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Future of steel is still bright

The main theme of the new Steel Gallery is ‘Harmony’ which represents that steel will be together with humanity for the next generation. The gallery is mainly composed with future advanced technology that gives incredible experiences of high class technology in POSCO’s world premium products.

One of the technologies we can proudly recommend to feel in our gallery is electric vehicle section. POSCO recognized that future vehicle trend will be dramatically changed with renewable energy such as electrically fueled vehicles. In the Gallery, POSCO introduced its own technology that plays a crucial part for future generation of vehicles such as lightweight frame and various solutions.

VR technology allows giving vivid experience about steel

Steel will be still with us

Another theme of the gallery is close to human life. One specific feature that the gallery makes so impressive is smart system, an interactive wall that helps better understanding of steel to the people who are not familiar with steel. Animated images of steel processing and VR Virtual Reality) are the good examples of smart POSCO. These advanced elements describes important role of steel for our future life.

Collaboration of visual art and steel expressing the steel in our life

‘Kinetic Steel’, Harmony with kinetic art

Finally, Steel Gallery shows fabulous collaborations of art work and steel in terms of kinetic art (also may refer to kinetic steel). For instance, shattered pieces of steel gathered and shape several objects that we can easily see in our life, such as vehicles, buildings and so on. POSCO expects that this incredible artistic feature may bring positive inspiration about steel.

Convenient access to POSCO’s premium products at Steel Gallery on the 2nd floor

As it mentioned above, the ultimate purpose of the Steel Gallery is to get closer to all generations by showing diverse technologies and visual impacts so that general population understand that steel is one of the fundamental elements of our current and even for the future life. POSCO will continue to make efforts for ‘better life for humanity’. The clips below represents that we also hope our achievements bring positive inspiration in global scale.

The tiny house movement is demonstrating the trend of living and maintaining a minimalist lifestyle for those who want simpler ways of living. This trend is picking up pace across generations and countries for financial and environmental reasons. With thoughtful and innovative designs, tiny home owners can enjoy a greener lifestyle and the satisfaction of building their own refuge while freeing themselves from mortgages and expensive energy bills.

Read on to find out about these beautiful, portable and tiny houses that maximize both function and style as well as why steel is gaining popularity as the choice over wood for such homes.

Less is More

A tiny house is a shelter that is less than 400 square feet, sometimes built on wheels, that encourages a simpler lifestyle and more efficient energy consumption. Tiny homes are environmentally-friendly in multiple ways from their small ecological footprint to minimal utility consumption.

The materials selected to build tiny homes can further contribute to the sustainability factor. According to Tiny House Build’s infographic, the average house (2,598 square feet on average) emits 28,000 pounds of CO2 per year while a tiny house (186 square feet on average) emits only 2,000 pounds of CO2 per year.

Tiny homes made with steel can be lighter, stronger and more durable. Here are a few reasons why you should choose steel for sustainable living :

1. Steel is the most recycled material in the world – anything made of steel in your home can be recycled and made into new products.
2. Steel’s longevity means your house will remain for a lifetime without having to use up tremendous amounts of time, money and resources for fixing or rebuilding.
3. Light-weight steel allows thinner and larger window frames which let in more natural light to brighten up your home.
(H/T to World Steel Association)

Thanks to steel’s many benefits, 21st century housing needs can be met in both sustainable and aesthetically pleasant ways.

ÖÖD Hotel Rooms in Estonia

Meet ÖÖD, gorgeous steel-framed rooms that are delivered to anywhere in Estonia as a complete set. ÖÖD offers all the living essentials built into a compact 200-square-meter footprint. Designed for use as pop-up hotel rooms for the fast growing Airbnb and Booking.com markets in Estonia, it can be installed anywhere in only 8 hours without a building permit.

An exterior view of OOD (Source: ÖÖD)

Each unit, made from steel, insulated glass and thermally treated wood, costs around USD 36,000. This sleek tiny home offers heated floors, LED lighting and a Bose sound system, and it is even under development for off-grid solutions.

An interior view of OOD hotel rooms (Source: ÖÖD)

Smartdome in Slovenia

Another growing trend in the tiny house movement is dome-shaped houses. Dome homes are durable, efficient and most importantly, very fun to live in. The balanced shape of dome homes allows homeowners to minimize their vulnerability to natural disasters.

