For your appreciation, a Cthulhu themed Cthulhu’s Closet.

Looking Grymm

What’s so “Lovecraftian” about this outfit? One word … tentacles!

Tentacles!

This wonderful beast (actually an Octopus, but I like to think of him as a little Cthulhu) is from the lovely Kato at Steampunk Couture. Not only can I wear him as a hairclip, but …

he's also a broach :)

How rugose is that?

On this particular day, I was on the way to watch the roller derby with some mates, so I wore

Cthulhu hairclip, Steampunk Couture
Chaotic Oroborus shirt, OrdoAtraSerpentis (swapped with the fantastic Holly, who tells me this was drawn by Frater Nihilifer, singer of Erebus Enthroned.
GLP pleated skirt, Smoove
Skully socks, present from CDH
Sock garters, SWANClothing
Boots, NZ Safety (this is not a brand, BTW. It’s a shop where construction workers buy their gear).
Necklaces, little talon, DIY bullet thingie, and double-headed axe which I brought on Crete (an important symbol in Minoen art and architecture, which I will talk about in exhausting detail at a later date)

The print on this shirt is silver.

For some reason, I am incapable of taking a good photograph at the moment. I’m wondering if maybe I’ve dropped my camera and buggered it up, or maybe I’m just crap and it’s finally catching up with me :)

Garters (and pasty white legs)

Roller Derby was pretty fun, and they had chocolate cupcakes with pirate skulls and flags on them, so I brought too many and ate them all because they had cream cheese icing and then I was sick for three days. I’m not certain the two events were related, but there you go. Also, the halftime show was this incredible drumming group, so we all ran onto the track and started headbanging. Apparently it’s on film somewhere. Do you know how hard it is to headbang with a formless tentacled creature on your head?

Metal Mixtape tomorrow and music-related posts next week, I promise!

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses

And what made Friday particularly cool was that the beautiful Ivy of Axphixia Corsetry was putting on a shindig – the Mini-Goth ball. With free Hell’s Pizza (if you don’t live in NZ you are totally missing out on the Hell’s pizza experience), a professional photographer, and the chance to win a prize for the best-dressed, we were pretty keen.

Axphyxia is New Zealand’s foremost corsetry label, and Ivy, the most beautiful rad vegan goth chick I’ve ever met, hosted this Mini-goth ball as a fundraising event for a corsetry party later on in the year.

We arrived just as the last slice of pizza was gobbled up, so we hung around outside and took pictures with Nixx while we waited for more pizza, which arrived soon thereafter, along with more friends. Then we chose our weapons and entered the room of black-lit awesomeness. I came last by only one point, and nearly, nearly got a whole in one TWICE.

Tim kept distracting Ryan by poking him in the bottom with his club while Ryan was taking shots, but he soon found a new game – using his club to peek under his fiance’s skirt, much to her indignation. Despite all these distractions, Tim won, and is probably still be going on about it.

Anyway, I just wanted to show you all the cool shots from the photographer, Nixx.

My favorite photograph. (by Nixx Clickbang)

I am wearing:

– Iron Maiden corset, made by my awesome friend Amy (of Northwic) from one of my old knock-off maiden tees. Amy is making me an incredible winter coat and we’ve planning some epic photo shootage later in the year, so stay tuned)
- white lace shirt, Shanton
- Black / Orange steampanks, from Steampunk Couture
- Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots
- Top Hat, Camden Markets, London
- Skull armwarmers, MTCoffinz (don’t forget, 10% off at MTCoffinz till the end of the month with the promo code STEFFMETAL)
- Cthulhu Octopus clip / broach, from Steampunk Couture (you’ll see more of this guy a little later)
- misc jewelry: big black cross necklace, little bullet necklace (I made this) and little claw necklace (present from sis)

Me with the beautiful Tarah and Jess

I LOVE these pants. I was going for a "Metal circus ringmaster" look :)

What did you guys get up to this weekend?

