christmas story- the fact that innocent children died as a result of the birth of the Son of God.

My favorite version is by Nox Arcana. Despite the song's lack of adherence to the traditional song's melody, Nox Arcana managed to make what is probably a really difficult song to sing more lively and its lyrics understandable, something the original song's melody does not facilitate.

The last one is the dirge-like "We Three Kings," written during the Victorian era by the Revered John Henry Hopkins. Not only does the mournful minor chords differ greatly from the cheery notes of the majority of Christmas songs played during the season in retail stores and shopping centers, but the lyrics themselves are sombre, especially these lines:

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

Nice foreshadowing of the human Christ's fate.

There isn't one version of this song that I favor over any others, so here's a version without the edits that all too often occur to make this song less dreary:

As a bonus for this December 6, my boss's office was invaded by St. Nicholas, despite the fact that my boss is Indian and Hindu rather than some form of European and Christian:

Yes, all of those shoes do indeed belong to him, and have been sitting in our office for months. My only question is- is it possible he has more pairs of shoes than me?

"hugo" trailer #2

2011-12-04T15:15:00.000-05:00

After weeks of hearing nothing but rave reviews about Hugo, Scott and I decided to go see it around the same time The Steel City Steam Society made it an official event. So now there's at least a dozen of us going to see it in full steampunk garb.

A review will follow tonight's viewing. For now, enjoy the second trailer:

Click here for my post on the first trailer.

the steamiest tattoo parlor this side of the atlantic

2011-12-03T16:00:00.001-05:00

As far as art installation pieces go, I am certainly no expert. I've tried my share of trying to understand and appreciate a good many--ranging from one that consisted of a room filled from floor to ceiling in layers of fiberglass to four duct-tape and cardboard constructed dead trees with rape stories written on them. I get the rape one, but fail to understand the fiberglass. My favorite was always the "Cloud" one at theWarhol museum- a room empty except for two fans and several silver pillow-shaped balloons half-filled with helium that could be batted about the room without ever falling inert to the ground. But I'm sure art experts have a much different interpretation of the piece than I do-- batting around shiny floating objects is probably not the actual purpose of the piece.

Nevertheless, an art installation piece I can appreciate for its aesthetic value has caught my eye in a recent article featured on Wired- a tattoo parlor in the steampunk style. Many thanks to Lydia of the Steel City Steam Society for sharing this link on that group's Facebook page and thus bringing the project to my attention:

Anyone want a mechanical mosquito to service their inking needs?
Dermobot (Skin Crawler) by Chris Conte
image source: Wired

Nervous yet?
Electric Chair #3 by Sam Ostroff
image source: Wired

This project, entitled Mobilis in Mobili: An Exhibition of Steampunk Art and Appliance opened on November 12 in at the Wooster Street Social Club (site of TLC's NY Ink) in New York City and runs through January 12. Curated by Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, the exhibit features the works of 26 artist-designers that span a range of items from guitars and desks to workable inking devices and accessories (a webcam installed on the nozzle of a 1918 gas pump to see the progression of a customer's back tattoo, for example). These purchasable pieces of art give an industrial flair to a tattoo parlor which probably does one of several things to customers:

Make an already nerve-wracking decision seem more menacing to a newbie hoping to get their first tattoo
Make it seem more hardcore to the inking pro
Inspire steam and clockwork-driven tattoos
Inspire the steampunk enthusiast

Steampunk Speed Governor Lamp by Cory Barkman
image source: Wired

Steampunk "Back" Tattoo to the Future by Bruce Rosenbaum and Ken Taylor
image source: Wired

"Full Head of Steampunk" Opthalmometer Computer Workstation by Bruce Rosenbaum
image source: Wired

Steampunk Lamp by Chris Osborne
image source: Wired

ode to "steampunk done wrong"

2011-12-01T11:26:00.000-05:00

One of the members of The Steel City Steel Society recently shared this brilliant song inspired by the "Not Remotely Steampunk" category of Regretsy.

In the style of Mr. B and Professor Elemental:

Excellent job, Jeff!

neo-victorian office manager

2011-11-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

I decided to make a humdrum workday more exciting yesterday by an interesting combination of Victorian-inspired and color-coordinated pieces:

I apologize for the bad quality of the photos- I was in a rush to take these before I went to work and didn't have time to set up a corner of my apartment for an actual photo shoot. I hated how my hair turned out, so after this "shoot" I changed my hair to be half-up, half-down.

I also did not wear the hat to work... I just wanted to play around with it for these photos. I think the little hats tend to look better on one when one's hair is let down.

I received compliments all day about the color combination of the red shirt with the red umbrella, the blouse itself, and the thigh highs. The heels, however, were not a fun work addition. I was so thankful when my day was done and I could remove those pesky heels.

Overall, I think this outfit was a success. I just need to work on my hair styles. Any recommendations?

Ruffle blouse: vintage, $5.00

Pleated skirt: Victoria's Secret, a gift from my boyfriend Scott

Rose-patterned thigh highs: Halloween store, $6.00

High heels: DSW, $40.00

Red Umbrella: vintage, $4.00

Necklace: vintage, $4.00

Note: All vintage items were previously featured in this post.

holiday steampunk ball in da 'burgh!

2011-11-29T10:17:00.001-05:00

Come one, come all, to The Steel City Society's Midwinter Ball!

So deck yourselves out in your steampunk finery for a night of steel and steam in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood on December 15!

valley of fearful writing

2011-11-28T20:09:00.001-05:00

With the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie quickly approaching, I have been trying to get in my Holmes fix in. This is easier than it sounds, as I have been rereading stories of the famous detective to my boyfriend Scott since the last Guy Ritchie film on the topic came out. We finished all but His Last Bow and The Valley of Fear several months ago, and as a result moved onto other books.

image source: Open Letters Monthly

Partially out of excitement for the newest installment of the current blockbuster Holmes saga, and partially to avoid having to read another Salman Rushdie novel out loud to Scott so soon after having finished Shalimar the Clown (Rushdie is an amazing writer, but he's so artful with words that my tongue often cannot keep up, and I end up getting a headache) I recently found myself yearning for more Holmes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle told it. So I raided my absent twin sister's closet and pulled out an old novella- her copy of The Valley of Fear. I hadn't read the story for nearly ten years and couldn't remember what it was about, but eagerly brought it back to my apartment.

Scott and I finished The Valley of Fear last night. What an utter failure. I get the impression that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it for two reasons:

To make cash
To write an outlandish romance/adventure novel and ensure its publication by encasing it into a Sherlock Holmes story

I don't think this rationale would be incorrect if the story was actually good. It's no secret that Doyle despised Holmes, considering him a blinder to what he perceived to be his worthy contributions to literature, such as The White Company.

