Steampunk Fashion: Use of Color Theory and Metals

For those unfamiliar with the term, Steampunk is a both an actual successor of sorts and a spiritual predecessor to Cyberpunk, but where the latter draws from visions of a dystopian and highly technological future, Steampunk draws from the past, or rather a re-imagined past. This past originally centered around the Victorian era of England, but has expanded to potentially include the Edwardian era as well as fashions from abroad, particularly the United States, as well as alternate worlds that follow the Steampunk aesthetic. As you might guess, a major hallmark of Steampunk is steam power; more modern vehicles and devices are often recreated using cruder methods of the time, including clockworks, steam power, and electricity in tubes and bulbs. It's reverse engineering science fiction and fantasy, and while some Steampunk tries to stay more realistic, making use of inventions and ideas that were present at the time but not widespread or soon would be emerging, some goes for the more fantastic, with automatons and strange creatures and all manner of bizarre devices, or else real objects decades or even centuries ahead of the time made with the technology of the day (and functioning with varying levels of efficiency).

Steampunk has become many things; a genre of literature, a style of music, a mode of expression. As an art form, Steampunk has risen from a mixture of classic tales such as Disney's version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and H.G. Wells' The Time Machine to a thriving movement that includes numerous books, movies, television shows, bands, and other creative outlets. What I am looking at here are the clothing and accessories that have grown out of this, and how I feel they can be improved. Before we take a look at how you can use color in your outfits, let's take a look at Steampunk in fashion in general.

Because of this rich and varied heritage, Steampunk can meld the looks of the time with far more fanciful ideas, and often incorporates clockworks, lace, militaristic themes, brass and copper, wood, leather, and various other materials and themes available at the time, or that we imagine COULD have been available at the time. Most often when drawing from the Victorian era we think of the late 1800s, but the Industrial Revolution ran from roughly 1750 to 1850, and many innovations that lead to Victorian fashion came about in the mid-1800s, while Victorian styles outlived Queen Victoria herself by a good eleven years or so, not really fading until 1912, well into the Edwardian era. I feel, therefore, that there's a lot more we can draw upon, from across Victorian and Edwardian England and the frontiers of the British colonies and United States. Modern influences often come from the Goth, Punk, Rivethead, Gothic, and Lolita fashion styles, and industrialized elements related to machinery, inventions, and those who build or handle them come in, often adding a more ragged or warped element.

Note that this isn't an attempt to dictate the 'rules' of Steampunk. There are no rules. While it might draw some from history, and I hope to do so here, there's a great deal more imagination and creation involved, and nobody can or should try to place boundaries on that, I believe. Everybody will have their own vision of Steampunk. This is mine at present.

As already discussed, new advances in dyes allowed for the codification of colors during the Victorian Period. What many don't realize is that modern color theory also has its roots in this era, largely in the works of one man. Early in the Victorian period, most paints were still hand-mixed, and formulas could vary. Oh, there were prescribed rules and recipes, but because you either had to do it yourself or let the local painter handle it, there could be a fair bit of discrepancy in the actual shades and hues. Still, while new methods of making colors helped, and industrialization allowed for brighter, bolder patterns and materials to work their way into clothing, the advent of color theory really had the greatest impact.

The man responsible for this was Michel Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist whose work with fatty acids revolutionized both art and science. He discovered margaric acid, designed an early form of soap made from animal fats and salt (as well as naming the acids involved and allowing for advances in candle manufacturing), pioneered the study of the effects of aging on the human body shortly before his own death at the age of 102, was the subject of the first photo interview in history, and was a determined enemy of charlatanism who successfully explained and debunked magic pendulums, table turning, and dowsing. His 100^th birthday was celebrated as a national event that saw a gold medal minted for the occasion and letters of commendation from numerous heads of state and monarchs, including Queen Victoria herself. He is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. But the feat that most interests us here wasn't accomplished near the end of his life (in 1889), but years earlier.

As a much younger (or at least less old) man, Chevreul was made director of the dye works at the famed Gobelins Manufactory in Paris. He received many complaints about dyes being used there, in particular that the blacks appears different when used next to the blues. He determined that the yarn's perceived color was influenced by other surrounding yarns, a concept that came to be known as simultaneous contrast. Others had noticed in the past that colors seemed different next to one another, but Chevreul undertook the first solid scientific study, publishing his findings in 1839 as The Principles of Harmony and Contrast in Colors. An English translation came along in 1854, and his findings appeared in America finally in The Painter, Gilder, and Varnisher's Companion between 1869 and 1873.

