Steampunk Shelf

Okay, so where to start. Literature? Probably. Films? I'll get round to it. The costume? HELL to the YES! I've been brainstorming costume ideas for a while, but there's a problem, I want to wear everything. It's all so beautiful. I want the masculine work wear, the bustle and the corsets, the glam updoes and top hats and goggles (still not sure how I'll work that into my persona), and all the little personal touches buzzing round my head, bumping into each other. I need wires and oil and cogs and bandages and a teeny tiny engine.

Problem is, I live in chav central, where it's difficult to buy a decent dress, let alone a victorianesque bustle or a pair of silk stockings! This isn't completely true- there are a couple of boutiques dotted around the town I commute to for college that look promising, but at the prices you expect to pay for a custom built corset that's not really an option.

So, to the wardrobe! My clothes are rather odd, to say the least. I have normal clothes for college, the stuff that you don't have to have your glasses on to match with anything at 6am, but over the past few years I've collected some vintage shop pieces and fancy dress components that I reckon I can bodge into something half resembling a steampunk costume.

Costume #1, from top to toe.

The blouse. A Primark purchase at the age of 12, if I remember correctly. Score.

Not the most flattering of ways to wear this skirt, but I needed the length. Purchased last year in a vintage shop in Amsterdam.

Waistcoat, another vintage shop buy. I'm stood like this to illustrate the fact that I've pinned it in at the back, not because I think it's an attractive position. Honest.

D'Artagnan boots.

Not sure how many of them you can see, but I have my 'Doctor's bag', and an enamel initial necklace on, along with a stethoscope which you have to imagine bronzed and coggy, and ready to listen to an oil leak or something similar.