STEAMPUNK, OTAKU & THE CHURCH OF QUALITY
THETOYSURPRISEINSIDE
My dad’s English. I spent all but three years of my childhood in an American suburb in the Northeast but the family culture was agitated by a few anglo rituals including the mostly unwanted appearance of rice pudding at Christmas. Positively the only reason for a kid to draw-spoon on a serving of this stuff is the minor excitement generated by the tradition of submerging a sterling silver charm within the otherwise tasteless paste. No doubt there will be an episode of Mad Men in season two where some junior account exec takes inspiration from this as he conceives the Toy Surprise Inside promotion for Cracker-Jacks or the American breakfast cereal we all scarfed down as kids.
Those toys were always cheap. Poor quality.
I’ve struggled with how to triangulate my orientation to this subject. –How to assemble the few ill-fitting fragments of a dimensional impression that may turn out only to be a phantom anyway. A phantom born of wishful thinking at worst. Sue me proceeding half-cocked.
STEAMPUNKQUALITYBYTHEPOUND
Steampunk is a subgenre fiction. The term denotes works set in an era where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian England —but with prominent elements of science fiction, such as fictional technological inventions. (Torn and shredded from Wiki).
Since we’re interested in fashion, we’ll take the liberty of extracting a visual and tactile atmosphere from the genre. It’s warm and textured with tradition and forthrightness. It features a naturalistic patina, cobbled and improvised inventiveness and it manifests a form of nostalgia unstained by cloying sentimentality. It can be sinuous and feminine; think of Ruth Myers’ gorgeous costume designs for The Golden Compass, or funky and clunky; think of Wieden & Kennedy’s animated journeys through the world inside the Happiness Factory Coke machine. It’s exciting, mysterious, haunting, sexy and reassuring.
Couldn’t I be describing some of the rough tailoring and artisan denim labels that have continued emerge in the last decade? Paul Harnden, Trovata, Carpe Diem, Corpe Nove, Nomme de Guerre, SvSv, Engineered Garments (and now Woolrich), Rag & Bone, Casey Vidalenc, Forme d'Expression, Sruli Recht, Kmrii, KZO … -And all sorts of artisan denim concepts; Rogan, Prps, Ernest Sewn and RRL from the American East. Antik Denim, True Religion and People for Peace from the American West, Alelier la Durance and G-Star from the Netherlands. Imperial and Tsubi from Autrailia. Studio d'Artisan, Sugar Cane, Kapital, from Japan. Couldn’t I also be describing the most compelling retailers? Dover Street Market, Freeman’s Sporting Club, Sidney’s Ontario, Odin, le Claireur, Undercover, Number Nine, Mano, Find Taiwan, UTH, Atelier, Legion LA, etc.Not to mention the more obvious trends in design disciplines normally expressed in steam era mainstay’s of steel and leather. Bell & Ross square-face watches (and the clones and even those questionable U-Boat wrist-weights and their clones). Bianchi Pistas and (even more-so) more genuine and labor-won fixed gear custom velocipedes (with leather and copper Brooks saddles and the like). Bottegga furniture (Steampunk Moderne).
The thing about looking backward toward steam or Victorian England in order to look forward toward contemporary design is that we’re bound to gain weight on return trip. We pick up some heavy souvenirs of our retrospection. Those were days when both technology and quality could be detected on a scale.
A solid gold pocket-watch (its solidness being key) to a massive new steam-engine. Solid brass. Cast iron. Saddle leather. Milled oak. Gearwork, springcoils, bored cylinders… They’re all blessed with good old-fashioned weight. Hell, the rigid, squatting and earthbound industrial thrust of the Eiffel Tower was a study in weightlessness by comparison. What elese has weight? Lanolin-rich wool, Harris tweeds, oilcloth, Irish linen, drill-twill, gabardine, horsehide and, of course, denim and the vintage American shuttle-looms in Japan on which the connoisseur’s choice is woven. So do shank-buttons, rivets, bone, Bakelite and copper findings. Hard wear and heavy metal.
When every relationship that matters is imprinted on micron-thin silicon chips in our iphone or Blackberry, maybe the heft of the jacket or jeans we stash them in is the only thing left to help keep us grounded. Quality split in two. Simultaneously shedding all worldly form in favor of speed, versatility and capacity and all but evaporating weightless into the ether while it regains its lost substance re-rendering itself in a more substantial drystuff on our backs and asses. Gaining weight as we loose it.
The fact is that quality can still be measured in pounds. Substantial craft and materiality usually does weigh more. –So it might be a steampunk esthetic that has ushered it in, but the force spilling out of this Trojan (or Victorian) Horse is a surprise attack of quality. It doesn’t matter what leak it flows from as long as it’s rushing our way. Quality seems to be the Toy Surprise Inside.
