Oh, I Wish I Were a Steampunk Gold Miner...
Lydia Mondy is a freelance blogger and history buff who specializes in elaborate costumes. When she’s not scouring thrift stores for vintage Star Wars toys, you can find her crafting attire for herself and her buddies. She’s panned for gold exactly once.
What’s up with the arm bucket? If you know…let me know!
With names like the Victorian Period and the Gilded Age, the 19th century sounds decidedly frilly. While fancy furnishings for the home and self were gaining momentum for their most popular run since the decadent days of Renaissance Italy, the rowdy nature of the American West covered the golden gilt and cutesy turrets with a heavy layer of grimy dust. And possibly some bullet holes.
Get your gadgets, folks! (Image via richardsymonsart)
If you yearn for the Wild West days of prospectors, cathouses and rootin’ tootin’ whisky drinkin’ (I guess that’s still an option…), we already have a lot in common. That’s right; I want to be an 1860’s gold miner. I haven’t romanticized the dangers, rampant disease, extreme poverty and lonely, dejected spirits of the miners completely out of the picture, but for the sake of this article, I’m only focusing on the fun aspects. This is my Cosplay, after all, not a history lesson.
Keeping time… (Image via Wonder-land--Art)
If there’s one thing I have no interest in being, it’s a ‘sexy’ gold miner. No high slits or low-cut Henley tops. First of all, I’m more interested in dressing up like a dude from the era, not one of hurdy-gurdy girls. Furthermore, I’d rather have my inauthentic pieces be steampunk accessories, like ornate pocket watches and chains, brass shirt studs, spiffy monocle or a unique stick-pin for a fancy cravat.
I don’t actually plan on freezing my knickers in an icy creek with a gold pan and sluice box. Go ahead and call me a ‘tourist’, but keep in mind there is great precedence for this: many of the posed portraits, daguerreotypes featuring men holding picks, shovels and pans, were essentially the same thing as the Western dress-up photo booths of today. They were for sharing and boasting, “This was when I was a prospector!” even if they were actually some industrial heir who had never worked a day in his life.
This guy looks pretty legit...
You’re going to want to find some rough, thickly-textured trousers (wool or twill are perfect), held up with button suspenders or a rope belt cinched around your waist. A button-up linen work shirt over a thermal undershirt would be historically accurate, but you’ll definitely need a vest (or waistcoat), which frequently came in fancy patterns.
Dapper! (Image via Nehelenia Patterns)
I’ve always thought that if I found the right hat, everything else would fall into place. This is much harder than it sounds! Generally made of felt or straw, the hat makes the ‘man’. I have the misfortune of being born with size 9.5 foot, so I’ve never fit into the women’s vintage, scuffed, lace-up leather boots. I can however, slick my hair back with some pomade and tie a calico bandana around my neck.
These boots are made work workin’ and that’s just what they’ll do... (Image via Augusta Auctions)
The most essential accessory is probably the headlamp. I recently toured an abandoned gold mine and they showed us a helmet with a nubby candlestick on it that was found intact in the shaft. They also informed us that miners frequently worked in the dark, preserved their few candles. I have no qualms getting crazy with this helmet. That’s what makes this a fantasy, I suppose...
Not black n’ white goggles…but still. (Image via BuyCostumes.com)
For years (long before I had ever heard the phrase ‘steampunk) I assumed there was such a thing as black-and-white goggles. As in, a pair of glasses you put on that made the world grey-scale, possibly used by, I don’t know, early filmmakers or photographers? Unless someone is hiding this miracle device from me, they don’t exist. Finally I figured out that my crappy little pawnshop camcorder’s black and white setting was the equivalent to greyscale goggles. But not nearly as cool.
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February 09 2014