When I heard that we were all doing models for our Anniversary party, I had questions. What is our theme came to mind? When I asked Alex, he said “do what you are good at doing…the theme is Summer”. Since I was thinking of a Steampunk concept, I pondered what a Steampunk look would be like in the summer if we indeed lived in a Post-Apocalyptic world. I had no idea what I would do with my models’ hair. In fact, I had never done Sakinah’s hair before, though Paka is one of my regular clients and I knew he could rock whatever I did with his hair!
Going back, I realized I first needed models to make this happen. I posted a Facebook status that said “Looking for models for a photo shoot. Must be avail on “X” dates, and must look good”. I got my two models that very day- Sakinah and Paka. Now that I knew who I was working with, I needed the right look for each of them.
First, I consulted with Sakinah about hair color. She had old reddish-brown color that had to go. I then noticed that she was looking at the purple that I had already picked out for her highlights 
I am good at creating textured fun cuts that are versatile to style, so I then cut her hair. This was the result:
While the hair was going great, I knew that I still needed to get the right costumes for my models. Joseph, a friend and a client, was the first person I thought of. He had mentioned in the past that if I ever needed help with costumes for anything, to give him a call. We chatted during his haircut and he said it sounded fun.
He worked within my parameters and came up with something very unique:
“I didn’t want to go with the black leather and spiky things look, as leather is expensive and hot; I also didn’t want to go with the barbarian in a ragged bikini look, because I think that costumes of the form “sexy (x)-ette in a (y) bikini top with (hot pants|miniskirt)” are boring. I wanted something with some thought behind it. If steampunk is the aesthetic of an alternate past with steam technology, and if cyberpunk is the aesthetic of an alternate future with advanced cybertechnology, then this is the aesthetic of an alternate future with a loss of technology: doompunk.”
“With that in mind, I started to think about what would be lost and what would be left after an apocalypse, or as I thought of it, a significant loss of technology and infrastructure. People would still want to be comfortable, look good, and communicate status, but they would need to do it with what they could find, salvage, or make without the technology and infrastructure we enjoy now.”
“For Paka, I went with a pleated breech-cloth, inspired by a garment common in the Americas. (It differs from a loincloth in that it is one piece of fabric that goes under the legs and flops down in front and behind the wearer, instead of being a piece suspended from the belt like a flag with nothing underneath.) This breechcloth is a long rectangle of ripstop cotton trimmed with blaze orange polyester from the thrift store, pleated and gathered to narrow the crotch part.”
“To control how much leg Paka would show, I attached tape with grommets in it to the outside creases of the second pleat, and laced those together. It is draped over a pair of cotton canvas utility belts buckled together and also wired together with unused resistors. The belt is held up by a used military surplus H-harness.”
“Paka’s cloak is reclaimed cotton gauze or mosquito netting. The buckles that hold it in the front that look a bit like penannular brooches are linch pins from the hardware store. The chunkier of his necklaces is made from crocheted paracord and various steel washers and nuts, and is attached to the harness, not draped around his neck; the lighter one is made of crocheted video tape and more washers and nuts, with a closure made from rubber gaskets.”
“The kinds of natural fabrics that could have been produced in the Bronze Age would still be possible to produce. Artificial fabrics such as nylon and polyester would be around in increasingly small amounts, salvaged from dead stock, remnants, or existing garments. Corrosion-resistant metals would be valued for reuse, such as bronze, brass, and galvanized steel. The display of such metals as ornament might indicate wealth, communicating a message that the individual having them has so much of this valuable metal that he can flash it around rather than doing something useful with it.”
“Natural dyes would be possible to produce, with colors tending toward greens, yellows, and browns with small amounts of blues, purples, and reds; some artificially dyed materials and artificial dyes would survive, but in dwindling amounts. These would be precious, as they have been historically. In a post-collapse world, color might signify status other than just wealth; natural colors make for good camouflage, and bright, artificial colors might make a swaggering, bold statement that the wearer is strong and does not have to hide. They would also be as useful in the future as they are now for showing to hunters that the wearer is not a prey animal!”
“I also thought about what shapes and designs would still work, and would be easy to make for people with little technology and little free time. My idea was that a design or a design principle that has worked in many places at many times in the past will also work in the future. Ancient woven clothing in most parts of the world was made out of rectangles of cloth, its shape determined by the width of the looms on which it was made. It was not tailored, but instead draped, pinned, and laced to fit. This minimized waste of cloth, both when making the original garment and when making something else out of a worn or ruined garment.”
“For Star Rising, I went with a clothing design inspired by the Viking apron dress. (For Viking enthusiasts, I was inspired not by what the apron dress actually looked like, but by what people used to think it looked like.) The dress was made of two rectangular panels pieced together from silk and linen that was reclaimed from discarded garments. Those panels are hung from the shoulders by military surplus canvas splint straps, sewn into the back panel, with their attached brass buckles holding the cloth in the front.”
“For fit, I attached a tape with grommets in it to the edges of the front panel and laced them together in the back. Around her waist is a thrift-store canvas utility belt, from which one might hang a canteen, tools, keys, pouches, or other useful things. The strings of beads from one buckle of the dress to another (again inspired by Viking ornament) are freshwater pearl, glass, and bits of rubber and steel hardware.”
“The goggles both Star Rising and Paka are wearing were part of some toy. I’m not sure what the original toy was, but the goggle part turns up fairly regularly in the toy aisle of Goodwill. So far, I’ve found the goggles in light green, peach, and pale yellow, and painted them to look less plastic. Originally, they weren’t part of the costumes. Star Rising saw them and tried them on, and they worked.”
It was fantastic working with Joseph, Paka, and Sakinah- we were able to create something awesome for the photo shoot. I also got to play with make-up; something I haven’t done in far too long! I wanted their hair and make-up to look like they could have adorned themselves from things found in the house and in nature, in a matter of minutes.
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