OTAKUFROMTHOROUGHNESSCOMESQUALITY
The western equivalent of an Otaku personality is the 40+ year old guy fussing nightly over the train set in his basement “hobby room” which has taken him 14 years and 28,000 dollars to build. It’s not an image that has any charm. Obviously. Think of the dangerous poindexter Terence Stamp in the horror film, The Collector. And shit, when the subject of Otaku obsession is fashion the picture painted is even scarier. Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Otaku about larva (gag). Otaku about fashion (of the flesh, yikes). Anthony Hopkins invokes Marcus Aurelius in his coaching Bill’s capture. “What does he DO this man you seek?”. The crystalline chill slicing through Jody Foster’s answer, “… He COVETS” is the tenor of pure fear. So no, Otaku’s covetous behavior in the West is not normally thought of being cool.
In Japan it is actually no cooler. But there are important exceptions. Jun Takahashi was Otaku in his admiration for Vivienne Westwood. Hiroshi Fujiwara is Utaku in his passion for street culture in general. Hiroki Nakamura is Otaku relative to authentic outdoor brands. Hidehiko Yamane was Otaku in his approach to vintage Levi’s. The crew at Buzz Rickson’s are Otaku in there commitment to reproduction military, and so on… Nigo famously admitted his hope was to be a “cool Otaku” indicating this combination would represent an unlikely achievement.
Otaku behavior in my mind is partly indicated by a completist’s desire to achieve 100% thoroughness. To complete the collection. To have a thorough knowledge. Of course the more the Otaku learns about his obsession, the more there is to possess in the form of material exemplars as well as knowledge.
The growth in Otaku behavior in the East and West seem to me to represent a second Trojan Horse of quality. That’s because quality is the result of being thorough. To examine every detail. To look closer and closer and closer. Is the garment authentic? Is its fabric authentic? Is its construction authentic? Is its detailing authentic?
From an Otaku perspective, all must be authentic. Where you can’t always treat authenticity and quality as synonyms, I’d posit that the one will often at least lead to the other. You can test it by replacing authentic with remarkable. Is the garment remarkable? Is the fabric remarkable? Is the construction remarkable? Is the detailing remarkable?
No that surely sounds like quality is again the Toy Surprise Inside.FAITHASRITUALANDTHEEMERGINGCHURCHOFQUALITY
Meditation, Repetition, Practice and Suffering
What about all those rivets holding together 2007’s Steampunk Treehouse at Burning Man?
Pre-silicone science. When science meant industry, industry meant industrious, and industriousness required repetition. Hundreds of rivets holding together machines from the future. Wax On/Wax Off. Meditative repetition leading quality.
What about the steam era’s artisan himself? The clockwork inventor. Equal parts mechanical visionary and dexterous magician wielding manual precision earned over years of practice. Wax On/Wax Off. Repetition leading to an increase in skill and personal ascension. He lived through mistakes en route and suffered in his pursuit of personal ascension. The higher he ascends, the more quality he was able to conjure.
We’re talking about nothing less then the repetitive ritual and faith-based devotion. The ritual of meditation. The ritual of suffering toward personal ascension. But in this case the church is a church where progress and quality are forever entwined.
What about the hours of study in the life of the Otaku?
The studiousness of the zealot. Like a monk with his scripture. Closer and closer inspection, deeper and deeper understanding, more and more thorough invocations. The line between completing a collection and constructing a reliquary nearly completely erased.
We’re talking about nothing less than study as an act of worship with knowledge of quality as the outward indication of divine achievement.
WASTEASORIGINALSIN
I regret not being able to steam-rivet these impression together with the otaku thoroughness required for them to manifest the levels of quality they are attempting to describe.
I’m only moved to share these impressions because I’m not sure the transfer of faith at least in part to a new church of quality is such a bad thing. Surprising but what would be worse, infinitely deplorably worse, if the transfer to faith to pointless undisciplined and wanton consumerism. If quality is the virtuous byproduct of a next evolution, then waste is surely its damnable next original sin.
Time will tell. Maybe the pilgrims will continue to convene within this millennium’s new virtual catacombs. Maybe denominations will multiply. The steampunkists, the otakuists, the new rough-luxuryists and the artisanists. If their emergence can stem the tide of global wastefacturing then God bless them.
I myself am still a sinner. I still sometimes consume without discipline. I’m resolved to take a lesson from these events and invest in more better instead of much more.
Can I get a witness?
Amen.
[special blame goes to William Gibson and Buzz Rickson’s for superimposing the disparate worlds of steampunk and otaku for me. Thanks to them also for collaborating on the finest MA1 jacket ever made]
