Alas, these are apparently a one-of-a-kind set at the moment, although I certainly hope it will inspire others to start making their own in the years ahead and making them as readily available as steampunk goggles on Etsy and elsewhere on the web.
This isn't to say that bamboo and leather/rubber are the only substances Lao goggles would be constructed from. Given the ornate designs that have been historically employed in Lao formal dress and architecture, it would probably reflect those design sensibilities as well.
One can only imagine what a steampunk version of the costumes from the Lao epic Phra Lak Phra Lam would look like:
But what are some of the things you think we would likely see in Lao steampunk attire?
2 comments:
Those remind me of the handmade goggles in the pictures that the Guardian posted a while back on the Bajau "sea gypsies": http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/sep/20/bajau-sea-nomads
(There's also an adorable picture of a little boy and his pet shark.)
It also touches on the dangers of modernization being adopted by indigenous people who have no choice but to use them in order to earn their livelihood, something that could be cool for Maritime SEAsians to explore in steampunk.
But I still want silver plating on my goggles.
Yeah, I remember that photo! :)
I'm definitely trying to see how both the noble class and the everyday people would create functional yet aesthetically pleasing gear to meet their needs in a technologically super-charged setting of old.
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