The Slovenian-designed abodes from Smartdome can be assembled, disassembled and moved anywhere across the nation and is only around 270 square feet. The base features adjustable steel legs which can accommodate uneven terrain and the frames are made of galvanized steel and timber.

An exterior view of Smartdome (Source: Smartdome)

An interior view of Smartdome (Source: Smartdome)

Thanks to these beautiful and innovative designs, living small just got a whole lot sweeter. With strong, durable and eco-friendly steel-framed homes, homeowners can enjoy a simplistic lifestyle with financial and emotional freedom.

*Cover photo source: David Hillegas

POSCO’s seminar on magnesium technology was attended by students who built winning race cars at an annual competition held by the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers.

Students gave presentations on their own car development process while sharing their technical expertise. In addition, experts in magnesium, molding, bonding, and surface treatment were invited to speak about the application of magnesium technology in automobiles. Following the presentations, further discussions were held by the organizers of the event and the race car production advisors on automotive engineering and magnesium technology.

A race car built by students from Kookmin University.

POSCO used the seminar to gather the opinions of students and to learn more about the use of magnesium in automobiles as it is planning to steadily expand its technical support for the application of magnesium technology in automotive engineering.

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By the early 1960’s, skateboarding had achieved mass popularity. Downhill competitions were held by the largest surf companies in the area, and a few stand-out names in the blossoming sport were made. However, as quickly as the sport grew, it began to fade just as fast. The dangers brought on by the clay wheels that were then being used led to fewer skaters and thrill-seekers willing to take the risk of serious injury. By 1965, the sport seemed to have completely faded away, with only a few disciples true to the sport remaining.

Skateboards, comprised of a wood deck, steel trucks, bolts, bearings, and clay wheels, desperately needed an upgrade that would improve stability and safety. While hanging out in friend’s backyard one day in 1970, Frank Nasworthy took notice to some urethane roller-skate wheels that were being tested. Immediately, Frank new that this is exactly what skateboarding needed to revive the sport and take it to the next level.

After demoing the urethane wheels on a skateboard, Nasworthy realized that he was on to something huge. The jarring motion caused by steel wheels, and the instability from clay wheels were replaced by an incredibly smooth, almost liquid motion. Properly calling his newly created skateboard wheels ‘Cadillacs,’ Nasworthy took to the streets and began spreading the news. Tim Piumarta, one of skateboarding’s pioneers of innovation, says that the urethane wheels took skateboarding “from a funky, surfing activity, what you would do when the waves were down, into a real bonafide sport.”

With urethane wheels now in mass production, skateboarding resumed where it had left off. Competitions started back up, and skateboarding’s style and direction began to evolve once again.

The Steel Mechanics of the Skateboard

The construction and materials used to build skateboards have gone through many evolutions with advancing technology and factory capabilities. However, key components and materials have remained true to their original form and function, although upgraded quite a bit over time. Primarily, the skateboard deck is still made of wood, but is now infused with composite materials and produced with state-of-the-art pressing techniques to maximize durability and flexibility.

Other key components which make up a complete skateboard, are the trucks, bearings, wheels and hardware – most of which are comprised of steel, minus the wheels.

The skateboard trucks are the metal T-shaped pieces that mount onto the underside of the skateboard deck. Warehouse Skateboards, a leading authority in skateboards and parts, explains that “there are several parts that make up the skateboard trucks. The axle is the spine that runs through the trucks to which the wheels will attach. The hanger, usually made of [steel], is the largest part of the skateboard truck that is somewhat triangular in shape. The axle runs through the hanger. The kingpin, also made of steel, is the large bolt that holds these parts together and fits inside the skateboard bushings.”

A skateboard’s bearings are used to mount the wheels to the skateboard axle, and are what controls how well the wheels rotate. Recreational, non-professional bearings are made of steel. All bearings are circular with flat sides, and house seven to nine lubricated steel balls used to disperse the weight of the skateboard rider, as well as ease the tension between the wheels and the axle. Bearings have a 9-point rating system that is used to determine quality, and are tested and rated by the Annular Bearing Engineering Committee, more commonly referred to as ABEC. Steel bearings typically come in at an ABEC 7-point rating, where their ceramic, more expense counterpart, rate at ABEC 9 because the ceramic can withstand heat and friction better, but are also quite a bit more expensive.

