Our own Hilde Heyvaert of the House of Secrets Incorporated was interviewed on Decimononic last week, a fine-jewelry and accessories community, where she talked about The Gatehouse, steampunk fashion and jewelry.
Hilde wrote a fashion column for every single one of the Gatehouse Gazette‘s 21 issues between July 2008 and November of last year. Asked why she got involved, she told Decimononic:
I thought it would be really cool to have a column that helps people getting to know some of the substyles of steampunk and dieselpunk and help them with ideas for outfits and costumes. Especially if they’re on a budget.
We often see spectacular steampunk outfits online, but the average genre enthusiasts doesn’t have a fortune to spend on such costumes. Hilde never forgot about them in her articles for the Gatehouse Gazette.
As an independent costume and fashion designer, Hilde is familiar with the struggles of jewelry-makers who read Decimononic. Her advice?
Make sure your work is visible in the community, be on Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, LiveJournal. The more exposure, the more people will get interested in your work and buy it.
And, “Don’t be afraid to ask steampunk blogs and magazines whether you can get a feature on them.”
The Gatehouse Gazette covered many designers during its run and we’re still interested in hearing from people here at the blog!
Also, a bit of advice for makers in particular: “Don’t let anyone persuade you from doing your own thing.”
Steampunk has very little in the way of actual rules and aside from following those it’s all how you see things. There’s always going to be people trying to enforce their vision onto you, if they have things to say you actually like and want to work with: awesome. If they don’t, then don’t be afraid to go in against what seems the popular opinion and stick to your guns.
Be sure to read the whole thing. Congratulations to Hilde on this wonderful coverage!
