, 2013-01-18 08:00:00,

“What if the Victorians had access to digital technology? What would it look like? It certainly wouldn’t look like anything we see today. All of our digital devices wrapped in generic plastic. If the Victorians had access to all of our new technology, it would be done in beautiful woods, brass rivets and there’d be an exposed mechanical element to all of the devices,” Art Donovan, steampunk curator at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University.

That pretty much sums up the style and historical milieu of the increasingly popular steampunk designs and fashion, which a number cruncher for IBM says is going to go mainstream in the next two years.

“The trajectory for steampunk as a popular social and cultural trend is on the rise,” Trevor Davis, a consumer products expert at IBM, wrote in the IBM sponsored A Smarter Planet blog.

Davis says pop culture and social media references to steampunk have risen dramatically since 2009.

“For steampunk, the tipping point came in October 2010, when NYC ComicCon and a NYC Haunted House Halloween event both featured steampunk themes. Two months after that exposure, the level of social chatter more than doubled,” he wrote.

In the next couple of years, he said, expect to see the steampunk aesthetic to migrate from subculture “craft” manufacturing to mass production and mainstream fashion labels.

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