For those who don't know, and I didn't, Steampunk is a term used to describe a subgenre of retro-futuristic fantasy in which steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with elements of either science fiction or fantasy thrown in for good measure. Think H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Hayao Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle'. Fanciful inventions abound: steam-robots, flying castles, under-water bases, moon rockets, and time machines.

What's more, designers have redesigned all manner of everyday objects in a Steampunk fashion. Examples include computer keyboards and electric guitars fashioned in brass, wood or iron and dripping with cogs. And it occurs to us that this aesthetic would well serve us at Libertine: computers encased in brass and mahogany, sitting atop brass claw feet, talking on brass telephones to the hum of cogs, the hiss of valves and the thump of pistons. Steampunk harks back to a time when things were built to last. It looks back and forward at the same time, rather like Libertine. http://steampunkworkshop.com