The problems with The Valley of Fear are few but significant. Let's take the story in its two parts- the detective solves murder case story, and the murderous gang in the coalfields of somewhere in America story.

The first part is very enjoyable. With the exception of Doyle's inattention to detail- in this story, set before "The Final Problem," Holmes gives a detailed description of a Professor Moriarty and his status as the most devious criminal ever, even though Watson supposedly had never heard of Moriarty until the events of "The Final Problem." As many Holmesians know, ACD was not one for chronology and The Valley of Fear is no exception.

The premise is terrific- a man is hunted down by killers intent on exacting revenge for a past wrong he has done them. Holmes thoroughly deduces each clue until he has figured out how the murdered man at Birlstone has been killed and who was responsible based not only on bloody footprints at the scene of the crime but the behaviors of the inhabitants of Birlstone. Mystery cleanly solved- exactly what Holmes readers are looking for. But why was such a crime committed in the first place?

Instead of a nice little synopsis, instead Doyle inserts a narrative much like that added to "A Study in Scarlet," where the resolution of the mystery is followed by a story of adventure, romance, and murderous Mormons that takes place years before the events in which Holmes is involved. Insert "deadly secret society a la a romanticized version of the Molly Maguires" for "murderous Mormons" and you have the makings of a somewhat similar narrative.

The hero of this second part, John McMurdo, a counterfeiter and man-on-the-run from the Chicago police for murder, joins the Scowrers, a secret society that terrorizes the citizens of Vermissa Valley through extortion, threats, and murder. Soon McMurdo is one of the most popular of the members- he can binge drink with no bad effects, has a fierce temper, violent tendencies, and a notable criminal past. He even manages to get the prettiest girl in town to fall in love with him. But the Pinkertons are on their trail and trying to close in. What will happen to our amoral hero?

The main problem with this part is that neither McMurdo nor his girlfriend seem to be believable characters. Even though the girl, Ettie, hates the Scowrers, she cannot help but love McMurdo and remain his, albeit reluctantly. McMurdo, meanwhile, is not only a Mary Sue character of sorts to his gang friends- he is just too damn good at coming up with ideas, too filled with bravado, and too obviously eager to show off his violent side and announce that he is a criminal for one to think that this guy is what he says he is. Sorry Doyle, Scott and I saw the ending coming from miles off.

And the speeches of love between Ettie and McMurdo were so disgustingly ridiculous that we could not believe that the same genius who had created Sherlock Holmes and dozens of other well-written characters and stories would spew out such crap. We almost stopped reading the novella entirely as a result- I ended up speeding up the words and dramatically exaggerating the pitch of my voice to get us through it with some dignity.

Overall, this detour from the original mystery story is just totally unnecessary and pretty bad writing to boot. Bad monkey, ACD.

If you are a true Holmes fan, I doubt that any discouragement would get you to stay away from this story. And as far as bad stories go, this story was better than most. But if you are a casual reader of the Holmes stories, I would suggest that you give other, better stories such as The Hound of the Baskervilles and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" a shot before judging ACD as a writer. If you do want to read The Valley of Fear, then my suggestion would be to read Part 1, read a synopsis of Part 2 online, and then read the Epilogue (which is still unnecessary, but at least reminds the reader of why you picked this book up to begin with by reintroducing Holmes to the story for three pages.)

Now, a book cover for The Valley of Fear that perfectly describes my feelings for the novella itself- inexplicably ridiculous:

image source: Hard Case Crime

Potential Reader: (looking at cover) He wrote erotica as well as Sherlock Holmes?

The little caption at the front doesn't help.

victorian headgear galore!

2011-11-27T12:36:00.001-05:00

VictorianKitty at Sophistique Noir is giving away a beautiful black veil! Check out her tutorial on how to make the veil and enter the giveaway here.

Thanks to Scott for showing me this very creative "Halloween" hat using a Tesla coil, timed currents, and music to create a mini electric light show on his head:

Check out more photos of the hat as well as the blog of creator Tyler Christensen here.

*ticktock**gobblegobble*

2011-11-23T16:06:00.001-05:00

I apologize for the lack of updates in the past few days... stomach flu has kicked my ass from Saturday night until tonight. Fortunately it has gone away in time for some serious Turkey Day gluttony!

Speaking of turkeys:

image source: Steampunk Costume

Better posts next week after this holiday, I promise. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend!

vintage finds

2011-11-20T10:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning at the crack of dawn my roommate Angelene and I headed out of Crafton, 20 minutes outside Pittsburgh, to check out an estate sale. The flier made it sound like there would be loads of vintage items, especially clothing. It also stated the address to be at 1939.

Well, after waking up a particularly unhappy young man at 8 a.m. and finding out that 1939 was not the correct address, we headed two buildings down and found the estate sale.

There wasn't much clothing or accessories that fit my Victorian tastes. But what there was I eagerly snatched up, and all for about $20 total.

The first was a brilliant red polyester blouse with a beautiful pattern. The pattern and the rich red color will be hard to see- apparently my camera doesn't like taking photos of things that are red:

The next items were a cameo-looking necklace and a brooch. The brooch itself isn't particularly Victorian- I just really wanted a brooch and I loved the tear-drop pearls on it:

Then one of the sellers showed me this amazing umbrella. It's a bit rusty on the inside, but the outside could be decorated with black lace. It would look gorgeous:

But the final item I fell upon was one of those impulse buys- something that I would probably never find the likes of again and so should just pounce on it. I'm not even sure what it is, am convinced that it is not Victorian (the woman who rang me up told me that she thought it was from the 1920s at the earliest) and certainly have no practical use for at this juncture:

It is a bottle surrounded by a metal chain case with a photo of an Edwardian woman on it. The topper is metal and screws onto the glass bottle.

Methinks this item was supposed to hold some sort of cosmetic. Well, whatever it is, it certainly looks nice sitting amongst my gold tea set in our living room:

drawing it all in...

2011-11-18T23:29:00.001-05:00

Several random items of note:

It appears that steampunkers are giving Victoria (the Canadian province, not the historical era) designer Ian Finch-Fields flak for designing a steampunk-inspired armpiece for an upcoming Justin Bieber Christmas music video. Check out the article about the teeny bopper icon's controversial gauntlet in the Times Colonist here.

