I’ve always had a sort of affinity towards punk music and it’s loud, unforgiving fashion trends.
With the new emerging fashion trends of 2017, you can see a clear resurgence of both 70’s punk and 90’s fashion ideations making their way back into our closets.
For some, it seems ridiculous to be sporting ripped clothing and faded logos, or strappy pieces that would appear impossible to put on, but for others it’s become a staple style.
So where did this come from? How did it all start?
Well, the golden years of the 60’s and 70’s is where we can start. More specifically, for the sake of this, let’s start in the UK.
The United Kingdom was more or less hitting the fan, politically and economically. Cue the major unemployment rates and frustrated youth. (sound familiar?)
Being pissed off at the man, and too broke for regular fashion, the anti-fashion culture opted for the deconstruction of clothing, and items that drew major attention. They wanted to be seen, and heard and with such an, at the time, obscure image, they became difficult to ignore.
It was a self sufficient fashion trend, using anything from safety pins to padlocks to even razor blades for outfits. Things like this also led to introducing more fetish fashions including bondage and leather.
With this new, aggressive style toward fashion, the punk music scene quickly emerged. One would simply fuel the other, growing into the hundreds of different sub cultures that we have today.
Much of this movement can be attributed to one Malcolm McLaren, and his partnership with Vivienne Westwood.
430 Kings Road. Where this infamous store SEX was located. Originally named Let It Rock, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren were initially greatly inspired by rebel fashion movements of the 50’s. Think Teddy Boy.
However, the 70’s rebellion movement was a whole new inspiration for the duo. They branched into biker style clothing with zippers and leather, and graphic tees with politically enraged imagery and logos. At this time under the name Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die. Any outrage toward the store only encouraged them to push the fashion boundaries further. By the mid 1970’s, the store was officially named SEX. They now added rubber and leather goods, bondage wear, and various fetish gear, coining the slogan, “rubberwear for the office”.
This is where the music comes into play. Malcolm McLaren had created the infamous Sex Pistols as a way to forward his shop’s fashion into the punk music scene. He found members who shopped at and worked for SEX, and later introduced Johnny Rotten to the group, increasing the political and anarchist movement in their music.
The band quickly reached number one, while also causing a distinct outrage in the UK. Their constant appearance in media developed more attention toward Westwood’s shop, and she eventually rebranded once more as Seditionaries. Much of mainstream media began labelling this fashion as Punk Rock.
With punk gaining enough attention in the main stream, and it’s music already thriving in other parts of the world, the fashion trend quickly caught fire. As music developed, the style grew with it into sub genres Like Goth, New Wave, Hardcore and now even Hipster.
It’s such an interesting history for one of the most obscure fashion choices to have been made in the time. To see it thriving in our daily lives is a friendly reminder that change can be created in many forms, at any state in time.
Today we see a much more toned down version of Punk Rock fashion in our main media. Leather Jackets, Studs, and Ripped Jeans are all extremely popular and have been for a long time. So the next time someone asks you why on earth you would have holes in your clothes, you can give them a little history lesson.
Sources:
http://www.fashion-era.com/punks_fashion_history1.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-punk-rock-2803345
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sex-pistols-mn0000418740/biography
http://www.viviennewestwood.com/en-gb/history/430-kings-road
GIFS from SLC PUNK
delicate fleur 