(this is a guest post from the lovely Steff at Steff Metal – thanks Steff! Why don’t you stop by & check out her blog?)

[humanity is] a silly, ongoing, short-term memory machine that fails to learn from the past.

Kris Kulski (artist)

What’s going to happen is, very soon, we’re going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The food trucks will come to a halt. This is the end of the world.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Rolling Stone 2006)

We all know the apocalypse looms. We know the cycle of nations, that the inevitable rise and fall of empires will someday devour us, too. We’ve read the signs, brushed up on religious dogma, brought our The Idiot’s Guide to Surviving the Zombie Uprising. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that, sooner or later, we’ll be living in a broken, desolate world. The apocalypse is coming. The question remains, what on earth will we wear?

If you’re an Apocalypse Lady, you’ve already figured it out. They’re the girls who assume the world will end today, hopefully before their 2pm meeting. They are the girls who take photographs in abandoned buildings, who drink tea in the cemetery, who practice archery from their 10^th story apartment.

Dressing for imminent destruction.

In a world where empires cease to exist and the rubble of fallen civilizations litters the streets, the Apocalypse Lady reigns supreme.

In the corporate world, you dress to impress, but in the post-apocalyptic world, your clothing needs to help fend off the zombies. No clean lines, bright patterns or pastel colours here. An apocalypse lady seeks comfort, camoflague, and kick ass boots.

Her outfits come from pilfering thift shops, ramsacking the houses of the rich and stylish, and picking through the coatrooms of abandoned heavy metal clubs. She is caked in the dust and dirt of the road – her leather faded, her denim torn. She likes layers – thick jackets, lace chemises and gauzy dresses over socks and stockings and suspenders and scarves. She has a warm coat made of leather or wool, which doubles as a blanket. She defends this coat with her life.

She wears a hat – a brown cowboy hat that’s two sizes too large, or perhaps a wool beret covered in badges of long-forgotten punk bands. Her mismatched boots reach halfway up her thigh, the steel caps polished to a brilliant sheen.

The Apocalypse lady carries her treasures close to her heart. Ancient talismans, tokens of love lost, treasures she’s found in abandoned buildings, memories of a past life. Her superstitious nature leads to her adorn herself in arcane magical symbols, animal totems, and fossilized sea creatures. She’s the warrior of the road, the valkyrie of the urban jungle, the coffee shop poltergeist. She keeps natural, animal fabrics near her, to remind her of her true nature: feathers, leather, raw silk, wool, dried flowers, linen and lace. She frightens and intrigues everyone she meets.

In a world without electricity, the apocalypse lady carries arcane devices. She cobbles together fantastical ray guns, futuristic Victorian aviator goggles, pocket watch grenades and gas mask lazer beams.

The Apocalypse Lady covers herself in utility pockets, pouches, bags, charms, clips, carrabenas, backles and laces. She hides cigar boxes in the folds of her dress and grows herbs on the windowsill of an abandoned factory. She has nefarious purposes, and finds beauty in wilted roses and decaying furniture.

Style Icons: Mad Max and Aunt Entity, the hot chick from Land of the Dead, Tank Girl, The Postman, Sarah Conner, Akira, 12 Monkeys, Bioshock, Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Resident Evil and Alexander McQueen.

Are you an apocalypse lady?