PUNK

Punk was a radical style of the mid- to late 1970s marked by unconventional combinations of elements and materials and a high
shock value. It emerged out of London, England, and New York, feeding off of the cities' angry, rebellious participants of music
concerts where a new type of music called punk was developing. What began as an antistyle aimed at thumbing its nose at the
established norms of high fashion ended up having a great deal of influence on the fashions of the late 1970s and beyond.
There was always a punk element in rock 'n' roll. The Beatles famously wore black leather jackets and played a loud, fast,
aggressive brand of rock music before softening their look and sound. What is now called punk is generally dated to 1972, however,
when the British fashion designers Malcolm McLaren (1946) and Vivienne Westwood (1941) opened their London boutique. First
called Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die and later renamed Sex, the shop sold a variety of black leather and rubber designs and
became a central meeting place for those in the emerging punk music scene. An aspiring music manager, McLaren himself helped
set the styles that many British punks would emulate. Some of these he imported from the United States. From the U.S. punk
musician Richard Hell of the band Television, for example, McLaren copied the idea of the spiked haircut. Achieved by applying
large amounts of gel or Vaseline to one's hair and then rubbing talcum powder into it to dry it into spikes that stuck out away from
the head, the hairstyle became emblematic of the punk look. Johnny Rotten (1956), lead singer of the band McLaren managed, the
Sex Pistols, helped popularize the style in Great Britain. Other early elements of punk style that migrated from the United States to
England included the concept of deliberately ripping one's jeans below the knee, a practice of the New York-based bands the
Ramones and the New York Dolls.
In contrast to the colorful, naturalistic garments worn by the hippies of the 1960s, punks preferred almost entirely black, selfconsciously menacing clothes. They often composed their outfits little by little from items bought at second-hand or military surplus
shops, mixing, matching, and layering as they saw fit. Quite often the garments were torn, colored, or otherwise altered to create a
more individual look. Mainstays of the punk's closet included black turtlenecks, short leather skirts for women, tight leather pants or
jeans for men, leather jackets customized with paint, chains, and metal studs, and Doc Marten boots. Jackets and T-shirts were
often decorated with obscene or disturbing words and images. Besides leather, materials favored by punks included rubber and
plastic; besides chains, they liked to adorn themselves with dog collars, razor blades, and safety pins which became a symbol of the
punk style.
Punks also blazed their own trails in the area of hair, makeup, and jewelry. When not spiking hair, they were coloring it in a variety of
bright hues. Or they shaved part or all of their heads, creating mohawks. Makeup was used to blacken eyelids and lips. Finally, the
most dedicated punks pierced their cheeks, noses, and eyelids, often with safety pins.
Punk remained a rebellious style until 1977, when designer Zandra Rhodes (1940) brought it into the high fashion mainstream with
her Punk Chic collection. Her designs offered a tamer version of punk style, including tattered hems with exquisite embroidery and
gold safety pins. Her designs helped bring punk to the attention of the rich and famous and paved the way for its acceptance by the
mass market. By the end of the 1970s, new wavea tidier, less threatening variation of punkhad largely replaced it as the style of
choice among New York and London youth. However, the punk spirit proved a major influence on the goth, grunge, and some hiphop styles of subsequent decades.