The iconography favored by steampunkers—aeronaut goggles, stylized corsets, clockwork gears, mad-scientist laboratories cluttered with Industrial Revolution sprockets and pipes—has found its way into a number of recent stage productions. When Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith mounted My Fair Lady at her D.C. theatre this winter, she and costume designer Judith Bowden (who had previously collaborated on the musical at Canada’s Shaw Festival) opted to dress the musical’s Cockney characters in sassy steampunk attire.
February 4, 2013 at 10:56 pm
I really like the steampunk look and so many artisans are doing wonderful things with it. I don’t personally wear any of it outside some barely steampunk jewelry, but I think if used appropriately in productions it adds something unique.