The seriously gorgeous and totally metal Queen Michelle

Reign in Blonde wrote a wonderful tongue-in-cheek response to the previous post. But it raises an interesting observation. How can blogging about fashion be metal when, from a metal (and not necessarily all-male) point of view, it seems really narcissitic and, well … silly.

So I thought I’d muse a little on the subject. Indulge me.

Halcoholic

Daily Outfit posts are exactly that – a blogger posting pictures of an outfit she wears during the day – whether she’s going on an errand, attending lectures, off to a gig or shooting a porn film. These days, Daily Outfit posts comprise at least a portion of most fashion blogs – alongside random collections of “inspirational” pictures, profiles of up-and-coming designers, discussions about new collections, and styling tips. Some blogs, like Fashion Toast and Halcoholic, are pretty much all Daily Outfit posts.

From the onset, fashion blogging used to be all about runway shots and pictures of catwalk celebrities and scans of dramatic magazine shoots on mountaintops and in the middle of tiger enclousures (think of glam metal music videos and you kind of get the idea). In “the good old days”, if you wanted to be a fashion blogger or run a fashion website, you had to be in the industry.

Enter, the New Wave of Poor Fashion Bloggers. (Yes, I am calling them NWOPFB, and yes, this is to try and keep you metal boys from deleting me from your google reader).

The NWOPFB are young ladies, in college or high school or out in the world in their first underpaid jobs. They’re creative, and they love fashion. They’re passionate about fashion. They might also be writers, or fashion designers, or artists or metalsmiths. They want to start a fashion website and blog about fashion, but how can they do this when they can’t get backstage passes to a Louis Vuitton show or afford an original Birkin bag?

And besides, they’re tired of seeing wafer-thin models draped in designer threads, and celebrities sporting dresses they could never hope to own. What about fashion for all shapes, sizes and budgets? What about clothing on the street? Clothing worn by real people?

And so, a new genre of fashion blogging was born. The Daily Outfit post is the staple of the NWOPFB world – a girl will snap a few pictures of what she’s wearing, and write it up with online links so other girls can purchase the same items, and maybe add a few words about why she chose that top or wore those rings or how comfortable the shoes are. And all the NWOPFB start reading each other’s blogs, and taking inspiration from each other’s style. And before you know it you have a whole community of girls experimenting and seeing fashion as it really should be: an artistic expression of the inner self, rather than a media-driven covet fest.

Daily Outfit posts have helped a generation of girls feel better about their bodies – and that’s important and significant. They’ve also helped focus a lot of fashion media on trends that really matter – what people are wearing in the streets. They’ve also, and this is what enrages some people – brought a lot of interesting subcultures into the fashion spotlight, including heavy metal.

Some people think it’s shit that Queen Michelle wears a vintage iron maiden tee shirt (is it just me, or does the term “vintage metal shirt” sound too pretentious?) and suddenly all the 1980s Iron Maiden concert tees are snapped up from eBay. Not me – every metalhead knows a “vintage” concert tee is only worth something if you actually attended the concert, and who would sell their “vintage” concert tees on eBay, anyway? Surely not someone I’d call a friend. Nope, doesn’t bother me at all.

The truth is, we like metal underground and out of the limelight. And I can understand why. What happened last time metal was the “in” thing? Glam metal, that’s what happened. It’s understandable we all feel our asses clench at the very prospect that our lifestyle may suddenly become the next fad. And the first “Twilight” metal band hasn’t even been conceived yet. You just wait …

Cthulhu’s Closet posts

I first encountered Daily Outfit posts through Gala Darling, a fashion-lifestyle blogger I discovered through Haute Macabre, which I read because I liked the pretty pictures. Gala wore a lot of black and had some seriously loud accessories, and I thought she looked really unique. I wondered what such a unique person might say to the world, so I started reading her blog. Because she mixed her daily outfit posts with lifestyle advice and positivity, I found them engaging. When I brainstormed ideas for Steff Metal, I knew I wanted to include some kind of daily outfit post, too.