Lastly, the nuts, bolts, locknuts, and screws that hold all of the pieces together, called mounting hardware, are made from steel. Each skateboard hardware set includes 8 bolts and 8 locknuts that attach the trucks and wheels to the skateboard deck. Now, skaters can get colored hardware sets to match their deck art, or to show off their style while triple-flipping down a flight of stairs.

Skateboarders, it’s Time to Thank Steel

Looking back at the very beginning, if were not for steel roller skate wheels, skateboarding might not have ever been invented – or at least until sometime later. Even with the progression of materials used to build skateboards today, wood and steel remain the two of the biggest components needed.

Strength and durability are certain criteria that the sport needs to continue to progress into a world-wide, mainstream sport, which it is vastly becoming, and of which steel will always be able to contribute to.

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In fact, some of heavy metal’s most notable acts have found inspiration in the world of steel, an industry that helped form their identities and define their sound.

Metal Movers

An offshoot of rock music, heavy metal captivated teens and twentysomethings when it emerged in the late 1970s. In fact, with its distinctive grinding, feedback-heavy guitar riffs and powerful drum beats, it was less a musical movement and more a force of nature. It grabbed a hold of music fans and sent them into a trace, their heads moving up and down, fists thrown high into the air – creating a generation of self-styled “head bangers” and “metal heads.”

Along with the music came loud and outrageous clothing, hairstyles and even behavior – and the genre’s popularity grew, eventually spawning dozens of sub-genres of its own. Several decades later, the steel-inspired musical revolution is still going strong, with legions of metal heads still enthralled by its hard-edged sounds.

Early Influences

The first notable mention of heavy metal in a song was in American act Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” released in 1969, and famous for appearing on the soundtrack of seminal motorcycle road movie Easy Rider.

However, the term “heavy metal” had already entered parlance. Popular (although probably apocryphal) legend has it that the expression was first coined by a music critic who dismissed Jimi Hendrix’s influential guitar-led rock as sounding “like heavy metal falling from the sky.”

Forged in the UK

Although there had already been talk of “heavy metal” in the United States, the genre was shaped in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, the heart of the country’s then-booming steel and iron trade. Its founding fathers were the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, bands whose entire lives were formed by the steel trade.

Black Sabbath’s frontman, the gregarious Ozzy Osbourne, famously worked in a car factory by day and performed with his band in the evenings. The band debuted in 1968, but it was not until it released its sophomore album “Paranoid” in 1970 that the rock world sat up and paid attention.

Already there was a prominent metal theme to the music, noticeable in the album’s anthemic “Iron Man.” The track was so named because, in Osbourne’s words, it “sounded like a gigantic iron man walking about” and its rhythms recalled the sounds of the metal factory floor – hardly surprising considering most of his Black Sabbath bandmates were also factory employees.

Despite the success of Black Sabbath and fellow Midlands rockers Led Zeppelin, it was not until the early 1980s that heavy metal’s popularity would really start making waves.

Some felt this 1970s genre needed something more to avoid becoming a mere flash in the pan. So in the following decade, acts like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden would go on create lasting legacies and identities for this exciting style of music.

Metal Mania

Judas Priest singer and founder Rob Halford explained to the Guardian in 2010, “When [the rest of the band and I] were kids walking to school, we’d walk past these metal foundries and see the molten metal coming out of the big vats. We were literally breathing in the fumes from these metal works, breathing in metal before heavy metal had even been invented. I’d be at school trying to do English literature and the classroom would be shaking because of the machinery.”

Guitarist Glenn Tipton added, “We really did grow up in a labyrinth of heavy metal – huge foundries, big steam hammers.”

With their flamboyant clothing and distinctive sound, Judas Priest were one of the first British heavy metal acts to break into the American mainstream. It was then perhaps fitting that the band’s sixth album, “British Steel,” released in 1980, was the LP that skyrocketed them from underground club popularity to international super-stardom, selling out arenas and even breaking into the American Billboard Top 40 albums chart.

The album was nothing if not an ode to the act’s steel roots. Opening track “Rapid Fire” is replete with lyrics that speak of “forging furnaces” and “hammering anvils,” while the album’s finale is the fittingly named “Steeler.”