Bieber and steampunk. I can't believe this is actually a topic I would have to consider on this blog.
image source: Calgary Herald

In other news, according to a post by the blog The Steampunk Tribune, steampunk band Abney Park is coming out with a new album- consisting mostly of revamped acoustic versions of the songs many steampunkers already know and love. The band's Whitby Goth Weekend interview in which they discuss the new album, entitled "Off the Grid," can be viewed below:

I'm not sure how I feel about an entire album of essentially "old work." While I usually love acoustic versions of songs because of their unique take on the music, the redone songs better be awesome if they want fans to buy an album that's full of songs they already have. I'll probably have to give the acoustic versions of songs like "The Wrong Side" and "Aether Shanties" a good listen on YouTube before settling on buying it.

But the fact that the band already has 90% of the following album written is definitely exciting news to me!

Finally, I need to do a retraction of a review I wrote a few weeks ago. This is my review of the movie Sucker Punch.

The sad thing is, I truly agree with nearly everything I wrote in the review. But the main thing I've realized is that I was wrong about the movie having a deeper meaning.

Why?

Because I can't stop thinking about it.

In the weeks following that review I have found myself replaying scenes from the movie multiple times in my head. Certainly having purchased most of the soundtrack music from iTunes has facilitated these mental images. But I have also been YouTubing deleted scenes from the movie, and reviewing scenes as well. During my afternoon runs, with "Where Is My Mind" and "White Rabbit" blasting in my headphones, I've been thinking more about the message of the movie. have to agree with Designer Diva, who commented on my review:

"The main messge was that sometimes there is no way out, life isn't fair, and bad things happen. It was an artful approach to real life. Life sucks, fight hard, but in the end just remember, no one gets out alive."

But I also think the important thing to remember is that part of the "fight hard" aspect is that those who fight have not given up hope- they still think there is a chance they will get out alive. In many ways the entire movie can be a fitting description of any physical and emotional struggle one may have. For me the struggle is a continuous fight against depression. When one stops fighting depression one has given up hope. I have had several instances of giving up hope. I guess I never fully gave it up, as I am still here and now at a relatively safe place in my mental and emotional status for the time being. But it's a terrifying feeling to think that there is absolutely no reason for you to continue existing on this earth. Every day is a fight. Sucker Punch shows those fights in a metaphorical sense, not hesitating to show that many people eventually lose the fight one way or another and never make it out of whatever struggle they may be going through alive.

So Sucker Punch, I retract what I said about there being no real depth to you. I still think it was silly to plaster numerous scenes with scantily-clad females. I still think you appeal more to men than to women. But I do applaud you for obviously making an impression on me weeks after I've viewed the movie in a way that I cannot recall a movie having done so before.

teslacon II

2011-11-16T13:22:00.001-05:00

From November 18 to November 20, 2011, a unique event will take place in Madison, Wisconsin. Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to you the return of TELSACON, an event I heard about months ago but wish I had had the finances to attend.

image source: TeslaCon II

For those who are unaware, TeslaCon is a steampunk convention that was only started last year to bring steampunk fans and fanatics together for a weekend of sci-fi and fantasy fun set in the 19th century that never was. Admittance is by ticket purchase only. It was so popular among attendees last year that the creators have decided to go for another year, increasing the amount of tickets to be sold.

image source: TeslaCon II

For TeslaCon II the theme is 20,000 Leagues Beyond the Aether, a weekend long trip exploring the steampunk world of the convention:

Our trip will begin onboard the HMS Trident, the newest underwater vehicle built by the Bobbins Dirigible and Balloon Corporation. A virtual submergible that will transport you, the attendees, across the globe with a stop in Egypt then a diplomatic mission to a new underwater city and, finally, we will finish our underwater voyage by arriving in the exotic city of Peking in China.

The convention will transport you into a Steampunk world where staff and ship’s crew will assist you during the weekend in full regalia. Courteous ship’s valets will deliver your luggage to your state room while my staff will make sure your weekend aboard the HMS Trident is full of panels, adventure and, of course, the fun you will only find at TeslaCon. Even the food to be served will be planned to fit our excursion and points of interest.

image source: TeslaCon II

Attractions and events to be featured at TeslaCon II include:

Body art
Ball dancing lessons
Costume contests
Bartitsu lessons
Steampunk merchandise vendors
Panels on Jules Verne, costuming, "antiquing,"steampunk comics, naval warfare and more
Victorian Science Fiction wargaming
Readings by authors Gail Carriger (Soulless series), George Mann (Time Hunter series) and Paul Magrs (The Adventures of Brenda and Effie series)
Performances by musicians such as Eli August, UnWoman, Dublin O'Shea and Veronique Chevalier
Numerous theatrical performances

And, of course, a Tea Room and the TeslaCon Ball.

image source: TeslaCon II

All tickets were pre-registration and have been sold out for weeks. Some of the members of the Steel City Steam Society will be in attendance. As for me, I chose going to the much cheaper Goblins & Gears Ball over TeslaCon. Couch surfing and traveling to Maryland are much cheaper and less time consuming than a trip to Wisconsin, although I am sure that the money spent will be well worth it.

image source: TeslaCon II

I am so jealous of all of you who are going to this amazing convention!

image source: TeslaCon II

professor moriarty in da 'burgh

2011-11-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

As I was traveling along a highway the other day I came across a huge billboard advertising the performance of a play called "The Mask of Moriarty."

Of course I had to check out the details, knowing that the play was probably specifically chosen to coincide with marketing and hype for the theatrical release of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).

Performed by the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater (PICT), "The Mask of Moriarty" is, apparently, much more comical than the upcoming Guy Ritchie film. Labeled a "Holiday Comedy for the Whole Family" on their website, the synopsis is as follows:

The 2011 holiday show features two characters as widely known as any figures in history—the dynamic duo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! Holmes and his faithful sidekick come up against their most brilliant and dastardly malefactor in The Mask of Moriarty, a comedy thriller by beloved Irish playwright Hugh Leonard (Da, A Life). Leonard throws everything into the mix from mop-headed hunchbacks to Hitler’s secret parentage—even the identity of Jack the Ripper!—in this fiendishly fun caper fit for the entire family (now say THAT three times fast).

Considering that PICT did an excellent theatrical rendition of Jane Eyre two Decembers ago ( which I reviewed in this post) it promises to be at least an enjoyable production. Tickets are expensive though- $50.00 for weekend evening performances and $46.00 for weeknight and matinee performances for Adult tickets. Fortunately I still quality in the Youth category, for ages 25 and under, so such a performance would only cost me $20.00.

The play will be performed at the Charity Randall Theater on the University of Pittsburgh's Oakland campus from December 1 through December 17. One can purchase tickets online by clicking on this link or checking out the PICT website.

the benefits of being a neo-victorian lady attending a ball

2011-11-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday evening your blogger attended a Victorian House Ball at an abode in McKeesport, Pennsylvania (just outside the Steel City in which she resides). While there she partook of delicious delicacies such as spaghetti and tomato sauce, pretzel bread, and New York Style cheesecake. She also learned the basic steps of tango, having much fun amidst some indelicate stepping on several of her partners' feet. At least the bustle train situation with her ball gown has been resolved with an artful arm loop gathering she's now mastered.