Gala Darling

I freely admit that I don’t read many style blogs – I love Gala because she writes about lots of other subjects too, and as a writer and an ex-goth, her interests often cross with mine. I read Queen Michelle because I hope I look that awesome after I’m 30, and she writes the most engaging fashion prose I’ve ever read. She also has an awesome collection of metal shirts. I’ve had a couple of others on rotation on my google reader, but gave them the old clear out when I realised I was just scrolling through the pictures – without content that’s meaningful to my life, I become bored of pretty pictures. Hal’s blog is a great source of interesting jewelry artists, although I don’t think I’d wear them all at once like she does. My hands would fall off.

But What’s the POINT?

The point, poor, un-informed males, is that some girls like dressing up :) It’s fun, it’s creative in an outward way, and it’s a kind of bonding ritual between females. Have you ever noticed how, when a group of girls get together, they often fall into complimenting each other’s outfits and talking about the places where they found things? Woman is the “gatherer” in hunter-gatherer society, and now that she now longer has to roam far and wide for berries and tree roots, she’s after the shiny.

Daily Outfit posts give girls an opportunity to see the latest styles worn not by celebrities and stick models (like I’m one to talk) but by ordinary girls like them. Through daily outfit photos girls share styling tips and learn a lot about confidence and body language.

Steff Metal

What Makes a Good Outfit Post?

I think my two favourite fashion bloggers, Queen Michelle and Gala Darling, give perfect examples. They post some great pictures, taken outdoors with natural light and laid back, fun poses. They smile. They post links to where they found things – they explain details about the clothes and accessories that someone thinking of buying one might want to know. They not only show you how they style, but why they style. They tell stories. And they have fun. They don’t take the whole thing too seriously.

Gala Darling

Queen Michelle

I try to do this in my Cthulhu Closet posts here. I’m not that great yet, but I’ve only been trying this fashion blogging thing for a little while.

But aren’t you just being narcissistic?

Looking at it, you’d probably thinks so, and I bet a few fashion bloggers simply do just love posting pictures of themselves and receiving the validation of comments like “you look rad!”. But for others, it’s simply a way to engage with fashion and the fashion community in a different way.

Here at Steff Metal, fashion is but one of many, MANY topics I write about, including the in-depth learning extravaganza of Metal History, the Aunt Betty with tattoos advice column Ask A Bogan, the travel tips in Grymm and Frostbitten Lands and the general life advice in tr00 Metal Life. I write to inform, inspire and entertain, and the Cthulhu’s Closet posts work towards that goal in exactly the same way these other articles do.

Also, if you call me narcissitic, I can call you a fucktard, but that wouldn’t be very ladylike of me :)

And just so you know, you will continue to see the odd fashion post here, mixed in with all the other metal mayhem, but Steff Metal will never become a fully fashion-oriented blog. I just have too many other, equally interesting things to write about. Just you all wait for the upcoming fortnight of Cthulhu-related articles. Yes, a whole two weeks. You have been warned.

Off to a mini-goth-golf-ball (photos tomorrow :)) so I need to tighten my corset laces.

Today, I thought I’d demonstrate how personal style is directly linked with your personality, and how changes in the way you think and feel influence the way you dress. Even my husband, as un-fashion-conscious a person as ever you could meet, has gone through style changes that reflect his evolving interests. Before he met me, he wore more coloured t-shirts, especially in blue-greens – colours that reflected the ocean – because he was heavily into diving and underwater archaeology. Now, since he got back into drumming and metal, he wears pretty much exclusively metal shirts.

I am going to be using myself as an example, because my style changes over the years have been quite drastic. Yours might be much subtler then mine, but I’ve no doubt they exist. Please be kind :) And thank you to Mother Metal who scanned in all these pictures for us!

Jelly beans!