Second Wave

In the mid-1970s, the genre found its second wind the form of the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Prime movers in this new movement were Iron Maiden. Unlike the act’s predecessors, Iron Maiden hailed from London, rather than from the steel-producing Midlands. By this point, though, steel and iron were so firmly entrenched in the genre’s DNA that there was no way the link could be broken. The band’s name itself was a nod in the direction of heavy metal’s origins, and the group recorded a number of tracks that made reference to both steel and iron.

And although most of their original members were Londoners, Iron Maiden’s success peaked when the group recruited Bruce Dickinson, a singer from Sheffield, the traditional heart of the British steel industry.

Global Passion for Metal

By the mid-1980s, heavy metal was a global phenomenon, with North American artists like KISS, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Van Halen borrowing heavily from the British sound and look.

Steel, however, kept its significance for heavy metal bands from all over the world, even those without a direct link to the metal industry.

Metalworking themes have become impossible to shake off, with artists like America’s Metallica, Steelheart, Anvil and parody act Steel Panther, as well as Sweden’s Steel and Germany’s Steeler, all very obvious examples.

Countless other heavy metal acts, meanwhile, have made reference to steel in some form or other, including albums such as Pantera’s “Reinventing the Steel,” Saxon’s “Wheels of Steel” and Manowar’s “The Triumph of Steel” to name but a few.

Although the Midlands of England is no longer the epicenter of the world’s steel trade – or the heavy metal movement – it remains the spiritual home of both. And it appears that for metal heads the world over, heavy metal and steel symbolism will forever go hand-in-hand.

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The Beauty of the Guitar’s Steel Strings

Steelpans, the Sound of the Caribbean

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Six employees from overseas affiliates of POSCO have set foot on Korean soil. They have come to take part in the Global Mobility Program (GMP), a job rotation program established by the POSCO headquarters in Korea.

As part of its effort to achieve an “Open & Collaborative Global HR,” POSCO started the GMP last year. The program is designed to train excellent local employees working in overseas affiliates. The P-grade employees, who are in leadership positions at their overseas affiliates and have high growth potential, were selected to learn more about POSCO’s unique working style through conducting projects assigned individually by each affiliate and carrying out actual work tasks in the Korean HQ for five months.

Through the GMP, POSCO expects to enhance work synergies by making use of the expertise and technologies specific to each country and affiliate. The overseas affiliates, in turn, will strengthen their business competitiveness by improving the professional competence of their local employees. They will also be able to access the working style of the HQ and develop their human network worldwide.

The participants for the first GMP in 2016 are six outstanding employees from five overseas affiliates: POSCO-China, POSCO-Mexico, POSCO-Maharashtra, POSCO-VHPC (Vietnam) and PT Krakatau POSCO (Indonesia). The two-week introductory training started July 4, and the program runs until the early December. POSCO has doubled the introductory period of the training, to better help the employees adapt to Korea quickly and improve the efficacy of the training.

During the first week of the training at POSCO Group University in Songdo, Incheon, they focused on learning the working style of POSCO HQ through assignments and studying the company’s history, the CEO’s philosophy, POSCO’s Enterprise Portal (EP), POSCO Total Innovation Methodology (POSTIM), report writing and gaining an understanding of the company’s different culture, all of which are required to settle quickly into their departments. In particular, the Korean language classes were well received, and the international employees appreciated learning useful terms and expressions for their jobs.

Participants received onsite training at Pohang Steelworks for five days starting on July 11.

Last year, it was just a field trip to the steelworks, but this year it was expanded into a training session to improve their understanding of the steel-making process and the site. In addition, theoretical lectures were also added to this year’s program, along with the field trip, so that participants can systematically learn the process of steel making. The onsite training provided the employees, who are neither production workers nor engineers, with an opportunity to experience the field beyond their own job role.

The GMP launched last year, evolving from POSCO’s Global Challenge, which operated from 2008 to 2011, to train and foster superior local employees. Through three sessions of the program last year, 23 overseas employees successfully learned the working style of the HQ in Korea.

POSCO plans to continue with the group-wide systematic HR training as part of achieving its concept of “POSCO the Great,” fostering future business leaders and experts who embody POSCO’s spirit.

The second session of the GMP will be held at the end of this year.

