It is extremely rare that you speak to someone who says I want to be an .... This would suggest that for the vast majority of steampunks their choice of outfit (at least intitially) is less a conscious attempt at portrayal and more of a spontaneous and potentially subconscious growth of an idea.

A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde, Worketh more miſchiefe than can be tolde; That, if I wiſt not to be controlde, Yet ſomwhat to ſay I dare well be bolde, How ſome delite for to lye, thycke and threfolde.

Human fears, needs, dreams release the latent propensities of the subliminal soul, and to respond to them the fabulating imagination sets to work.

As the limber gunners went to the rear, his horse trod in a rabbit-hole and came down, throwing him into a depression of the ground.