There were also some wonderful DIY items for auction- key necklaces and fascinators handmade by Gwilliam & Black (the "company" of the head of the Steel City Steam Society). Several cravats, handmade by the hostess Desiree', were also available, but your blogger was outbid in the cravat she had hoped to procure for her favored gentleman, Scott. She did, however, manage to nab a beautiful brass necklace and a lovely fascinator complete with ribbons and artificial bird:

As an aside, driving noticeably confused at an intersection at 1:00 a.m. is liable to have one pulled over by the Pittsburgh City Police as a suspected DUI driver. It also doesn't help when the officer has noticed that your bustle skirt got caught in the car door. But getting out of the car in all your Victorian ballgown glory and demonstrating just exactly what kind of "house party" you just came from and how easily one's train can get stuck in a car door apparently gets the officer to stop questioning the veracity of your formerly proclaimed alcohol intake. And results in some surprise and ogling on the policeman's part.

And when the officer gives you directions to safely get back to familiar territory and then tells you that "You're too pretty to be in this neighborhood at this time of night," your night has just been made, and you can't help but give credit to your fashionable neo-Victorian tastes.

naked november

2011-11-13T12:04:00.001-05:00

I certainly think this Naked November homework "challenge" presented by Le Professuer Gothique is well worth taking- revealing your "naked" face in all of its glory to the world.

I'm not trying to look hateful... I literally just woke up before I shot this photo. I didn't even brush my hair.

My skin care routine is literally just soap and water. I've tried various cleansers over the years, but I never noticed any one of them working more effectively than the others or, for that matter, better than soap and water. Before I go to bed at night I wash my face with a soapy washcloth. No hard scrubbing- just enough to get the makeup off.

When I wake up in the mornings I wash the area around my eyes with a wet washcloth, and then soap it up to get everything else.

I am a true American mutt- roughly 37.5% German, 25% Serbian, 25% Lithuanian and 12.5% English and Welsh. There are also rumors that my mother's side has some Turkish in them, which is not surprising as the Turks managed to rape their way across the Balkans for centuries before my ancestors left Serbia. There could also be a healthy mix of French, Polish, and Russian thrown in, but it's so inconsequential at this point I don't even count them.

Ironically enough, the German and Lithuanian aspects of my appearance are what shine through most vividly- the blonde hair and blue eyes, the height (I'm 5'8") and a healthy average weight. And the small nose- two of my sisters received larger, Serbian noses thanks to genetics and are both shorter than my twin sister and I.

What I like about my face is my nose, my high cheekbones, and my forehead. The nose had to grow on me- my boyfriend started praising the perfection of my nose years ago, and only recently have I come to agree that it's small enough and symmetrical enough for me to appreciate.

The youthful appearance is also something I can look forward to as I grow older- both of my mom's parents, first-generation Americans and full-fledged German (grandfather) and Serbian (grandmother) received excellent genes that made them look like they were in their 50s even as they were in their 70s. My mom received the same trait- once even managing to get asked out by a 16-year-old boy at one of my high school's football games when in her mid-40s. I never even got asked out in high school based on my looks! As it went, when I was 18 I had the ignominious discomfort of being mistaken as being 12 years old by a neighbor of mine. The neighbor was mortified when I informed her that I would be graduating high school within months, and then tried to fix her mistake by telling me that I would look like I was in college when I was in my 30s.

My dislikes include the color of my eyes- they're just boring for blue eyes. They are a grayish blue, and I would rather them be a darker blue. I also don't like what I term "my Russe redness" or "my drunk Russian cheeks"- a red tint to my cheeks that I tend to think makes me look like a stereotypical cartoon image of a Russian peasant lush on vodka.

Axe-wielding Russian with red cheeks attacking one of Napoleon's officers
during the failed 1812 campaign against Russia. image source: The Oprishki

This redness means that blush is usually unnecessary in my makeup regimen. It also means that I have many photos, especially when taken after a strenuous activity like dancing, where I look red all over as a result.

Overall I am not too bothered by the appearance of my face. I often go without makeup on the weekends, and sometimes even avoid wearing it for work.

Check out Le Professeur Gothique's nakedness and the other bloggers who bared it all for the sake of her homework assignment on Le Professeur Gothique's blog.

ea, stop sneaking concert information by me!

2011-11-09T14:27:00.001-05:00

So I have finally found a friggin' use for Twitter... (*grumble*)

Apparently Emilie Autumn put up tour dates for her "Fight Like a Girl" North American Tour 2012 on The Asylum website SEVEN DAYS AGO! Where was my Asylum email notification (which I signed up for over one year ago) regarding this tour?! If I was still on Twitter I at least would have received a tweet about the tour. Great. I've found ONE useful need for Twitter so far in my life.

As a result I lost the chance to even consider doing the VIP experience a second time at Mr. Small's Theater in Millvale, PA. Not a major loss, as I wasn't sure if I was willing to fork over another $75 a person for a VIP experience. Not being a VIP also means that I now have extra cash with which to justify purchasing overpriced concert merchandise.

Iironically enough, I just ordered two corsets earlier today via Black Hearts Clothing, a fledgling lingerie and alternative clothing vendor located in Pittsburgh that offers high-quality corsets for reasonable prices:

Pink Satin & Laced Underbust Corset
image source: Black Hearts Clothing Facebook Page

Corset, "Distressed"
image source: Black Hearts Clothing Facebook Page

A new Unlacing the Victorians Asylum outfit is now officially in the works!

My little sister Jordan is already planning on attending this show with me and this time around I am a member of a Pittsburgh steampunk group with which to spread the good news!

review: my halloween outfit

2011-11-08T11:41:00.001-05:00

So I promised I would write a review of the neo-Victorian ballgown I had made for the Goblins & Gears Fantasy Ball in Glen Burnie, MD, on Halloween weekend.

The outfit was part of an eBay item I bought in mid-September to have a steampunk/burlesque style bustle dress made in time for Halloween. The seller offering this deal was one madam_fitchestiches. After some online communication about questions I had regarding the bid (there was some initial confusion about a problem with Paypal and her account and such) she gave me her number and asked me to call her to discuss verbally what I actually wanted in the dress.

I called her and she was very sweet and helpful. She listened to my desire for an off-the-shoulder dress with a bustle. She suggested a top hat as well- something I have been on the lookout for- and offered to make that to match the dress she would end up making for me at no additional cost. I was ecstatic.