A flower girl for my uncle's wedding. I felt like a princess! Mother Metal made my dress :)

My style evolution begins as a little girl who loved frilly dresses and dressing up, putting on costumes and creating pretend worlds for herself (and her sister and her poor, long-suffering family cat). One of my favorite dresses was covered in jelly-beans. When I entered primary school and discovered pretty dresses were uncool, I developed a love for the atrocious patterned 90s leggings and big tunics trend, so I had me some beautiful red tartan leggings (kind of awesomely punk rock, now I think about it) with a matching sweatshirt showing an appliqué of a red tartan Scotty dog. I had some floral leggings and even some leopard-print ones, which I think would be totally trendy today.

After this period, for the first couple of years in high school as was attracted to the hippy aesthetic, which went along with a fascination with witchcraft. I used to visit this shop filled with bright hippy clothes. This was the period my high school chums refer to as the era of the “mustard coloured pants”.

I loved those pants. Made of comfortable velvet, color of mustard, flared, with white flowers embroidered around the hems and up the sides. I knew people thought they were hideous, which was part of what made me love them so much. See, I was destined to never fit in!

This is probably the worst photograph of me I will ever post online, ever. And it is probably one of the best from my youth. My friend did the makeup (I don't wear makeup and didn't even then) and my eyes always go like that in photos.

After the hippiness, I discovered Goth, which I actually discovered after metal, believe it or not, but having never met another “metalhead”, I didn’t really realize there was a metal fashion, apart from my metalica t-shirt. So I started wearing black, lots of black, so much black. I still liked being humorous, so one day a friend and I went around the local op shops and I brought a collection of garish men’s neckties for about $3, and I wore one of these every day. This was just before Avril Lavigne hit the big time, and, as I was a fan, a lot of people accused me of copying her.

random photo shoot back when I was attempting to learn the guitar so I could form an all-girl black metal band called the "Eldritch Sons of Lucifer". Note the tie.

In my first year of uni I had a brief obsession with punk music, where I totally admired the punk aesthetic. I spent up large at the army surplus store and, while I didn’t quite get around to sticking safety pins through all my clothes, I did wear a collection of spikes cuffs on my wriests, every, single, day.

Spiky wrist cuffs ahoy!

At my ex-boyfriend's house. We used to smoke cigars on occasion to celebrate epic good fortune. I think I had just aced all my exams first semester.

After the punk thing I kind of relaxed into the beginning of what has become my defining style – a mixture of metal shirts and gothic elements drawn from different historical periods, metal, and a love of garish patterns and loud colours. I conducted a few experiments – getting dreadlocks in my hair, and after cutting them all off, wearing black feathers clipped in my hair to add body whie I grew it out. I still love the feathers. I”ve got a few photos.

With some old friends.

Studying Ancient Greece in ... well, Greece. You would have to be an Ancient Greek Geek to know that's the Dipylon Amphora, and I'm standing beside it, and that's cool :)

Black feathers - I used to wear them in my hair EVERY DAY.

In more recent developments, I’ve given up my habit of buying already baggy pants a size too large for me, and have embraced skinny and straight-legged pants. I’ve been wearing more short skirts, and even brought a pair of short shorts in Europe, because I have the confidence now to wear them well. I’ve toned down my cuffs, but have recently started wearing more jewelry, which is cool.

See if you can spot me. This photo appeared in several papers across New Zealand, and is one of the only photographs of me with dreadlocks. If you're wondering why I'm screaming, it's because Metallica have just taken the stage.

Taking pictures of viking forts in Denmark. Orange shorts courtesy of shopping in Oslo. Most of the rest of this set of photographs is CDH taking pictures of my bottom

Trends I embraced

Flared pants, bootleg crushed velvet pants, hippy aesthetic, mild-skater fashion, shirts with pictures of watermelon on them, wedge sandals, mini backpacks, being a fashion-blogger who loves Jeffrey Campbell.

Trends I Never Adopted

Those bootleg pants with the skirts sewn over top, pedal pushers, dandals that laced up your leg (I loved them, actually, but when I tried them on I looked so silly). Yoga wear and trackpants as clothing, those high-heel Pulp sneakers, ugg boots, Wearing knee high boots OVER jeand, those balloon dresses.

With my gorgeous sister and our friend Alison's Breasts

What is my personal style?

