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Originally Posted by adamsmith
I found the overly fetish heavy public clothing a bit off-putting, though, mainly because it didn't match the repeated emphasis on victorian mores that is emphasized in the text.
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As somebody pointed out, much of the fetishy aspects are utilitarian in nature. Leather and rubber are needed in a world where minimal protection against assault, pollution, or spraying bodily fluids can mean life or death. Another is this is not a Victorian world, it is neo-victorian world well advanced into the future with 200 years of social changes. The worlds attitudes concerning women, the dead, the living, the poor, the wealthy, science... have all changed from those of the Victorian era. It's a world well in advance of our own and it was never meant to be presented as a world where Victorians could ever be transfered to and not be shocked by the culture.
IMHO, I think you'll find that the emphasis on Victorian mores is much like the hope for the future and Empire in the game, a thin veneer that only hides reality from those who do not wish to look for it. In reality, the earth is dying, mankind is doomed, and any adopted Victorian mores are either dictated by necessity or forced by the ruling class who is trying to maintain control by reproducing an image of past greatness.
Certainly, if you want a more Victorian world for your game, feel free to make it so. I doubt anybody will complain. For me, I like to go the other way. The game I'm currently running is dealing with lower class punks with all their glitz in the form of anti-social youth movement. The Victorian/punk images from the Baker Street comics by Guy Davis were simply too tempting to pass up (as I imagine some of his other art from comics such as the Marquis and Sketch Macabre will be also).