For most of us - except say performers or pre-schoolers playing dress up - wearing a costume is a once a year occurrence, if that. For steampunk fans dressing up is pretty much a way of life. It's a way to spend free time, climbing into an outfit of make-believe, taking on alternate personalities, using hands and heads to create not only the clothing but the songs, stories, poems and whatever backdrops are needed to act out fantasy situations of steampunk.
Salathiel Palland just might be metro Detroit's resident steampunk goddess and her six-month-old Off the Beaten Path Books in downtown Farmington is the epicenter of what's shaking in the literary sub-genre and live role-play game community. Think of it as a mash-up of the Industrial and Victorian ages' fantasy and speculative fiction, where steam-powered flying machines rule the skies and characters use technology that is simultaneously advanced and old timey in design.
Steampunk revels in the revolutionary changes and advancements brought on during the Industrial Age and Victorian era and tips a feather-adorned hat to sci-fi literary works and movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Age of Innocence and The Wild Wild West.
Nearly every night of the week steampunk is celebrated at Palland's bookstore, usually in the back half of the shop where there's a stage and sound system and lights and racks of finery – leather corsets and ruffled velvet frocks among them. They're made by a steampunk seamstress known as Kinki Kitty. Hers is just one of dozens of metro Detroit commercial spin-offs from steampunk with its heavy DIY focus.
Each night at the store is dedicated to a different steampunk or steampunk-inspired event. Craft nights, game nights, open mic nights, poetry and book readings. There is a dance one Friday each month, special events outside the store on Saturdays. And there are special nights here and there. November will bring in a teacher to show how to make a frock. The annual Write a Novel Month, will be observed at Off the Beaten Path Books with an instructor taking writers through the novel-writing process start to finish.
"We have plenty of customers who are happy just to have a used bookstore, to have a place to hang out, but you can't live by books alone,” she says.
A steampunk fashion show with StyleLine Magazine is scheduled for Nov. 22. The models will be in Detroit's Next Top Model, evidence that steampunk isn't all that obscure when you also consider it was woven into a storyline on ABC crime drama Castle, is the thematic backbone for the popular Bioshock video game series, made an appearance on Justin Bieber's last album and has been called a rising fashion trend by IBM.
The technology giant analyzed internet trends and saw a major increase in steampunk queries and discussion from 2009 to 2012, according to a January story in Time Magazine which posed the question: Don't we all want to embrace our inner Helena Bonham Carter?
The bookstore itself is like a step back in time. Big comfy velvet couches, wooden tables and chairs, a custom-made wall covered in gears and other machine parts, tall wooden bookshelves, a big clock, jars and bottles and décor from the early 19th century.
"I call it 'books and emporium' in the true sense of the word. It's that old timey curiosity kind of thing,” says Palland, who fittingly has realized her childhood fantasy of owning a bookstore.
Palland is an energetic, multi-tasking 41-year-old passionate mother of a 2-year-old daughter and 5-year old son - who are lucky enough to dress up all year long. She's equally as passionate about promoting the city of Farmington and its downtown. For Palland, a first-time meeting, a Facebook post, a phone call can lead to an event or project.
In a short order she was tapped to run a food truck rally at the local park. It attracted hundreds of vistors and packed the city for several hours. The library asked her to organize a Zombie Walk last weekend. Currently tickets are selling out to a Harry Potter themed dinner.
Guests and visitors to the bookstore and the events are coming from all around the midwest, she says.
"It's really amazing to me…I have people come from out-of-state … For the opening of the store people came from Columbus, Ohio, and Illinois,” she says. "I regularly get people from Jackson and Ann Arbor It's really cool.”
Annette Knowles, executive director of the Farmington Downtown Development Authority, says business owners like Palland are a gift.
Role-playing games drew Palland's attention when she was in high school in Livonia. She played Dungeons and Dragons and William Gibson's cyberpunk before turning to the cyberpunk offshoot steampunk in the 90s.
As an adult the interest ramped up and she met "amazing and talented people,” she says. There are steampunk conventions, organized groups in Grand Rapids and Lansing.
For many years she was more participant than organizer. That was until she was laid off yet again from her job at General Motors.
"I said if this happens again I'm going to open my own store. And I did. It's not like I'm wealthy or anything. It really was like stepping out on faith…and the thing that frees me too is I have a great husband, and he has a pretty great job.”
She moved to Farmington a few years ago when her mom was ailing.
"I always thought Farmington was a great little downtown. I started spending more time here and thought this would be a the perfect place to open my bookstore.
"I think Farmington is just getting ready to pop. It's got that edginess of Ferndale, and it's got the family feel,” she says. "We just need a few more businesses to push us over the edge and a few more people wanting to do more events….It's a good a place for that because it has its own identity. It doesn't want to be Plymouth or Ferndale, but it can have the same vibrancy.”
"People come down and say I didn't know Farmington was like this…We have that mix of quirky and awesome,” she says. "Whether it's steampunk or Farmington, I'm not just one of those people who sits there an says wouldn't this be great. I'm a doer for good or for ill. I just want to help grow whatever community I'm a part of.”