My external style is, as you can see, heavily influenced by my personality and interests. When you look at me, you can normally tell the kind of music I like, you can guess I’m a little odd, and you can probably see a definite cultural anachronism coming through. You can see humour mixed with a bit of a tough-girl thing. You can (hopefully) see someone who is confident and comfortable in her own skin.

Within our subculture, there ARE certain looks, and they are stereotypes – applicable equally to everybody, and nobody. I like to belong but also look different. I don’t buy a lot of the BIG name “goffick” clothing – lip service, hot topic, heavy red, demonia, etc. That’s a definitive look. I mix my metal shirts with other random clothing – military styles, Victoriana, etc, to give a different look. I try to incorporate other colors while still retaining my dark aesthetic.

Because I am color-blind, I love to play on this in a humorous way by clashing colors and wearing things other people wouldn’t consider appropriate. I love making people smile.

I try not to buy too much clothing, and to only buy pieces that elicit some kind of emotional response from me – whether it’s awe at their beauty, a smile at their humour, or a feeling like I could work that piece with confidence. I rarely buy jewelry (most of mine is given to me) and when I do, it’s to commemorate a place I’ve been that’s spoken to me on an emotional level.

Just chilling out in Cappadocia, Turkey

Some of my favorite items of clothing: My Tripp NYC bondage trenchcoat, my new steampunk couture pants, my Wacken t-shirt, my H&M orange shorts and red jacket, my Gallery Serpentine green corset and my GLP pleated skirt. I love both my pairs of shoes – my work boots and my Jeffrey Campbell wedges – equally. I love my

The Future of Fashion

As I travel more and become more influenced by local cultures (and the culture of Germany, where we intend to live) I expect I’ll. I’ll include even more remnants of ancient history and more talismans of the best days of my life.

What about you? How has your personal style evolved over the years?

If you laugh at my horrible photos or my old tortoise-shell glasses, I’ll kill you
love and kisses

Tera Angel Cheerleader Dress, from Beserk Clothing.

I am going to try this with my SwanClothing sock garters when the weather fines up a bit.

I am wearing:

Tera Angel Cheerleader Dress, from Beserk Clothing
Socks, from a random asian store at the mall
NZ Safety boots (no, that’s not a label – they’re from NZ Safety, where construction workers get their boots. I wanted steel-caps)
Wedding ring, sparkly circle necklace (from Sister Metal) and Egyptian coin (given to me by an old friend of the family – it was her late husband’s)

I have worn this Egyptian coin medallion for around 16 years now.

Just a quick post today. I am trying to make my dad a website for his birthday, but I accidentally deleted Steff Metal by mistake! Luckily, I got it back, but now I am really running out of time to finish before his birthday this weekend! We are having an uber jam in our basement music room (or drum cave) followed by fish and chips and movies, and pie. Always pie. I hope you’re doing something fun with your weekend :)

Next week, I have a GIVEAWAY! Yes, that’s right! And it will only run for the week, and it will be girls only (or boys who want something to give to a girl). Sorry lads, maybe I’ll have something for you next time.

Love, lust and pudding crust
Steff Metal

Beserk had a clearance sale recently and I’m a bit of a sucker for wings (yes, I’m such a goff girl) so I thought I’d try this Tera Angel Cheerleader dress. It’s winter now, and about 4 degrees outside, so there’s no way in Hades you’re seeing my skinny, white, goose-pimply legs. It still looks awesome over some tight pants or leggings.

Tera Angel Cheerleader Dress, $39AUS, Beserk Clothing.

Urgh, it’s nigh impossible to get good photographs at the moment, thank you weather. But here are some more bad ones:

I am wearing:

• Tera Angel Cheerleader Dress (Beserk Clothing)
• Black stretch jeans (Glassons)
• Black Military Jacket (Tripp NYC)
• Wedge Boots (Jeffrey Campbell, who else? I was NOT lyring when I said I wear only two pairs of shoes)
• Dragon necklace (gift from husband)
• Skull armwarmers (MTCoffinz – don’t forget there’s 10% off at MTCoffinz till the end of August when you use the discount code STEFFMETAL)
• Celtic cross (from a terrible trendy surf shop in my hometown)
• Big, chunky ass metal ring, (21st gift) and my saxon wedding ring.