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One area where POSCO is demonstrating the power of Solution Marketing is the automotive sector, where the company’s World Premium (WP) products are creating better vehicles by collaborating with manufacturers. For Ssangyong Motor with the Tivoli Air, Renault-Samsung with the SM6 and GM with the newest Malibu, all are enjoying major new successes, thanks in no small part to POSCO’s ultra high-tensile steel.

What Is ‘Solution Marketing’?

POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon introduced Solution Marketing in 2014, quickly gaining notice in the industry for this customer-first approach to the business. “In the automotive industry, steel needs to high strength in order to reduce the amount of it used in each vehicle and to minimize the vehicle’s weight,” said CEO Kwon. “However, because high-strength steel lacks formability, companies often find it difficult to apply high-strength steel to their products. So it is not sufficient for the manufacturers of high-strength steel to simply provide their product. They also need to provide molding and welding. Solution marketing means providing the steel in the best shape and the best condition for their customers.”

But more than just solution marketing, it’s about working with people to provide the solutions they need for their lives. For POSCO, this means strengthening sales capacity by introducing human solutions, to reach customers in a friendlier way.

Tivoli Air Shows the Power of POSCO’s World Premium Steel

The Tivoli SUV is the key model of Ssangyong Motor, enjoying great popularity since it was launched in Korea last year. Selling 64,000 cars already, the Tivoli has become the No. 1 selling vehicle in the compact SUV category in Korea, and a prime example of the benefits of Solution Marketing. Thanks to strengthening ties with Ssangyong, last June POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding to further enhance their strategic partnership.

One successful result of that agreement is the Tivoli Air, a long-body version of the popular vehicle and one that uses 71.1 percent POSCO World Premium ultra high-tensile steel in its body—much higher than most compact SUVs, which typically use 50 percent high-strength steel. World Premium (WP) ultra high-tensile steel is recognized for its high quality, with relatively simple figuration, light weight and great strength. The strength of this World Premium steel improves the safety performance and makes for a lighter vehicle, which improves performance and reduces emissions.

And to keep growing that relationship, the two companies have formed the Ssangyong Motor-POSCO Partnership Promoting Consultative Organization, which will try to find more ways to continue working together in the future.

SM6 Introduces Steel Innovation for Stylish Success

POSCO has also brought Solution Marketing to Renault-Samsung, developing a whole new type of steel technology that helped the company create an outstanding new model.

The SM6 (or Renault Talisman, as it is known in Europe) is a mid-size sedan that has earned positive reviews for its style and cost-effectiveness. It was even awarded the “Most Beautiful Car of the Year” prize at the International Car Festival in Paris. This was accomplished thanks in part to POSCO’s ultra high-tensile steel.

POSCO steel plates were used for 100 percent of the cars exterior and interior, of which 18.5 percent was giga-pascal level ultra high-tensile steel, the maximum level allowed for this class of vehicle. It was also the first time in Korea that TWB-HPF (combined build processed products) was applied, a technology that combines steel plates of different strengths and thicknesses, cutting them into just the right shape. It’s a new technology that POSCO invented, and it helped Samsung-Renault create a stronger, lighter-weight vehicle.

With more than 16,000 pre-orders in its first 20 days, the SM6 has proven to be a significant hit, especially with people in their 30s and 40s. But it was an achievement that required a strong collaboration and relationship between POSCO and Renault-Samsung.

Ultra High-Tensile Steel Brings New Excitement to Malibu

The newest edition of GM’s Malibu is enjoying some of its best buzz in years, in no small part due to the benefits brought by POSCO’s high-quality, ultra high-tensile steel, which was applied extensively in its body.

Because of that ultra high-tensile steel, the new Malibu is 130 kilograms lighter than the previous model, but it still possesses the highest level of safety compared to other vehicles in the same weight range. In fact, the improved safety levels produced by POSCO’s ultra high-tensile steel helped earn the new Malibu five stars in the 2016 New Car Assessment Program from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the best results in its class.

More than 10,000 Malibus were pre-ordered in just the first 10 days in Korea alone, once again showing how POSCO, by working with its customers, is able to expand markets and improve their business together.

The Limitless Possibilities of Solution Marketing

When CEO Kwon introduced Solution Marketing, he said “We will never stop providing the steel products that customers need, but we will go beyond supplying products to create greater value by offering tailored solutions based on constantly listening to their ever-evolving needs.”