What Chevreul discovered was that adjacent to some hues certain colors appeared to shift in hue or value while the same colors adjacent to other hues might intensify. He set out the system of complementary and analogous colors based on this. Complementary colors, those opposite each other on the color wheel he developed (as shown below in a version I created adapted from a drawing by Richard A. Votta), appear more intense when adjacent in patterns because the retina of the eye produces an 'afterimage' of the complement of each color. For example, the afterimage caused by looking at red is green, and of green, red. The human eye has this response to all colors; yellow and purple complement each other, as do blue and orange. Modern color theory recognizes that there are some colors you cannot get purely by mixing red, blue, and yellow due to their positions on the color wheel, which is why the more true cyan, magenta, and yellow or red, blue, and green are used or else four primaries instead of three, but for a Victorian model we use the scheme below.

Because of the afterimage, two colors adjacent to one another but not complements will appear altered in hue. Chevreul's studies shows that red next to orange (analogous colors because they are adjacent on the wheel), appeared as purplish-red next to a yellowish-orange. Furthermore, through his investigations he discovered that white, black, and gray also affected the hues adjacent to them, making them appear deeper, lighter, and richer respectively. Chevreul's findings regarding color relationships greatly affected interior design, fashion, and art in the Victorian period and paved the way for modern color theory.

Colors were soon separated into primaries (red, blue, and yellow), secondaries (orange, green, and violet), and tertiaries, which include colors like olive, russet, citrine, and plum. Designers followed his two great laws of color harmony; Harmonies of Analogous Colors, which governed closely related values of the same hue or identical values of two hues adjacent on the color wheel, and Harmonies of Contrasts, which dictates widely separated values of the same hue, or complementary colors (i.e. entirely separate hues), or widely separated values of two adjacent hues. While this might seem complex, and can be on some level, I'll show now how this pertains to Steampunk design.

First off, it allows one to understand Victorian color schemes and wheels and bring them into clothing. Though the main source I used to learn of this dealt with interior design, I feel that it also impacts fashion, especially when you remember that Steampunk has more than a little fantasy element to it and can be brighter and bolder than reality was. Not that Victorian fashion was nearly as drab as some believe it to have been.

One way of using this is to create an outfit with one dominant hue and other colors subordinate to it. For instance, variations in value and hue from green to blue, or from Venetian red to brown. Both color schemes involve the Harmonies of Contrasts, making use of widely separated values of two adjacent hues, blue to green in the first, red to dark russet in the second. In design of the time critics often referred to schemes of 'harmony' and 'contrast'. An outfit made up of red ranging in value from Venetian or India red to light red and salmon follows 'harmony' while another consisting of olive green or peacock with light red and salmon is in 'contrast'. The contrast here is less strong if using olive green, as it is a complement to red.

Note that the tertiaries listed in the wheel above clearly aren't 'neutral'; that is, they are not exact middle blends of the colors adjacent to them. Rather, they are chosen from among some of the most common tertiary colors which were used in Victorian design. A little research can easily allow one to choose a palate consisting of colors preferred in this period, such as India red, yellow ochre, and light cobalt.

This aesthetic explains a lot about why copper, brass, and brown feature so strongly together in Steampunk fashion. It isn't merely that copper and brass were common to the period and brown was the main color available to the lower class (which I might contend with a little); these three colors are analogous. Brass is on the yellow side, copper on the red-brown or red-orange side, placing brown, effectively a darker shade of orange, squarely between them. Brass naturally goes well with green because it's near it on the circle, making them in harmony, while copper contrasts it nicely, and even can complement it depending.

Now this is where I feel that we can do more with colors and metals in Steampunk fashion. Because of the emphasis on clockworks, inventions, and devices, metal comes into Steampunk fashion a lot, often alongside wood, rubber, leather, and similar materials. By placing the different metals available for decoration onto the color wheel, I believe you can create more harmonious and distinctive outfits.

The two principle metals seen in most Steampunk are brass and copper. However, bronze, iron, and steel are also fairly common, and silver and gold both have their place as well.

Fresh, new copper is reddish-orange to reddish-brown. As it is tempered and worked into alloys, it tends to become more brown or russet, and old copper often exhibits a coating called verdigris that is very distinctly green, as seen on the Statue of Liberty. Normal copper can be placed around the russet or orange section of the color wheel, while verdigris-coated copper belongs down on the green side. Normal copper meshes well with brown and brass, but also with colors from the green through blue spectrum because of its contrast with them. Copper is one of only four elemental metals with a natural color other than gray or silver; the others are caesium and gold (both yellow), and osmium (bluish). It's been used on its own or in alloys for thousands of years; it's inclusion in Steampunk settings isn't merely for its appearance and versatility for alloys. Copper in its natural state is soft and ductile, and more importantly has high electrical and thermal conductivity that made it valuable during the dawn of electricity, and continues to make it a vital element. Green copper is often seen in buildings and statues because the oxidized layer of verdigris forms a barrier that prevents the copper beneath from deteriorating, unlike with iron. Copper was also used to line the bottoms of many old sailing vessels for this very reason. All of this means that working old, green copper into an outfit is very doable, and can offer different color schemes than working with normal copper.

Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, also found itself in common use in this period, in particular because brass doesn't spark when struck, making it ideal for use in locations and conditions where it is important to avoid flames. Given how prevalent the use of gas, coal, and other flammables was in the Victorian era, brass was an important metal.

As with all alloys, there are many variants of brass. The best known coloration for brass is yellow, and several alloys, such as Aich's Alloy and Prince Rupert's Metal, are beautiful enough to have been used in place of gold. The strong, classic yellow color places it on the opposite side of brown from copper and explains the two work so well together; with brown, copper and brass are in analogous harmony.

However, not all brass is yellow. White brass looks like many other whitish or gray metals, and then there's red brass, also known as rose brass, cast bronze (since it is both a bronze and a brass), and gunmetal. Red brass's reddish hue comes from the higher concentration of copper in it, and as you might guess historically was used in the manufacture of guns before steel took its place. Certain medals, most notably the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest ward for military valor, are traditionally made from gunmetal, and in the late 17^th century worn and scrapped guns were used to make gun money, emergency coins created to finance James II in his unsuccessful war against William of Orange. This all means that red brass makes for a wonderfully authentic and interesting accent in steampunk fashion. What's more, because red brass casts and machines well and is highly resistant to corrosion from steam and salt water, it is used to this day to make steam and hydraulic castings, valves, and gears, as well as statues and various small objects like buttons. This makes getting hold of pieces to be worked into outfits and gadgets relatively easy.

Iron and steel are as classically steampunk as brass or copper. Both were in heavy use during the periods steampunk draws most form, and both have a nice industrial feel to them. When gray or black, of course they go with anything, but they aren't always so. Rusted iron takes on a reddish tinge that can be used in costuming, and the process known as bluing, used to avoid that rusting, creates blue steel with its distinctive blue-black appearance. Bluing has been used often in firearms and by machinists, and also to provide coloring for steel parts in clocks and other fine metalwork. Also, razor blades were historically often blued steel, and certain properties of blued steel lead to them being used as detectors in crystal set AM radios built by soldiers during WWII. Needless to say, this means there are plenty of sources for blued steel for costuming purposes. Also, because blued steel still needs to be oiled regularly or it starts to rust, it's a simple matter to bring a bit of red into a costume accessory or device.

You can also look for steel that's been treated using niter bluing, color case hardening, or browning. Niter bluing is a chemical process where steel is polished and cleaned before being immersed in a bath of molten salts and heated. The parts are watched constantly for color change, gradually sliding through straw, gold, brown, purple, blue, teal, and finally black. You commonly see this method used on older pocket watches where the hands exhibit what is called 'peacock blue,' a rich, iridescent hue. Color case hardening is the forerunner of all metal coloring typically employed in the firearms industry and produces patterns of color to appear due to the way items are cooled. The blotchy, more primitive appearance can work well with Steampunk's often industrial, rough aesthetic. In the picture to the left you can see both techniques; niter bluing in the screws and color case hardening in the plate.

Tin, aluminum, nickel, and lead can also be noted, but as all are various shades of gray or gray-white, there is no need to discuss heavily their role in the color wheel save to note that the use of gray does make other colors seem more crisp and genuine.

Silver and gold were the most popular metals for jewelry at the time, something else to consider. Gold also was available in its most well-known alloyed color variants; white, red, and green. All of these are easily placed on the color chart. For a more rare and unusual creation, you could make faux purple, blue, and black gold. All three are used some in jewelry now, but fairly rare, as the methods of making them are difficult. Purple and blue gold alloys are brittle and most often seen as polished and faceted 'gemstones'; a creative artist could tinker about with costume jewelry and claim pieces to be 'gold gemstones.'

References:

Color Wheel, Color Theories of Chevreul, and Victorian Color Schemes: Pages 128 – 131 and various others of Victorian Interior Decoration – American Interiors 1830-1900, by Gail Caskey Winkler and Roger W. Moss.

Red Brass 1: www.ehow.com/info_7919018_red-…

Red Brass 2: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunmetal

Metals used in Jewelry: www.langantiques.com/universit…

Bluing and Browning 1: firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2…

Bluing and Browning 2: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_%…

1^st Edition created December 16^th, 2012

2^nd Edition edited August 31^st, 2016