The dress is well-made, of a nice cotton / spandex blend, so it’s got a stretch to it without feeling like it’s loosing shape. I like the extra-thick hem, and the way the boatneck collar and the shape of the angel wings make longer necklaces look great. Also, I love the angel design – it looks seriously badass. I will be wanting more Beserk stuff, for sure!

I am quite in love with this jacket, which I think works well with this length of dress. With a dress like this you really want to wear a jacket that’s as-long-as or shorter than the dress itself. The key to layering a dress like this is to make sure the pants you wear underneath don’t have buttons, studs or pockets that make the material bunch and lump.

And because you can’t see it in the pictures, here’s a closeup of the design:

Wicked, aye?

I own a couple of pairs of armwarmers already, but was never a big fan because they didn’t seem to help much in the warming department – I am skinny and get super cold, even in the tropical paradise that is New Zealand :) But MTCoffinz arm warmers are made of this super snuggly warm fleece, and my hands have been so happy on the frigid cold mornings over the last couple of weeks.

Steff loves her MT Coffinz armwarmers

I also like that they’re not gloves, so my fingers are free to tie my bootlaces, write in my diary, paint, and generally potter about.

To go with the red skulls, I’m wearing this skull top I brought from somewhere on Marketstrasse in Hamburg, a red dress from Smoove, my spider socks, Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots, and the cartouche necklace CDH brought me in Egypt.

Rings galore!

Since I knew I’d be taking pictures of my hands, I dug out some rings. You can see the strange ring of an African man’s head I found at a garage sale 10 years ago, a massive square of metal (a twenty first present from an uncle – he has great taste), a super thick men’s steel ring from one of my BFF’s and my wedding ring – which is modelled from an Anglo-Saxon ring found in a tomb.

The skull embroidery works well because it takes a someone a couple of looks to actually see the skull – at first it just looks like a nice design .. but then, hello Mr skull! I’ve been wearing them non-stop all winter.

More armwarmer goodness:

On my way to a party and a gig

Another Maiden shirt – from the first time I saw them, at Earl’s Court in London. The back says “I spent Christmas with Eddie at Earl’s Court”.

Off to see Sweeney Todd

Here they are just peeking out from under my Tripp NYC jacket.

Red dress from Gallery Serpentine

Now, in case you’re wondering what else you might be able to procure to go along with your arm warmers, MTCoffinz sell a variety of tutu skirts, gothic ballgown skirts, corsets, hairfalls and hair accessories. You can get the gear from three locations – MTCoffinz official website, or either of their two Etsy shops: the main etsy shop – MTCoffinz – is alternative gear and MTCoffinzUnderground is the more gothic, dark grear.

Trashy Green Monster Tutu

Gothic wedding / formal skirt

Alice in Wonderland inspired hairpiece

Now, remember that surprise I told you about. Jinx at MTCoffinz has kindly offered a special discount to Steffmetal readers – if you buy anything from MTCoffinz between now and August 31st (giving you a whole two months to choose something) and you enter the promo code STEFFMETAL at the checkout on the main website, or in “note to seller” field on Etsy, you will get 10% off your order.

(If you’re purchase through the main website, your discount will de deducted from your order on the spot, However, because of the way Etsy works, what will happen is that you will be charged the full amount, and then Jinx will refund you this discount.)

So if you need a mid-summer (or winter if you’re in my corner of the world) pick-me-up, or you have a friend in need of a birthday present, or you want to get a head start on your christmas shopping, I’d pop over to MTCoffinz and have a look.

Yours – the number 1 fan of skull-related fashion

I realised I haven’t been taking many photos with my vast (it’s VAST) collection of metal shirts, so now I will.