More than just steel, Solution Marketing is about finding technical, commercial and human solutions. The great results now being enjoyed by the Tivoli, SM6, and Malibu are showing just how right Solution Marketing is—for POSCO and for its customers.

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Brazil’s sugar cane straw market is bigger than ever, allowing for the expansion of the renewable energy sector, as well as the emergence of new biofuels.

To satisfy the growing demand for cane straw, equipment manufacturer Fácil System recently developed specialized, wear-resistant steel knives for its raw material shredding mill, making the sugar cane shredding process more efficient and profitable than ever.

Sugar cane straw—the tops and leaves of the sugar cane stalk—has become an important crop for nations like Brazil. The energy-rich straw has become increasingly used to generate electricity and create ethanol. Because it is a clean, affordable and low-carbon biofuel, sugar cane ethanol has emerged as a leading renewable fuel throughout the South American country.

Nevertheless, the processing of sugar cane straw involves an excessive amount of shredding and milling, and the crop’s strong fibers have a reputation for quickly wearing out processing machines. One company, however, is changing the game by utilizing high-strength steel.

A Cutting-Edge Solution

Since 1986, the Brazilian company Fácil System has made equipment and components for drying, crushing, grinding, screening and material handling systems for mining, quarry, ceramics, cement, fertilizer and other industries using creative and innovative techniques. Being located in the sugar plantation region of Araraquara, however, the company is especially familiar with sugar cane straw.

Spotting the added value of sugar cane straw, which had previously been discarded during harvesting, CEO Laércio Ribeiro, began to develop a new machine for shredding the material, envisioning a new market.

After an extensive review of potential materials for the machine, it was determined that only high-strength steel could meet the company’s performance target. Besides its wear properties, high-strength steel provides the possibility of cutting sheet metal via hot methods or water jets without changing the steel’s internal structural composition.

The mill rotor on the new machines, which shreds the sugar cane straw, consists of a set of shredding knives bolted in a spiral pattern to the equipment support at the axles. The knife blades, as well as the machine’s outlet grate, were developed with wear-resistant, high-strength steel.

The end result was a new sugar cane straw shredder for sugar cane waste, which could be used in boilers for energy recovery, like the cogeneration of heat and electricity.

The innovative use of wear-resistant steel extends the service life of the knives, lowers maintenance costs and delivers energy savings. In fact, the new shredders are roughly 40 percent more energy efficient than previous solutions.

Furthermore, the knives can stand up to 120 days of use—exactly half of the typical sugar cane harvest. For comparison, blades made from softer materials only last 48 hours in the process. Compared to conventional hammer shredders, these high-strength steel knife shredders perform significantly better, all the while ensuring the expansion of the renewable energy market.

Because of high-strength steel, Brazil is in an even better position to offer its expertise in sugar cane ethanol to nations worldwide, especially developing countries that could produce biofuels but still depend on oil.

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Reshaping Women’s Fashion

Perhaps no other clothing item has played a more influential role in fashion than the corset. It first made an appearance in fashion 500 years ago, when it was used to mold the upper torso into a rigid cone-like shape. During this time, baleen (whalebone) was used as boning to support the desired shape and prevent wrinkling of the fabric. (Images: http://bit.ly/1SPecWV and http://bit.ly/1BFWH75 )

As baleen became more expensive, and the ideal body shape of the woman began to change in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, steel became the dominant boning material and was used to make the corset accentuate a woman’s natural curves. This led to a widespread public outcry: from medical doctors regarding health risks, from religious leaders upset about the garment’s revealing nature and from feminists, who claimed the corset was symbolic of the imprisonment of women at the time. (Though, it should be noted that even men and young children wore corsets, too!)

In the early 1900s, fashion placed greater emphasis on comfort and rigid steel boning was replaced by more flexible steel boning. Today, corsets are mostly limited to historical dramas and lingerie shops, but the item will forever be a symbol of “sexy” steel and femininity.

The Crinoline Craze

In the mid-19^th century, the crinoline, a structured petticoat, became a hot trend and was sported by just about every woman in the Western world.

