A hot, windless summer day off the coast of Norway. A fishing crew drops its lead line where the water should run eighty fathoms deep, and the line stops at thirty. Below, cod and ling crowd so thick the nets come up heavy, and the older hands keep one eye on the oars.
According to the accounts Bishop Erik Pontoppidan gathered from Norwegian fishermen in the 1750s, that shallow false floor was the kraken. When it surfaced, its back looked like a scatter of small islands, and shining arms climbed as tall as a ship's masts (Wikipedia).
The fishermen even had a saying for a record haul: You must have fished on Kraken. A monster remembered for full nets is our kind of monster. In Mechanical Kraken, the Magus Fawn design, it surfaces as a machine plated in silver and laced with gold-toned filigree, green eyes glowing over a sunken cathedral of spires. Octopus or squid, beast or engine? A little of each.
Who first wrote about the kraken?
The kraken first appears by name in a Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn in 1646, and the missionary Hans Egede described it in detail in 1734 (Wikipedia). Yet the first description is usually credited to Bishop Erik Pontoppidan, whose Natural History of Norway (1752–53) set down fishermen's accounts of a many-armed sea monster so vast it passed for islands.
Pontoppidan, a Danish Lutheran bishop of the Church of Norway, wrote as a believer: his two-volume natural history argued for the kraken, the sea serpent and the mermaid alike (Wikipedia). He also passed along the bigger claim, that the kraken's arms could take hold of the largest warship and draw it to the seabed.
The kraken at full length: two festival cloaks
Mechanical Kraken comes as a men's and a women's Magus Fawn festival cloak, and the cloak gives the creature room to stretch. A face waits on the front panel, split by the zipper, but the full sea monster rides on the back.
Under the art, the two cloaks share one build. The shell is micro-mink poly (listed fabric weight 200 g/m²), and the lining is faux fur in your choice of black or white. Heavy drawstrings cinch the hood, a double zipper runs down the front, and there are four pockets: two deep ones at the sides and two stash pockets inside, one of them zippered. The fit is unisex, XS to 5XL, and each one comes made to order.
Captain's choice: the women's cloak. The Mechanical Kraken Women’s Festival Cloak ($250) saves its best for the people standing behind you. The kraken's domed head sits just below the folded hood, two pairs of green eyes glowing like gauge lamps, and its arms sweep out toward both shoulders before curling back down. Beneath it, silver and gold spires stack all the way to the hem, ending in an archway of teal light. Our festival-cruise love story, The Lights Under the Wake, takes this cloak out to the stern of a ship at night.
The first mate: the men's cloak. Held open, the Mechanical Kraken Men’s Festival Cloak ($250) frames a black tee in two soft stripes of white lining, while the outside shows a green eye glinting on the front panel, violet jellyfish near the shoulder and veins of teal light running down both sleeves like current through a cable. Its back carries the same kraken as the women's cloak.
Is a kraken an octopus or a squid?
It depends on who tells it. Pontoppidan filed the kraken under the polypus, the old word for an octopus, while modern writers usually trace the legend to the giant squid, a deep-sea animal whose feeding tentacles reach about 10 meters. Magus Fawn's Mechanical Kraken art takes the octopus side, with a domed head and curling arms.
Language keeps the question wonderfully open. Since the 19th century, krake has also named real octopuses: in German they're still Kraken, and the common octopus is the Gewöhnlicher Krake, the "common kraken" (Wikipedia). The squid has its own claim. Pontoppidan wrote of a possible young kraken that washed up near Alstahaug, Norway, in 1680, and the 20th-century malacologist Paul Bartsch later suggested it was a giant squid. The giant squid has the largest eyes of any living animal except perhaps the colossal squid, at least 27 centimeters across (Wikipedia).
The octopus is stranger than most legends. The giant Pacific octopus, the largest octopus species, uses special pigment cells to change both the color and the texture of its skin, and in lab tests it has learned to open jars and solve mazes (National Geographic). Its cousin the common octopus is considered the most intelligent of all invertebrates (National Geographic), and much of that mind lives outside its head: of more than 500 million neurons, two-thirds sit in the nerve cords of its arms (Wikipedia). Eight arms, each with a mind of its own. We know a few dance floors like that.
Which fabric suits an octopus hoodie or shirt?
Match the fabric to the hour. Magus Fawn's Mechanical Kraken cotton hoodie is the warm everyday layer for foggy harbor nights, and the kraken T-shirt comes three ways: crushed velvet that flickers under stage light, cotton that breathes in the sun, or a lighter poly jersey. The same silver kraken runs edge to edge on each.
The octopus hoodie. The Cotton Unisex Pullover Hoodie | Mechanical Kraken ($100) fills the whole front with the creature: a line of jewels climbs its forehead between the drawstrings, its arms coil outward in mirrored pairs, and a gothic engine with a violet orb at its heart fills the middle, with a jellyfish floating down one sleeve. It's 310 g/m² of pure cotton, with a pouch pocket and a drawstring hood, cut relaxed in XS through 6XL. Expect 3–5% shrinkage in its first wash, so keep it cold and hang it up.
The octopus shirt. Lean in close and the Crushed Velvet T-Shirt | Mechanical Kraken ($60 in crushed velvet or cotton, $50 in poly jersey) rewards you: a domed head capped by a ladder of jewels, two pairs of eyes in pale green and teal, suckered arms under an arched frame, and a smaller kraken peering out from the sleeve. Crushed velvet runs 240 g/m² (95/5 poly-spandex), cotton 190 g/m² and poly jersey 180 g/m², all with a crew neck in XS through 5XL.
For the smallest deckhand in camp, the Kid's Pullover Hoodie | Mechanical Kraken ($75) brings the same creature to a stretchy scuba knit, with no cords on the hood, in sizes 2XS to XL.
