Bollywood Steampunk

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I would hate to have to draw that pistol with that sight sticking out of it…

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Just put some gears on 'er and call 'er steampunk.

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Thats amazingly beautiful. Thanks for sharing that.

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Pretty much.

One of the facets of cyberpunk and steampunk literature is that the characters are equipped in a functional way, not simply in a decorated way. If anything, excessive ornamentation is a hindrance.

I’m not terribly impressed with many of the steampunk costumers that I’ve met. Gluing some gears on a rub-and-buff-painted squirt gun or painting a set of goggles gold and putting them on a top-hat doesn’t do it for me…

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This! I just opened my Laptop to make the exact same comment.

One of these days Playboy will publish a Steampunk magazine, in which the nude models will be covered with strategically placed gears.

That’s the days Cory will implode from the stresses.

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What boggles my mind is the actual reply section basically washes heaps and heaps of praise on this ‘dip it in glue and roll in clock parts’ approach.

The lady modeling the outfit is nice, and the non-gear sections of the outfit are also nice… but this is anti-steampunk; decorative with no functional value.

Sorry. Downvoating.

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If they’re nude where are they gonna keep their bananas?

I actually quite like the jewellery The plastic props are meh, but 'twas ever thus.

Meh, done before, done better

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What are you all talking about, “non-functional”? Obviously she´s a steampunk warrior mechanic and has spare gears all over her body to fix all the steampunky devices she encounters on her adventures. The only thing I hope is that her gear bling doesn´t get caught in a turbine or something, that would get ugly.

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Nice to see Steampunk breaking away from its Western Colonial influences. I really like this, and I look forward to seeing African, Arabian, and East Asian steampunk costumes in the future.

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Google ‘Brass Goggles Forum’ we have discussions over ORiental, Indian, Native American, and ‘other’ regions and flavors of steam.

That said it is nice to see such represented… but would have liked less gears and cogs.

It doesn’t have to look horridly complicated or overly ornate to be steampunk. A Winchester rifle and Colt Peacemaker are both steampunk and outside of maybe some decorative etching or inlay should both be left well enough alone. Just as example. :slight_smile:

I bet there are many aspects of life in the streets and hinterlands of India that are quite true to a sort of Steampunk ‘ethos’. The important differences being that much of it is probably not so aesthetically pleasing as this imagined version (faults and all), and that it’s all outside the conversation.

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Can someone please explain exactly how this is Bollywood?
The model is an American of African decent (but aren’t we all?). The photographer is an American. The jewelry isn’t particularly evocative of Mumbai. The costume does not meet the standards of films from Mumbai. Is it the bindi?

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I’m not terribly into steampunk, so all I know is what bubbles up to my level. This is the first non-Western-based steampunk I’ve seen, and so I celebrate it. It may not be the actual first, it may not be the ‘best’ — however that may be judged — but it’s what I saw first, and I like it.

As to gears and cogs, I don’t see what the objection is to using them as decoration. Cogs and gears are as beautiful a thing as might be found in mundaneity. As precisely made as any diamond, as shiny as any diamond setting, with mathematical symmetry; what’s wrong with that? Especially as MakeupSiren has made the gears into actual Indian-styled jewelry and not just glued them to the side of her sandals or wherever.

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Pretty much anything vaguely “Indian” gets labeled Bollywood - as though Bollywood is the ultimate end and pinnacle of Indian culture. There are some cultural appropriation questions here, but it doesn’t appear to have been done disrespectfully.

What standard is that? The standard of a leading Bollywood star’s costume, designed by a highly paid stylist, assembled by a platoon of seamstresses, financed by a major media production company? It’s cosplay, yah? Put together on the cheap, in the model’s spare time, with enthusiasm, for love and not money. For fun. Remember when you had fun that time? Like that.

To more directly answer your question, “Bollywood” is clearly being used as a synonym of “Indian style”, to evoke a feeling. Just as “Paris” or “Hollywood” might be used to denote the style of something that’s never been within a thousand miles of either of those places.

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oh gears as a motif arne’t nessicarily bad. IT’s the ‘it has gears! Steampunk!’. At least this piece uses gears as actual jewelry elements instead of slapping gears onto the side of something (the ‘dip it in glue and roll in clock parts’ method i mentioned earlier.)

Given the indian nature of the outfit having gears and cogs as chakram/throwing weapons seems wholly appropriate too.

And hey whatever works man I don’t want ot try disliking people for finding a thing interesting (that would be snobbish.) I don’t even want to knock the lady or the rest of the outfit, it’s just ‘this has gears so it must be steampunk.’

Don’t forget the corset and goggles! :wink:

Anyway, it’s “Steampunk” because that’s what the cosplayer says it is. If she said it was a genderswapped historical Sumbhajee Angria costume, then that’s what it would be, regardless of how well it conformed to anyone else’s idea of Angria style.

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