Decor or Functional? What do you use your Goggles, Canes, watches, etc. for?

[Lady Rayna Keller]

My husband just made the comment "Mommy's are just for decoration on top of her hat." to my daughter about my goggles and it got me thinking.   Is there really a preference to why we make our costumes the way we do?   I know most make functional weapons and most use their goggles in a functional way but do you plan it before hand or does it just end up that way?

 

My goggles personally started off as a functional thing for my very first character, an explorer who needed to keep the sand and grit from her eyes but as my character changed into a Sorceress the need for them kind of vanished unless I was in the back of my store working on potions.   So basically they went from functional to decoration in a matter of months.   On the other hand the goggles I just made my daughter are both functional and decor for her.....she likes wearing them as goggles and on her head as a headband/tiara.

 

Now that I think of it my watch is both decor and functional but then again what watch isn't if it still works right?   So I pose the question to you:

 

Is your goggles, watches, canes, weapons, etc. DECOR OR FUNCTIONAL?  Did they start off as one then eventually ended up as the other?   Inquiring minds are wondering as those of us who are still new, making new personas, etc. are interested in knowing.

[Wilhelm A. Heizeltroff]

I have a small collection of canes and a few even match the ones I describe in my writing. All of these are not just functional they are a necessary piece of daily equipment for me thanks to a car accident. One of the things I made clear when I started to look into this was that I would not have unnecessary accessories. No gears glued to things or goggles I didn't use.  I'm still holding that to be absolutely true as well.

[Marshal Sir Jon Marshall]

I have a large collection of hats that are mostly decorative, but my pith helmet is an outstanding sunhat as that is what it is designed for. My cane lights up, so at night it functions as a flashlight. My mask is purely decoration, but I can see out of the eye so it's not restrictive. I have many pins, medals, weapons and gizmos that are purely for decoration. My goggles are functional as they are polarized motorcycle goggles.

[Sgt. Ian MacBrooke]

Everything I wear and or carry serve to reinforce my persona....hahaha. Nah, I just build shit as the fancy takes me. I'm not a 'ghostbuster', but I have a pair of 'ghostbuster' type goggles...I do try to make what I mod at least function on some level though.

[Sabrina Kettlesteam]

My cameos and skirt hikes are very steampunk. I don't usually use tophats or canes or things like that as they don't go with my character. I think if she wore a pocket watch, it would be the small kind that fits around her neck. That or a globe watch. I always thought the globe watch was an underappreciated/used item in steampunk. 

[Oswin Bernerd McGuinness]

Everything I wear is functional. My goggles get use when I work, am on the deck of the Archimedes and during the teleportation process. My weapons and gadgets aid me during adventures and bounty hunting missions

[Captain Lachlan Bellraven]

Well, lemme see My hatband has several charms on it that I have found useful in my time. : A preserved gator foot to banish less than friendly minded spirits, a tiny voo doo doll given to me by Mrs. Olean mostly she said to remind me of her but I think it has also kept more than a few situations from going bad. A cross of chicken leg bones  given to me by Papa Jocko, he said it was to keep me from prying eyes,the tarot cards in my hatband are basically just for looks they were from a deck of a late friend. Now the skeletal hand on the back of my hat, well that is a new piece and for lack of a better word a war trophy.Maybe someone trying to sneak up on me might see it and think they got better things to do than die in the next 30 seconds. As to the Tesla pistol holster, the human skin over the leather with the so called protection tattoo is also a trophy of sorts and a warning to those who might go after mine.

[Paisley O'Maley]

I am still fleshing out so to speak my persona but there are a few things I know I want for her. I know she needs a small pouch on a tether around her neck, it will hold a lock of hair from her departed mother. Being a pirate I will need some type of firearm and I have been thinking about a simple but effective 1875 Remington. I admit to being a closet western movie fan. I am considering a monocle eye patch type thing for use like a telescope.

[Oswin Bernerd McGuinness]

I pull a lot more of my style from westerns than the british side. It's a great look that not a lot of people capitalize on.

[Arabella Porter]

Actually, there's a lot of people who go for the western style. But as London was like the boiler room for a blossoming and growing empire, not to mention the World Fir in…1888 was it? , there tends to be a liking for the Western European, victorian, whatever you call it. But to be honest, civil war steampunk has become more and more popular over the past year or so. And as for the "wild west" patches, for those who can't resist a spark of Doc Holiday or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, you're not alone. Hell, when "At World's End" was still dominant in the chat room of the Steampunk empire, it was mostly western if you plucked out me, Captain Von Arkham, and Octavius. 

[Oswin Bernerd McGuinness]

It's still primarily Victorian here in the midwest. I know a few people who go the western route.

[Arabella Porter]

As an airship pirate, my character actually does use her goggles. Being up in the open, cold, and thin air can really make you squint so the idea is that the aviator goggles make things easy, just like they would with the pilots who flew those old planes or even the modern open  planes of today. The pocket watch I had actually did tell the time….until I was running and it flew off a bridge and was washed away by the river next to the Waltham industrial museum.  *sob* I was just so excited, I didn't mean to kill anyone. 

[C. H. Brown]

My plan is that my accessories and equipment will be practical. Thus the various pouches and packs about my person.