Then followed a lengthy discussion about the corset to be used- she had three corsets of varying sizes and I wasn't sure which one I would fit into- a black and turquoise-striped number or a plain white one. She then recommended, based on my description of my weight and height, a greenish/bluish/purplish prom dress that she had converted to include a flower patterned train, a draped dark blue material on the front, and a beaded bodice area and blue lace trim on the hem. I had seen the dress advertised on eBay before, but I had not been able to bid for it before time ran out.

After sending me photos close-up photos of the dress, I decided that this dress was definitely the most unique I had seen and more along the lines of what I was looking for- something that was an unusual color, an unusual design, and still held that neo-Victorian look.

After that initial phone conversation and flurry of emails that went back and forth as I gave madam_fitchestiches my measurements (including head measurement for the hat), discussed the creation of a bustle and another piece of cloth to be added to the train as well as the addition of clockwork parts, there was an expected several weeks of silence. Photos of the hat were sent, and I was extremely satisfied.

At the beginning of October she gave me an update that the dress was done- sans clockwork parts, as she could not find any- and would be sent the following week. There were some issues with the mailing, but the dress arrived five days before I was to go to Rockville, M.D. to spend the weekend with my friend Emily and attend the Goblin & Gears Ball for which the dress had been commissioned.

The dress fit like it was especially made for me- just perfect in its height and width. The bustle certainly weighed it down a great deal, something that, in retrospect, should have been expected, but was surprising to me at first. Overall I was very satisfied with the colors and the dress. And the hat was simply gorgeous- it fit my head perfectly, and was masculine with enough feminine touches for my tastes.

There were, however, two oddities associated with this dress upon delivery:

The seamstress had left a threaded needle dangling from the bustle. A tad alarming, but an honest mistake nonetheless, and no harm was done.
There was a cotton wad with a plastic spider entangled within the actual meshing underneath the dress. Also an honest mistake- looks like the dress may have picked it up from the seamstress's house in the process of being carried around.

I have received so many compliments for this dress- everyone thinks I made it, and seem somewhat disappointed when I tell them that I don't have the skills to make such a dress. That being said, there are a few flaws with this dress that have created some problems and have me somewhat disappointed in my purchase.

The first are ones that I do not attribute as being mistakes of madam_fitchestiches because they could have been prevented by me giving her more details or because neither she nor I were aware that such a thing would be a problem at first.

The first issue is managing the train. It's not a long train, but it certainly is long enough for myself or another person to trip over. During the Goblins & Gears Ball my friend Emily must have stepped on my train about four times in the first hour that we were there, including as we were crossing the threshold into the event venue. Having worn one dress with a train before, I know how difficult it is to maneuver a train and the importance of keeping it out of the way for certain movements. What I should have done was requested for the seamstress to put a plastic ring on the underside of the train, around the buttocks area. With a ribbon sewn three-fourths of the way down the underside of the train, all I would have had to do was pull the ribbon through the ring, creating a mini bustle for my bustle and gathering up the extra material of the train so myself or others would not trip over it while I was moving about. Fortunately I can make this sort of alteration myself for very cheap without affecting the outward appearance of the dress at all, and propose to do so very soon. For now I've just been carefully gathering up the train in my hands every time I walk from one point to another.
The second issue is regarding the steel boning for the bodice of the dress. Unfortunately the bustle is so heavy that the tips of the boning around my armpits are actually slightly poking out of the material, rubbing against my skin in a rather painfully uncomfortable way after about an hour of wear. The seamstress herself would have had to wear the actual dress for an hour to notice this, so I don't blame her. As for this issue, I am not sure how to fix it. I would like to file the boning down, but that would involve taking apart the top part of the boning and possibly damaging the outward appearance of the dress around the armpit area. The area is also too hard to hide to justify padding the area so the boning doesn't scratch against my skin.

The second set of problems has mainly to do with the condition of the bustle itself. I was disappointed when parts of the bustle were actually going lopsided and either unraveling or falling down when I put the dress on for Halloween. Attributing it to people stepping on my train during the ball, I stapled the parts of the flowered draped material that was falling down to the dress (I was at work and had nothing else on hand) and went on with my day, resolving to make the necessary fixes later.

I finally got around to the dress this past weekend. To my unpleasant surprise, I discovered that the draped parts that had fallen were not actually sewn on, but glued on. So I began a close examination of all of the seams on the dress, focusing especially on the bustle. Yes, the dress was sewn in many places, but it was often not a very neat or secured job. And the liberal use of fabric glue on the flowered material on the train had me convinced that that part had fallen off the train had just been poorly attached to begin with. I spent a good amount of time on Sunday making repairs, either reinforcing loose material or entirely fixing the fallen pieces. I also discovered that the bottom of the train is not hemmed. Without hemming, that material will eventually unravel into an unsightly mess of material. So now I have to hem it.

While I am very satisfied with the communication I received from madam_fitchestiches and her willingness to make this dress to my liking, I would have liked to have known more about the use of fabric glue on this dress and the lack of hemming on parts that are more susceptible to wear and tear with each use and, therefore, should be hemmed. For the $200.00 I paid for this dress I don't think that I should be doing as extensive of a repair job as I will end up having to do to make the train last.

That being said, I will not send it back to get repaired, as that will include shipping costs that I don't want to pay and the inability to use the dress for several more steampunk events I plan to attend this fall and winter. Next time I'll probably just go to a local seamstress to ensure I can chase her down without breaking the bank if a commissioned dress starts falling apart.

why dr. watson is more often than not portrayed as a moron

2011-11-07T23:19:00.006-05:00

Thank you for solving this puzzling mystery, Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant!

image source: Hark! A Vagrant!

engineering a new look

2011-11-06T01:42:00.000-05:00

Here are several photos of me experimenting with a new look made from a mismatch of items already in my wardrobe to create a female Victorian engineer!

For this look I employed several tips VictorianKitty of Sophistique Noir gave me about taking photos. I used a blank wall (with the exception of the futon frame- it will be leaving my apartment by Thanksgiving), used my five-headed lamp to light up the area, and set up a mirror on the wall opposite so I could take the photos. I am overall pretty satisfied with how they came out. Thank you VictorianKitty for your photo setting advice! And many thanks to Ray Feather, whose tips for relaxing during photos I have really been trying to use over the past few weeks.

The outfit includes the lace sleeved top ordered from eBay that I featured in this post, a maroon vest I found in a thrift shop, my steampunk goggles, a pocketwatch, leather work gloves recycled from my boyfriend's 2009 Rorschach Halloween costume, a brown flowy skirt from another thrift store, and handmade clockwork earrings and a choker with a skeleton key on it.