Is steampunk a genre or a fashion?
Both. Steampunk began as a branch of science fiction that imagines the future the way the 19th century might have, with steam-driven machines, brass, airships and Victorian dress, and grew into art, clothing and a whole subculture. Magus Fawn's Mechanical Kraken borrows its machinery, plating a Norwegian sea legend in silver and filigree.
The genre draws on the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Mary Shelley, though it only got its name in the 1980s, when the writer K. W. Jeter coined steampunk as a playful twist on cyberpunk (Wikipedia). Then it left the page: in 1994 the Belgian artist François Schuiten redesigned the Arts et Métiers station of the Paris Métro to honor Verne, sheathing it in brass with giant cogs overhead and portholes, like the inside of a submarine. Closer to our world, the Neverwas Haul, a self-propelled, three-story Victorian house on wheels, rolled across Burning Man from 2006 through 2015.
Verne himself sailed into kraken country. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, serialized in French from March 1869 to June 1870, follows Captain Nemo's electric submarine, the Nautilus (Wikipedia), and its narrator cites Pontoppidan by name shortly before the crew meets a squid of colossal size (Wikipedia). Our kraken comes up from the same water.
The boiler room. The Mechanical Kraken Men’s Sleeveless Hoodie ($75) shows the steampunk side of the art most plainly: the kraken's arms wrap a jeweled central column like copper pipes around a boiler, jellyfish hover at both hips, and spires stack toward the hem in teal light. It's a light 95/5 poly-spandex jersey at 180 g/m², in S to 2XL with a regular fit.
Dressing for the deep: a bodysuit and a swimsuit
The kraken works as a full look too, from the water's edge to the last set.
The deep-water layer. The Mechanical Kraken V-neck Bodysuit ($55) wraps you in the kraken's city: gold filigree arches and teal-lit spires on near-black, a violet jellyfish drifting at the waist and a blue orb glowing low on the front. Worn alone it's a sunny-afternoon look; after dark it slides under either cloak. It's 180 g/m² stretch microfiber in a 95/5 poly-spandex mix, with a plunging V on halter-style straps, a bare back and a snap closure underneath, in XS to 2XL.
The swimmer. The Mechanical Kraken One-Piece Swimsuit ($65) puts the kraken back in the water, its tentacles coiling the length of the suit in peacock blue and silver, trimmed in gold filigree on a deep teal ground. The four-way-stretch fabric (225 g/m², 75% recycled poly with 25% elastane) has a double-layered front, a scooped neckline and a low back, and the listing describes it as quick to dry and resistant to chlorine. Sizes run XS to 3XL.
Provisions for the voyage: sizing, delivery and washing
Outerwear likes room. For cloaks and hoodies, our FAQ suggests sizing up, "sometimes even 2 sizes up to fit extra layers under," handy when the cotton hoodie goes under a cloak. Between sizes? Send your measurements to art@magusfawn.com; we typically reply within 1–2 business days. One buyer, caught in the snow in a Madriax cloak, wrote in March 2023 that they "stayed incredibly warm thanks to this cloak! Has pockets too!"
Each piece is made to order, which means 7–11 business days in production and 6–14 in transit, so allow as many as 25 business days ahead of a festival or a gift date. Shipping in the US costs $8 under $70 and nothing from $70 up; international rates start at $10. Every piece comes with one free size exchange, but take your measurements before you choose a size to get it right the first time.
To keep the silver bright, machine wash it cold with like colors and no bleach, tumble it dry on low or, better, hang it up, and keep it away from irons and dry cleaning. Dye sublimation bonds the ink into the fiber itself, so the kraken won't crack or fade. Every material is vegan friendly, too.
Fishing on the kraken
Pontoppidan's fishermen rowed out over the monster because that's where the fish were. We think that's the right relationship to have with a legend: respect it, enjoy the haul, and wear it home. Pick the piece that matches your tide.
Find your kraken layer: women's cloaks · men's cloaks · all festival cloaks · hooded blankets
More legends to wear: dragon clothing with Electric Dragonscape art and our guide to faux-fur-lined cloaks
Frequently asked questions
Why is the kraken named after a crooked tree?
In Norwegian, kraken simply means "the krake", and the root of krake is a crooked, overgrown tree, from Old Norse kraki, related to krókr, "hook". The word also named grapnel anchors and drags cut from branchy spruce tops. A tangle of twisted limbs dragging through deep water makes a fine picture of a cephalopod.
How many hearts does an octopus have?
Three. Two branchial hearts push blood through the gills, and a systemic heart sends it around the body. That main heart pauses while the octopus swims, which is one reason octopuses mostly crawl. Their blood carries oxygen with haemocyanin, a copper-rich protein that tints it blue.
Did Jules Verne write about the kraken?
Yes. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the Nautilus crew meets a giant cephalopod. Verne drew on Victor Hugo's octopus from Toilers of the Sea (1866) and on the French ship Alecton's 1861 encounter with what was probably a giant squid, and he used kraken, the French calmar (squid) and poulpe (octopus) interchangeably.
Has anyone ever filmed a live giant squid?
Yes, though only recently. In 2004 a Japanese research team took the first images of a living giant squid in its own habitat, about 900 meters down off the Ogasawara Islands. In July 2012 a crew from NHK and the Discovery Channel captured what was described as the first footage of one in its natural habitat.
Written by Magus & Lylyth Fawn, the Los Angeles artists behind Magus Fawn. Magus makes VR and digital visionary art and produces Psy EDM. Lylyth makes fractal digital art and runs design and customer care. We've been selling wearable art since 2020 (4.8★ from 147 reviews as of October 2026), and every piece is made to order here at magusfawn.com. Come say hi on Instagram @magusfawn.
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