perusing the paper on saturday i was interested to see that the sydney fringe festival's alternative fashion parade was to be held that very evening. the use of the word "steampunk" was the draw card that got me motivated to go....
i spent an hour (can you believe it?) trying to figure out the best neo-victorian outfit already existing in my wardrobe. very plain compared to most victorian dress, i suppose it qualified for the neo part extremely well while still managing to include elements of another era. i wore a plain, full length purple satin skirt, A -line with a tulle petticoat for volume, a tucked black blouse, the collar turned under to produce a round button up neckline, black satin sash to create a bow at the back and an antique style marcasite brooch at the neck.
the girls decided to come with me, despite a looming poetry deadline for caitlin. and so we set off.
a bit peckish and with no time to eat without jeopardising our plans we caught the bus with the cranky driver and hoped for some spare minutes at the other end. before we even got off the bus we could see that the mostly steampunk crowd was one of the most colourful i have ever seen. the girls decided that i was looking plain and described the scene as scary but exciting.
the box office was slow so we had plenty of time to be intrigued by multi coloured hair and bosoms spilling from corsets, men in mourning coats and a crowd who seemed all to know one another.
still nervous about time constraints i hesitated to order pizza from the next door cafe but quick sevice and an excellent pizza (eggplant, zucchini, pesto, feta, mozzarella, roasted capsicum & tomato) made everything good.
the fashion was varied with pleasant victorian styles from clockwork butterfly and an edgier version from gallery serpentine. there was showgirl lingerie and fantasy fashion. one chainlink top had the crowd intrigued with the question of whether the protruding nipples were or were not real. there were dresses made from balloons, a pole dancer, a mermaid hanging from the ceiling and an assortment of rubber outfits with cut-outs saw two little pairs of eyes open wide.
the bathroom, too, was an educational experience. where do folks put their beers once safely settled in a cubicle? and was that beer on the floor or was it the puddle of urine it looked like? and how many of the very large women were actually women?
eventually, via the same cranky bus driver, we returned to the safe beige of suburbia.
~above photos "borrowed" from some random facebook person~