The makeup is Clinique foundation with powder, blush,eyeshadow, and eyeliner from an Ulta makeup kit. I usually just pick three bizarre eyeshadow colors and attempt to make them work together- often trying to match three colors in my outfit. As this outfit was mostly shades of brown, however, I decided to go with three more random colors instead. This time I chose a shade of white, a shade of violet, and a shade of light brown with black eyeliner and a white and bronze mix of face powder with a more neutral lip gloss.

How do you decide what sort of makeup shades to wear?

modern herero women and the victorians

2011-11-04T00:53:00.000-04:00

My sister Leigh sent me quite a rare treasure of an article on CNN about African tribeswomen who are inspired in fashion by the Victorians!

image source: CNN.com

According to the article, the Herero women of Namibia have adopted and altered Victorian fashions for over 100 years, assimilating the long, conservative dresses of the Victorian period into a fashion that is now considered to be the traditional dress for the women of this tribe.

Surprised? I was. Apparently the Herero women used to look more like the Himba tribeswomen, pictured below:

image source: CNN.com

So why the drastic change from sparsely garbed to modestly dressed? The answer goes back to the days when Germany colonized Namibia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:

"The Germans in Namibia brought people in to work for them so they took the local communities and gave them work in their houses and on their land," said [Tim] Henshall, who runs Kamili Safaris [a British tour operation].

"Instead of the Herero being topless and barely covered, which would offend the modest attitudes of Victorians at the time, they wanted them to be covered up," he added. Henshall added that the women showed no sign of being bothered by wearing the outfits, even in Namibia's tropical climate.

A quick skim of German-Namibian history online shows that a war broke out in the area in 1904, leading to a genocide that killed nearly 75 percent of the Herero population. One would assume that one of the results of such a conflict would be the disrobing of such European styles of dress as the population was made to wear in the colonial period. On the contrary, the Herero women wear the dresses proudly as a symbol of national identity, as well as a woman's awareness of her responsibilities to her husband and children:

[Blogger Mwalimushi Kamati-Chinkoti of My Beautiful Namibia] wrote on her website: "These outfits are regarded as proper dress for traditional married women. By wearing the long dress, a newly-married woman shows her in-laws that she is willing to take up the responsibilities of a Herero home and will raise her children to respect their heritage and their father's family."

Besides, the dresses are so colorfully decorated and paired with horn-shaped hats (to represent the cattle that is so important to them) that the Victorians would have never worn that these outfits have, from all appearances, become uniquely Herero.

image source: CNN.com

These dresses are so popular as a symbol of Herero women that some of the women even make dolls in the dress as souvenirs for tourists:

image source: CNN.com

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

queen vicky's unmentionables for sale!

2011-11-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday an auction at the Lyon and Turnbull auction house in Edinburgh, Scotland, had many lots that consisted of many unique pieces of authentic Victoriana memorabilia.

But who knew that the collection would include a framed pair of Queen Victoria's silk bloomers? Or that said bloomers would bring a bid of over 9,500 pounds?

image source: Reuters

According the Reuters, the undergarments were quite an unexpected hit at the auction, as were

The Princess Chained to a Tree, an 1866 painting of a white-robed girl bound to a garden tree, by [pre-Raphaelite] English artist Edward Coley Burne-Jones... [and a] renowned painting of Victoria astride her horse with her Scottish servant John Brown holding the reins went for a surprise 120,000 pounds, compared with an estimate of around 30,000.

Monthly Theme Post: Gloves/Armwarmers

2011-11-02T13:05:00.000-04:00

As part of Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme Post for November, I have decided to feature two of my three "sets" of gloves.

The first is a pair of elbow-length evening gloves purchased at a neighborhood variety store this past Friday for only $1.98. They were the final touch to the outfit that I wore to the Goblins and Gears Fantasy Ball and for passing out Halloween candy to local schoolchildren:

The nice thing about these gloves is that their simple but elegant appearance means I can pair them with so many other neo-Victorian fashion pieces- whether they be corsets or full-length dresses. They were also perfect for keeping my hands and arms warms on what was a rather windy fall afternoon in Pittsburgh- so much so that I did not take them off when I went back into the office to finish the rest of my workday. Typing in comfortable gloves is fun.

As an aside, my boss said that my neo-Victorian Halloween "costume" did not look like a costume at all. And the plethora of compliments I received from people, both on the street and accompanying the trick-or-treaters, was astounding and very flattering. Although go figure, many kids asked me what I was supposed to be and two young men asked me if I was supposed to be Mary Poppins.

The second "set" is actually a single glove:

This particular piece is my first attempt at neo-Victorian DIY clothing, made for my first Emilie Autumn concert in December 2009. It was just a piece of material that was on the back of the gold and cream colored corset that I wore to the concert.

I had originally cut the piece off of the corset because its only purpose was to cover up the skin on one's back that normally shows between even tightened corset strings. I actually like "revealing" that bit of skin, so the material was useless to me. But I kept it and instead used the entire piece to fashion a glove of sorts for myself. I already had gold roses to sew onto the glove, and then broke apart an old gold beaded bracelet from The Limited and sewed the beads onto the glove. Since I only had enough material for one glove I thought it was fitting to make it asymmetrical on my hand. A nice little clasp located on the right side of my wrist, and I had a glove/wristband of sorts to complete an odd Asylum outfit for the concert.

Have you ever tried to make a glove for yourself? How did it turn out?

goblins & gears- not your average humdrum charity event

2011-11-01T13:32:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday evening my good friend Emily and I attended Team Wench's Multiple Sclerosis Fantasy Ball in Glen Burnie, Maryland. We drove the 50 minutes from her apartment to the event at Michael's Eighth Avenue, wondering what we would find and if we would freeze to death since it was apparently cold enough to snow in the DC area this weekend.

Emily in her steampunk attire. Who would have guessed this was her first ever attempt at dressing steampunk?!

While parking we searched in vain for steampunk-clad participants entering the building. Now we were thrown for a loop- were we even at the right place? But the address matched that on my Google Map directions, and how many places called Michael's Eighth Avenue could there really be in Glen Burnie?

Once inside, however, two ushers greeted us knowingly and pointed us to the right banqueting hall. We turned a corner, and- lo and behold!- there was a line of steampunkers ready to party like it was 1899!

