Members of Ottawa’s Steampunk, a neo-Victorian fashion group, congregate in all their finery.
Looking over the balcony onto the dinosaur exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature on Elgin Street, one expects to see one kind of extinct creature – perhaps a T-Rex – but on a recent Saturday there was a second, more surprising, kind.
A woman stood next to a dinosaur skeleton wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a pheasant on it. Her greyish skirt descended to her ankles and she held a walking stick. Nearby were two men in tails and top hats, and another in a beige kilt and a bowler.
They were not part of the exhibit – they were steampunks on an outing.
Their clothes are a throwback to Victorian times but their lifestyle is decidedly postmodern. Steampunk subculture is a heavily nostalgic take on the factory aesthetic of the Industrial Revolution.
It’s filtered through the lens of period science fiction like The Invisible Man and contemporary works like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and it manifests itself in artisanal work and an appreciation of individuality.
The lifestyle has been gaining in popularity, with conventions held last year in the United States and England.
There are also societies across Canada. The Ottawa chapter is just shy of its first birthday and has almost 250 members.
“I don’t think that any of us are normal,” said Lee Ann Farruga, the woman in the hat, with a laugh. “But it attracts people who are anywhere from scientists – there’s a lot of people who are into physics – to artists, writers, movie fans, a lot of theatrical people.”
Farruga co-founded Steampunk Ottawa with her husband Pat Gilliland (the man in the bowler). She credits steampunk’s recent explosion to the ease of making connections others over Facebook, which she uses to organize the group’s monthly “expeditions,” including conventions, picnics and creative workshop days.
With chapters in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, steampunk is inherently urban.
The group says that part of its success is that it plays off of historical locations around the city.
“There are tons of historical buildings – Château Laurier, the Bytown Museum, the Heritage Building of the City of Ottawa,” said Farruga.
The group even did a photo shoot on Parliament Hill.
According to a manifesto from SteamPunk Magazine, steampunk is a robust culture, growing in reaction against today’s age of “homogenization and micromachinery.”
Most members use steampunk to fill in the creativity they feel is missing from their modern existence.
“It’s really nice to come home and work on something that has inspiration involved and actual manual labour,” said Melissa Kean, a member of Steampunk Ottawa who sews and knits her own Victorian outfits.
Many members create functional artistic objects, from wooden cars to laptops with handmade cases.
Farruga’s school-age daughters, Rowan and Miranda Gilliland, are also steampunks. For Rowan, whose favourite subjects are shop class and science, it’s about “letting your imagination fly,” designing experiments and steam-powered inventions.
“When you start to look into it, it expands, it mushrooms out into this whole world of books and films and costumes,” said member Edain Duguay. “You name it, it’s all out there.”
That includes music, dances and even food.
“For punks this fascination with Victorian sensibilities is surprisingly counter-cultural,” Kean says.
Being in an urban environment also brings together the “artists and the fringe element” Farruga said.
In fact, steampunk has an appeal for classic punks of a certain vintage.
“It sort of seems to be a natural progression for them,” she stated.
“You have your individuals and you have them going against the grain,” said Kean.
“Except it’s going against the grain with more manners,” added Farruga. “And better dressed.”