Christchurch Steampunk fashion designer Fabiana Bronte is pleased to announce that planning has begun on New Zealand's very first dedicated , Steampunk Fashion Show and a Steampunk Exhibition, to be held in Christchurch later this year.
"This event has been on the drawing board for over a year, and in conjunction with others have decided to go ahead with it later this year. Probably in Spring, around September/October. We will be looking for others who would like to be considered as participants in the event."
Steampunk is a sub-genre of design that has been rapidly evolving in the last five years, Ms Bronte says.
"Its based on neo-Victorian design, Victorian science fiction from the era of Jules Verne, and has a pinch of Victorian gothic and other things thrown in, and is constantly evolving. It has a following among artists, designers, writers and people involved in theatre. "It has been called by others overseas as 'the first real design and cultural trend to come out of the internet', and I think that is probably true. I think my internet page was actually the first-ever New Zealand dedicated Steampunk page – set up early last year because there wasn't one at all."
Ms Bronte says this will be an exciting event, and "it will be fantastic to see what people come up with, apart from the traditional corsets and mechnical art pieces – because Steampunk is constantly evolving. I would like to see this show take it to the next level."
Ms Bronte, an experienced fashion writer and photographic stylist, has been working in Steampunk-inspired design and styling since 2005 – "but I have always been a neo-Victorian. I have photos of me taken at 20 in Victorian-inspired style, and fashion shoots I organised and directed that were published way before the movie 'The Piano' and so forth. It's just always been part of my oeuvre."
Ms Bronte has previously been involved in the planning of a "retro" fashion show in Otago, which included the suggestion of stage choreography concepts and musical interludes, publicity and photography. She ran a small market shop in Otago experimenting in Steampunk fashion in 2006 and 2007.
"I was even experimenting with putting cogs and Victorian mechanical imagery on things and I had a display of goggles and helmets in the shop at one stage. I was quite shocked to discover, a year or say later, that somebody had actually coined a term for this, my instinctive natural style."
"There have been what are now called Steampunk groups in places like Wellington and Otago for quite a while now - I have been chronicling Steampunk in New Zealand and overseas and I have found photos from Dunedin and Wellington going back to the 1980s. As an ex-Wellingtonian I knew some of the early costume folk like Alf's Imperial Army over the years."
"But I find most people in New Zealand still don't know what Steampunk is."
The word Steampunk was coined by American sci fi writer K W Jeter in 1987, but has only in the last couple of years come into common use as the name for a distinctive style and sub-culture. It is slowly gaining a foothold in mainstream design, and the late British designer Alexander McQueen was a fan and an inspiration.
Anyone interested in taking part in these events please email (email replies only) with details of what they would like to put forward for consideration.
Anyone who would like to help with the technical aspects of such as event and possible venues etc, please also email fabianabronte@gmail.com
BLOG: http://thecabbagetreechronicles.blogspot.com/2010/02/losing-lee-fashion-legend-bows-out.html
