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
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