The venue was a large banqueting hall with several dozen eight-person round tables. We chose a table with a very nice couple who weren't quite dressed for a steampunk/faerie event- they had met Team Wench at one of the Multiple Sclerosis walks that this ball was meant to raise money for, and decided to come. They did have full masquerade gear on, though, and took the rest of us steampunkers and faeries in excellent stride. They decorated our table with balloons and a glittery peacock feathers centerpiece- certainly the most cheerful centerpiece of all the tables:

The ball seemed to be a mix of pure steampunk enthusiasts as well as people with Multiple Sclerosis and their families. Most of the participants appeared to be in steampunk garb- so much so that I wondered if any faerie enthusiasts were there. But after the announcer officially opened the ball- who thanked us, to much appreciative laughter, for coming to support the cause of curing "Hysteria in Our Time"- the Goblin Queen made her dramatic entrance as the "rift" between the steampunk world and the fantasy world was opened. She certainly had Jareth's hair, although I couldn't exactly get a good photo of her because of the dang fog machine that made it nearly impossible to take clear photos for the next twenty minutes:

The Goblin Queen

She was followed by a mischievous entourage of flora-clad dancers (known as the Aubergine Dance Troupe), faeries, and even a goblin soldier:

The Aubergine Dance Troupe

The Goblin Soldier

And then the dancing and music began. After the Aubergine Dance Troupe performed we were treated to music by Petal Blight, followed by the costume and mask contests and more music by The Clockwork Dolls.

Petal Blight & The Aubergine Dance Troupe

The Clockwork Dolls

There was delicious buffet-style food aplenty, a variety of yummy desserts, an open bar, and plenty of opportunities to donate more money and get something out of the bargain. These were a plethora of bag raffles available where the purchase of a ticket could give you a chance to win anything from faerie figurines to a full chain mail shirt to a champagne basket:

Bag Raffle Table

One could also purchase pins, flowers, masks, slots in the costume and mask contests, a magician, self-portrait photos taken by a professional photographer, and arrest warrants to place fellow ball-goers in the "Containment Unit" for a brief span of time:

Not knowing anyone else at the ball personally and not having a previous history of deviousness towards each other, Emily and I thought we were safe from the arrest. Alas, it was not to be. Emily and I had just returned to our table after taking some photos of dancers and the band when a goblin approached us with two arrest warrants. Our crime? "The improper possession of illegal firearms."

Emily then began to accuse me of actually possessing them, while I accused her of bringing them into the hall in the first place as we were grudgingly led to the Containment Unit. There the jailer refused to tell us when we would be let out and tried to get us to bribe him to be let out. The bartender offered to bring us drinks as a crowd gathered to take photos of the two steampunk jailbirds:

"Nobody knows the troubles I've seen..."

I tried to get a toddler in faerie garb who was passing by to pull the pin that held the door closed, because I felt that it would be cheating to pull the pin myself. Unfortunately my would-be liberator was incapable of pulling the pin sufficiently enough, and instead showed off how she could fit in and out of the bars and told us that we should do the same... duh!

Eventually the jailer let us out because we were "complaining too much."

I did enter the costume contest, and was pleasantly surprised when my costume was chosen as one of the six finalists. The inevitable winner, however, was the Goblin Warrior. I will post photos of that when I receive them- I obviously couldn't take photos during the contest as a participant- but Emily took some.

Overall it was a wonderful night filled with beautiful and elaborate costumes, lots of entertainment, and so much fun on the side. Despite the fun we never forgot the reason we were there- at midnight there was a moment of silence for those who suffer with Multiple Sclerosis. And throughout the night I could not help but reflect every so often about how this event was definitely beyond the kind of event that my grandmother would have ever attended even when she had not yet been diagnosed with MS. But Team Wench did an amazing job- so much so that I fully feel as if the $50 I spent to attend the event was not so much a donation but an admission from which I got my full money's worth of food and fun.

The magician performing a card trick

A beautiful faerie with her hand-made wings

The winner of the mask contest, who fashioned her hand-made dress to look like Christine's dress from her debut song in The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

One of the dancers, trying to figure out how to put a paperclip on this guy without him knowing

Our tablemates. The one next the Emily is responsible for our arrest.

'appy 'alloween!

2011-10-31T11:47:00.001-04:00

Today is just simply too busy a day for me to write a full blog post. I just wanted to take the time to wish you all a very happy Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Now it's time to go pass out some candy to schoolkids visiting the office while attired in all my steampunk glory:

jesus get your steamgun

2011-10-27T14:03:00.003-04:00

I love Regretsy's "Not Remotely Steampunk" category for giving me this image to start out my day on a different note:

image source: Regretsy

And for anyone who went to high school with me, oh yes I did.

"a game of shadows" trailer 2

2011-10-26T12:52:00.000-04:00

For your viewing pleasure:

humdrum workday turned steampunk fun!

2011-10-25T11:37:00.001-04:00

'Twas the afternoon 'fore today, and all through the office,

The lawyers were gone, the secretaries absent.
Silence descended on the vacant space,
Except for one keyboard, typing apace.
Your blogger was working on Microsoft Excel
When she thought she would stretch her legs for a spell,
One hour until the work day was done,
And she could go for Girls Night Out fun.
A trip to the mailbox was surely in order,
For bills and junk mail to be sorted over.

By the brass-colored boxes, what did she spy?
Two nondescript boxes caught her eye.
The first, addressed to an Indian name,
Bespoke of new checks for the same.
The second, larger and wrapped in brown paper,
Addressed to your dear Unlacer.

She grabbed both boxes and rushed up the stairs
And once in her office, ripped the paper to shreds.
She lifted the ancient box's lid
And found therein an eBay bid
Hard-won in a search for a ballgown
For which to wear to let her hair down
For Goblins & Gears, a steampunk ball
A charity event outside DC this fall.

The dress was green, violet and blue
Shimming and changing colors anew
With each new angle and every new light
Made as one swishes through the night
Sewn beads on the bosom, black fringe there too
Cloth draped the waist, a dark rich blue.
Draped in the back with crushed black velvet
And flowered cloth, colored fringe so elegant
A pillowed bustle to enhance her posterior
Rounded out the decorated derriere.
Jewels, a rose, lace and sparkle
Completed the weighty dress's dazzle.

Atop the dress lay a black top hat
More fitting for one with a cravat,
If left in a plain and unadulterated state
But this hat had trimmings for feminine tastes.
Roses and ribbons and gold chains draped the back
With more flowered cloth and layers of black
A dark daisy, a peacock feather, and other bling
To complete this girly steampunk thing

Your blogger noted all around
The vacant desks, the absence of sound.
She blasted on a steampunk band
And, with dress and hat in hand,
Rushed into the printing room, locked the door,
Threw 21st century clothes to the floor,
Transformed herself into a belle of the ball
Then hurried out into the hall.
A mirrored wall had been built there,
Long ago, along the elevator.
She stood on the landing, gazed at the glass
And saw a Victorian lady looking back,
Not in clothes such a one would wear
But this blogger does not really care.
The appearance is pleasing, the dress a dream
For a science fiction world run by steam.

