Every so often in the past year or two, Elysium (Austin, TX) holds a Steampunk Ball. The most recent one was last Saturday night. My sister and I of course were very excited to go, since we both are working to “complete” our own outfits and love to see what others come up with! The past Steampunk Balls we’ve attended at Elysium have had many people who dressed up, but not to the extent you often see on sites where people show off the costumes they’ve put together. There would be frills, some gas masks, a bit of leather, and a few top hats, but most of what we observed had more Victorian influence than Steampunk. We’ve always been disappointed that there isn’t much of a hardcore Steampunk community in Austin, but then again we’re not really hardcore ourselves.

When Elysium advertises the Steampunk Ball, they always advertise a costume contest. The previous time, I and apparently most of the crowd, severely disagreed with the outcome of the costume contest. The contest dwindled down from several ladies and gentlemen which, for some odd reason, included some zombies. It came down to a young lady who wore a wonderfully put together outfit of pieces she had bought and a young lady who’d made a dress from scraps of what might have been vintage clothing pieces. Although the announcer said he would go by the crowd’s cheers, he decided the lady with the tattered outfit won the contest since she had made her own outfit.

Maybe I got the idea wrong, but I’d think that to participate in a costume contest at a Steampunk Ball your outfit should at least show some semblance of Steampunk influence. This may have been because they had advertised the contest too well, which could possibly explain why I saw so little advertisement of this past Saturday’s Steampunk Ball. The first mention of Saturday’s event I saw was actually on another blog rather than any of Elysium’s official announcements. I’m sure this is why there weren’t as many people dressed up or even attending the ball, but those that were dressed up exceeded what I had expected based on the previous events! So much work and skill went into some of the pieces I saw, which of course completely made me jealous of what I don’t have the equipment or the skill to do. Unfortunately we missed the costume contest for the night; I’m sure it would have been much better this time around. But the event always makes me want to work to complete my outfit even more. I have items planned to purchase as well as sew for myself, but all of them will have to wait until I have more cash I can dedicate to my outfit. I did get to wear my newest skirt this time, and I modified the collar on my sister’s shirt from a simple folded collar to a shaped stand-up. Hopefully we’ll be closer to having completed outfits next time around!

There were a few vendors there, one of which was Turner’s Tokens. I received one of the coolest business cards I’ve ever gotten, a piece of brass stamped with their information. They have some gorgeous jewelry pieces, I highly encourage y’all to check them out! We had a great time on Saturday, and I look forward to the next ball Elysium hosts!