I am wearing:

Iron Maiden shirt from their “Somewhere Back in Time” tour – the first Australian leg. CDH and his brother and I went to the Sydney show and – as per normal with Maiden, who I’ve seen three times – it was quite a night. Terrible, terrible opening bands, but Bruce and crew more than made up for it. “Fear of the Dark” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” still give me shivers. This shirt is not actually black, but a very dark blue (at least, that’s what I’ve been told).

Black slip – second-hand from a cousin

Blue (I think) satin chemise (nightie or slip). A gift from my mum, probably ten years ago now. Worn under skirt so it’s not too see-through.

Black tights – gift from Mother-in-Law.

Red jacket – H&M Oslo (you may be thinking – why go to Oslo and shop at H&M? Well, we don’t HAVE H&M here and I LOVE it. Also, I went to Anti-Sweden, but the jeans looked terrible on me. I wish I’d brought one of their t-shirts, though.

Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots

Dragon necklace – present from CDH (the first piece of jewelry ever brought for me by a boy).

This is the sort of thing I wear to work. They’re pretty cruisy about dress code since we’re only in an office keeping each other company.k

I’m rather gutted because I was going to show you the AMAZING leather raven hair barrette I got from Wing and Talon Leatherworks, but I was running to get to the conference over the weekend, and it fell out of my hair and I didn’t notice and it’s fallen on the street somewhere and is LOST FOREVER. Major sad face. I hadn’t even got the chance to photograph it yet. So, if you were wondering – it is amazing, looks wicked, has WAY more detail than you can see in the picture, and I would have worn it forever had it not have fallen out and got lost :(

I’m a big fan of layering metal tee shirts over skirts or dresses like this – you look a little feminine while wearing these boxy shirts. Until they start making more flattering women’s metal shirts with better pictures on them, I’m sticking with mens shirts, thank you.

I am wearing:

• red / black generic medieval-style dress – from the Wacken medieval market
• silver headdress from Dress of Your Dreams – this is where I brought my wedding dress!
• Thor’s Hammer, Wulflund
• Replica Anglo-Saxon coin, Ashmolean Museum shop

This outfit is – in true folk metal style – a mash-up of a variety of cultural traditions. I was going for an overall look, not historical accuracy. I’d originally put my sword belt on too, but it looked ridiculous, so I took it off. I will show it to you sometime, I promise!

I didn’t wear this anywhere, just around the garden, but that’s fine. Sometimes it’s cool to have clothing you save for when you need a costume. I wear this to jousts and medieval festivals, and if I go to a dress-up party. I want to be zombie Maid Marion for halloween.

Folk the World \m/
Steff

• SWANClothing Sock garters
• Black skirt – I call it Gladiatrix because it looks like a warrior’s skirt (Queen of Darkness)
• black top (some hippy shop)
• Red corset (actually an underwear corset – an awesome present from my wicked cool sister)
• Spider thigh-high socks
• Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots

I am so happy with the sock garters. My legs as so skinny my socks and stockings constantly fall down, and these are the only sock garters I’ve ever seen on the market with a slightly feminine, but with a bondage twist, feel to them. They are no good for REALLY thick socks, but these are a thick-ish cotton/wool blend and the garters hold them up just fine. They’re extremely well made, and I love the little swan on my right leg. I love buying and wearing handmade products and supporting independent designers, and if doing that means I get to wear cool things like these, then I will continue to do so with a smile!

The only terrible thing is, since they fit my upper legs so well, I am going to have to get another pair for my shorter socks. Oh no, so sad!

Since this was an industrial gig, I wanted to do something with my hair. I don’t own any dreadfalls (although I am eyeing up these “steamfalls” from SteampunkCouture), so I DIYed my own hair ribbons using … shoelaces. I just put my hair into pigtails and tied the laces around the hairties. CDH thought it was hilarious, because I was worrying people would think I looked stupid, but no one could tell in the dark. I should really know by now NO ONE in this community would care if you wore shoelaces in your hair.

Socking’ it to ya.
Steff Metal