Yes, poetry is not my forte. Yes, most of the rhymes and punctuation are questionable. Yes, I could have written this description in a much simpler way. But where's the fun in me writing posts in the same old format all of the time?

And yes, I really did try the dress on at work. The photos were taken at my boyfriend's apartment by said boyfriend.

More information on the seamstress who made me this lovely dress to come in a future post.

review of an actual "modern" novel: soulless

2011-10-24T14:13:00.001-04:00

Yes, this is an exciting moment for me- I will be doing my first review ever of a novel written about Victorians by 21st century authors! Why this is such a big deal has been explained in this previous post about steampunk novels.

The book of choice for my dissection: Gail Carriger's Soulless. Why? The description on the back was most entertaining (i.e. the diction was hilarious).

So, without further ado, my review of Soulless.

*Warning: Here Be Spoilers for the novel Soulless by Gail Carriger. Do not read if you do not want the book ruined for you.*

image source: Steampunkguides.com

This novel tells the story of Alexia Tarrabotti- half Italian, a spinster, and a person without a soul, living in an alternate Victorian London where werewolves and vampires have become integral, mostly accepted members of polite society. In this steam-powered world of automatons, dirigibles, and hot water heaters for tea in carriages, vampires feed only off of willing victims (such as "bloodwhores"- yes, blood prostitutes) and werewolves imprisoning themselves during the full moon to prevent harming any mortals.

Where does a soulless individual fit into this colorful world of supernatural beings mingling with the upper echelons of 19th century English society? As an overtly practical, outspoken, scientifically inclined and fashionably sensitive spinster of 26 whose very touch can neutralize supernatural powers and whose own family is unaware of this "minor" fact.

Now take that combination with a mystery involving vanishing vampires and new vampires popping up in their places, a very aggressive, attractive werewolf agent of the Crown butting heads with the socially unacceptably assertive Miss Tarabotti, evil scientists and a plethora of brass octopuses, and you have a steampunk paranormal romance novel.

Add Gail Carriger's ability for creating colorful characters; short, descriptive details not only of dresses but also quick assessments of the appearance of rooms and people's changing emotions;Victorian social norms and scientific discoveries (she knew that aluminium was a new and expensive metal at that time!); with creative diction and a style that constantly keeps the reader's interest (i.e. explaining much in as few words as possible); and you have a recipe for a terrific read.

Part of the creativity is due to the authoress's passing descriptions of the "changes" in history due to her alternative historical take. For example, the schism between Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church is attributed to his allowing supernatural folk to live in peace alongside his subjects. Whether a divorce from Catherine of Aragon figures into this theory is not mentioned, but because that event has nothing to do with the Soulless storyline itself one believes that it can be safely omitted. The same goes for American history- the Puritans did leave England over religious differences- many of those differences with roots in the belief that vampires and werewolves are demonic creatures who should be killed, not invited into society with open arms. Therefore, in the America of Carriger's mind, the Land of the Free is usually not so for supernatural beings. England is, at this time, much more progressive on the topic.

The other refreshing breath of fresh air is the character of Alexia herself. While she is assertive and strong-willed, it is obvious that she is also very vulnerable to self-doubt and feelings of self-depreciation. These feelings do not consume the narrative, but they pop up at appropriate moments in brief but significant descriptions that tell the reader of a life filled with little affection, kindness, or love from her mother, stepfather, and half-sisters. Her sardonic tongue and strong personality seem to be shields from that inner vulnerability, further developing her character without straying too far from the storyline.

Surprisingly, this is the first book I've ever liked that had vampires in it! If an author can get me to like vampires then they deserve much praise.

My only dislike about this book is that it was a romance novel. I've only had the misfortune of reading a romance novel once before. While it was not a terrible experience the genre itself is one that I have stayed away from for well over ten years. I must applaud the author once again on her writing ability- the romance is mixed in with the storyline in such a way that it does not detract from it. That, and the characters involved in that aspect of the story play it out in a very Victorian way- the naive female partner of the relationship really not knowing anything about sex and exploring the potential of crossing the boundaries set by society while still trying her hardest to restrain herself, and the male being filled with an animal and overly assertive lust but... perhaps caring more in an emotional way than he would ever let on if not directly asked.

Overall, I highly recommend this read to anyone looking for a paranormal steampunk book that dabbles in some adult themes.

lolita invasion begins in earnest

2011-10-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

It's official: Lolita fashion has hit the U.S. Market via something more tangible than online Japanese stores or online specialized clothing retailers.

According to this post in CNN's Geek Out blog, the Lolita line h.NAOTO will be premiering this fall in many boutiques in San Francisco. Included in h.NAOTO's line are many items that, according to the blog, fall into the "gothic Lolita" category.

image source: Geek Out! blog

The post goes on to explain the concept behind the Lolita fashion:

Many Americans may be familiar with the word "Lolita" from Vladmir Nabokov's 1955 novel, which tells the tale of a middle-aged man who falls in love with a twelve year old girl. The novel has remained a topic of discussion ever since, spawning the pop culture version of lolita, which was once used to describe a "sexually precocious" girl.

However, another aspect of the word "lolita" describes youth, and it's this meaning that's intended in the fashion style that bears this name. The style includes victorian-inspired clothing and also echoes Rococo stylings, although since its inception the fashion genre has expanded to include much more....

Some fans of the fashion believe that it is a direct commentary on the oversexualization of the female image, and by taking it in a new direction, lolitas challenge the image of what women are supposed to look like. Some believe it makes them less approachable, creating a wall of safety between themselves and men who might otherwise approach them. Some enjoy the idea of looking doll-like and simply enjoy the fashion for what it is, and like wearing it out in public gatherings.

Read the article in its entirety here.

blackfriars bridge makeover and the "steampunk" label

2011-10-19T09:40:00.001-04:00

Nearly 150 years after its construction, the Blackfriars Bridge on the River Thames is getting a modern upgrade. A covered roof and solar panelling that will fuel the Blackfriars rail station.

Great! Awesome! Victorian bridges being used to create green energy!

image source: Earth Techling

But why is the author of the article about the improvements, Susan DeFreitas of Earth Techling, calling said improvements "steampunk?" What, pray tell, is so "steampunk" about the facelift? We're in the 21st century, so making changes to a Victorian bridge isn't exactly an anachronism that would have it deserve a steampunk label. Unless the solar panels were covered in brass or clockwork. Or they were steam-powered renewable energy panels.

I'm just saying, as I have said in this post before, that one shouldn't use a label unless they have a good definition behind the label that applies to what one is trying to label.