“Before you know it, some weak-chinned chippy in a stovepipe hat and goggles will turn up on Martha Stewart’s Living to show everyone at home how to hot-glue clock gears onto their toaster oven/tea kettle/labial folds.”

Thus Meredith poignantly described the slow demise of the Steampunk aesthetic in this thread. Pictured above, an eerie and all too real display of how true her words ring, but in an industrial tone [I think?]. Below, the same concept executed well, for contrast.

[makeup: Cynthia Bachman, hair: Michael Hall, photo: glitterguru, model: Allison O]

Hear me, and hear me well – we love you, but the first person to glue cogs/clock arms/vintage keys/etc. to their face gets a raygunnin’ straight to HELL.

I work as a photography coordinator and photographer at suicidegirls.com. The fashion merecenaries among you might know I have a mostly-weekly fashion feature there called What’s Zo Wearing? [so named by a former lead editor]. I say “feature” instead of “column” because the amount of writing I do varies week to week. Occasionally I get verbose, but, more often WZW is a collection of outfit photos and tips on where to get these or similar items.

There are some hits and there certainly are some unfortunate moments, especially in retrospect of over a year, but hopefully there is something for all to dig. Coilhouse will be syndicating What’s Zo Wearing? every Sunday, 2 am Pacific.

To give you an idea of what to fear each Sunday I’ve included some of my favorite outfits behind the jump, and a few more in our Flickr stream.

Posture collar. Found on romantasy.com

While this may not be a corset I would choose for her, this is exactly the sort of lady that needs to wear more corsets.

I can’t help but feel almost a little dirty looking at her, invasive – as if I’d found a trunk of old boudoir photos in someone’s room. That’s what makes this so great – her refined face and hair allude to a privileged matron; equestrian socialite by day, secret fetishist by night.

Chaliapin as Mephistopheles, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

Famed Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin as Mephistopheles. Chalyapin was known for his deep baritone and powerful on-stage presence, but in this image is something incredibly comical, he’s almost apologetic.

Steve Pyke is an English photographer who covered the early cyberpunk scene. Pyke writes, “Cyberpunks, a small subculture, influenced by the work of the author William Gibson and particularly the film Bladerunner, existed in London in the early 1990s. I became interested and photographed a series of about fifty portraits in my studio over a short period.” Here’s a link to his image gallery, which features 16 portraits. I love his clean, streamlined, almost anthropological portraits of this small sub-genre. There’s something really charming about this original incarnation of the cyber aesthetic.

One thing I found really interesting about this series that almost half the people in the pictures have some sort of lenses concealing their eyes. This makes sense, because mirrorshades were one of the strongest symbols of cyberpunk writing from the late 80s and early 90s, starting with Molly in Neuromancer. This is why everyone in The Matrix also wears mirrored shades as an homage.

Here are the rest of Steve Pyke’s Cyberpunk Portraits.

robotgirl, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

First saw this image in DrTenge’s livejournal and had to have MORE. It’s so classically cyberpunk from the actual image to the medium.

What i found through some quick googlemancery is a fairly large private collection of holographic photographs belonging to one Guillermito, apparently an admirer of technology in art and vice-versa. In a touching testimony he says “I think they are a perfect balance between esthetics and technology, between science and art…Buying fine art holograms is throwing money out of the window, financially speaking. You really have to love them. Because, basically, nobody cares.“.

We care, G. We care.

You can browse his online gallery here.

russian_7-stg_woman-miner-s, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

A delightful page dedicated to Unidentified European Instruments found during a search for old gypsy photos. Click on, dear readers, for wonderful vintage pictures of musicians wielding strange guitars.

Also stumbled upon during the quest:

• a recount of someone’s return to Bucharest and a few curious photos they took on this journey
• Gaultier’s Russia-inspired winter 2005-2006 collection [improbable beaded hats – yes!]
  
• typical nu-gypsy dance extravaganza photos. I’ve actually been to a performance like this as a kid in Moscow.

Not a single actual vintage Russian gypsy photo was to be found, however. I’ll resume this later, in the meantime there is a launch celebration to attempt.

Thee High Priestess ov Thee Temple ov Psychick Blah (T.H.P.O.T.T.O.P.B.)*

And now it’s time for a joyous yodel (erm, sorry) shout out to a dear sister in Lucerne, Mlle Susanne G., a young lady who has officially been keeping it weird on the web since 2003. Unofficially? Much longer than that. In fact, we first found one another on deadjournal (of all the godforsaken places!) maaaany, many moons ago. Like, a moon in the nineties. *gasp*

Her blog compendium, Wurzeltod, is one of my absolute favorite nooks on the net, “a drawer full of all things weird, grotesque, bitter-sweet, embalmed and fortean. Brought to you by Suzanne – the eternal art history student.” You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… occasionally you’ll gag. It’s bliss.

So go for the gas masks, stay for the marzipan, and tell her Coilhouse sent ye.

*photo © of Suzanne G.

In addition to his fashion designs and his epic weight loss, remedy Karl Lagerfeld is also known for his fashion photography. The above is from Vogue Germany October 2007.

The Story: “Wellen”
Photografed by Karl Lagerfeld
Fashion Editor: Christiane Arp
Models: Claudia Schiffer and others

See the rest on foto_decadent.

Paris-based 24-year-old photographer Andy Julia is a versatile artist whose commercial work has sincere gothic sensibilities, and whose gothic personal work creates an intimate vintage atmosphere. Andy became known in the alt world through his contributions to Elegy Magazine, and chats with Coilhouse about his first photoshoot, his new book, agency models vs. alt models and other interesting topics below:

Do you remember the first photo shoot you ever did?

Yes I remember perfectly. I was a 17 years old teenager who’d just discovered the sense of love. I began my first roll in shooting my girlfriend innocently. I was unconscious of what photography was, and felt really out of all material conditions…
This first roll had a very hard light, supplied by a simple bedside light. Her skin was wrapped in a piece of black satin, and her legs hidden behind beautiful stockings, she was wearing a black velvet men’s “Haut de forme” from the end of the 19th century…our bed was surrounded by mirrors. We just made only one roll this day, as the teacher asked to us at the Beaux Art school, to learn how to develop and to print photographical pictures. This roll changed my life forever, and I was not conscious of that.