Originally structured with horsehair, steel was widely used in the 1850s to make the hoop skirts spread out more fully. This new style was so popular that in 1859, the New York factory of Thomson & Co., one of the most significant manufacturers of the item, used 300,000 yards of steel wire every week to produce between three and four thousand crinolines per day. Likewise, the company’s rival, Douglas & Sherwood, used a ton of steel each week in manufacturing hoop skirts at its factory in Manhattan. (Images: http://bit.ly/1LtOLrU )

The crinoline eventually fell out of fashion, but was revived in the 1940s and 50s, and again in the 80s, when Vivienne Westwood created the mini-crini. This item was designed to embody two conflicting ideals of the era – the crinoline, representing a “mythology of restriction and encumbrance in woman’s dress,” and the miniskirt, symbolizing an “equally dubious mythology of liberation.” 

Steel-Inspired Subcultures

Other steel trends that cropped up during the 1970s-90s were inspired by the punk, heavy metal and rivethead subcultures that flourished during the three decades. The cultures’ associated dress styles incorporated military aesthetics, such as steel toe boots, with hints of Punk, like spikes and studs. Often, these styles were complemented by tattoos, piercings and scarification. (Image: http://bit.ly/1eTOaDE )

Steel toe boots, such as Dr. Martens, Gripfasts and Grinders, which had originally been used as a safety measure for industrial workers, became a popular choice of footwear for their rough and tough reputation. So tough, in fact, that they’ve been known to be the catalyst of injured concert-goers as a result of crowd surfing gone wrong.

Metallics in the New Millennium

When the 2000s began, fashion trends were highly influenced by technology. “Y2K fashion” featured a monochromatic futuristic approach with metallic hues, and a heavy use of the color gray, straps and buckles. Apparel was made to be reflective, technological and sexy, and even electronics became an accessory to complete the Y2K look. (Images: http://bit.ly/1JhFiBR ; http://bit.ly/1edGVFR )

This year, metallics, which capture the vibrancy of steel, have made a comeback on the catwalk. Designers have once again rolled out sophisticated styles with reflective touches, which fashionistas pair with toned-down staples like buttoned-up blouses and printed shirts to keep things shiny but not overly blinding.

Time will only tell what the future of fashion holds. But, if the past offers any hint of what’s to come, and it often does in fashion, then we are likely to see steel on the catwalk again sooner than later.

New York

(From left to right: Tibi, Lacoste and Sally LaPointe
Source: IMAX)

The F/W 2015 collections at New York Fashion Week were all about the return of the ‘70s. Designers brought a softer palette with textual details like fringe and shearling. This fall, glamorous 70s moments are expected to dazzle the fashion streets of New York.

London

(From left to right: Pavane, Timur Kim, Julien Macdonald, Burberry Prorsum and Issa,
Source: Fashionista)

It’s usually difficult to find a key trend that stands out due to the diversity of British designers at London Fashion Week. But this year was different. Continuing from the fringe details showed on New York’s runways, designers this season did not shy away from the same style.

But fashion is not something that exists in fabrics only. Here’s everything you need to know about fashion brought to you by stainless steel.

Surprising Fashion Items That Are Made of Stainless Steel

Watches

(Source: Pebble)

Stainless steel watches sound pretty ordinary since we’ve all seen so many from Casio, Timex, Seiko and more. In 2015, you can now check your email, store your music and download compatible apps with a feather-light device sitting on your wrist. Pebble’s new smartwatch is a stainless steel wearable device with an elegant look and cutting-edge technology. The best part is that the official name of the watch is “Steel.”

Bags

(Source: Wendy Stevens Website)

Using stainless steel as the key material, Wendy Stevens creates whimsical yet classic bags of various sizes and shapes. From a tiny purse to a big tote bag, her steel bags are certainly state-of-art fashion items that suggest a new approach to this edgy material.

Shoes

(Source: Caters News Agency)

There are shoes made of stainless steel, the same metal as your knives and forks. British shoe designer Chris Shellis revealed the “Borgezie Riviera Stiletto,” world’s first everlasting high heels. According to press releases, these shiny heels are surprisingly comfortable because there are silicone linings and removable soles that flex with your feet. If you are looking for a lifetime supply of a single pair, these heels are the perfect investment for your shoe shelf.

What is Stainless Steel?
According to the International Stainless Steel Forum, stainless steel is an alloy of iron and a small amount of carbon. It was invented in the early 20th century when it was found that adding a certain amount of the metal chromium to ordinary steel results in a glossy and rust-resisting property. This “corrosion resistance” aspect is what makes stainless steel unique.