The Phoenix Of Punk
Image Courtesy: Stow Kelly on Unsplash
From Punk’s studded, safety-pinned anthesis, it has been used as an outlet to ignite economic and social injustices experienced by the pressures of high maintenance societal norms. In the 70s, through its stud-collard genesis, Punk started as a form of protest to show the dissatisfaction of the working class in England. Its descendance to the United States began in the 80s as the political climate shifted to an increasingly conservative Republican one. This era also included the many scandals that occurred during Ronald Regan’s presidency. It represented repressed individuals, such as women, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ members. The expression of rage became increasingly prominent amongst Punk’s styles. Our Punk Founding Fathers had an extremely DIY approach to morals that steered away from the typical romantic musician aesthetic. While fighting the inequalities rooted in political facilities, they protested through their clothing with expressive colors, large hair, deconstructed and provocative elements which included numerous piercings, amongst many other stylistic choices.
This anarchic individualistic, “blaring in your face,” anti-consumerist lifestyle ripped open the streets worldwide, and was held together by the safety pin that is music. Fashion always found inspiration in the poetic trysts of protests and self-expression. The main brand that commoditized this style of being was Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, who started the first punk store in England called “Sex”. Together, they selected four obscure musicians and, according to the New York Times, provided them with “an attitude suited to Britain in decline: nihilistic rage, expressed at high volume in songs like ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ and the vitriolic anti-anthem ‘God Save the Queen.’” This brought into fruition one of Punk’s household names: The Sex Pistols. Through the perspective of deconstruction, we can begin to understand the influence of deterioration within its clothing.
Commonalities in clothing include, the usage of rough textiles that live through wear such as (typically plaid) leather and mismatched pattern pieces to emote that DIY look and “stick it” to society’s expectations of the clean and comely manner about how we should represent ourselves. Men dressed more feminine with long hair, animal prints, earrings, eyeliner, tight leather pants, kilts, or dresses. To break from societal norms, women commonly wore Mohawks or spiked hair, tight pants, and band tees that were laden with cigarette holes as well as rips to look more masculine.
This element of rage emerging from oppression and opposition manifested in the movement’s aesthetics as a symbol of the disillusionment that stemmed from the misleading hopes for a change of the 60s. Many became terrified that such a dynamic movement stirred by the youth pushed boundaries to challenge the status quo in extreme waves and could permanently alter societal values, lifestyles, and morals.
In today’s radically changing global climate, rage about the state of the world is at an all-time high, specifically with the emergence of issues such as COVID-19, political collisions, concerns of overconsumption, police brutality, and many others. These stressors have ignited a metamorphosis of sorts, for the punk movement in its revival. Punk revolves around angst, emotion and volume that typically presides in haute couture. Within recent years, a resurgence of punk in designer’s collections like Fendi, incorporate the use of colorful Mohawks and apocalyptic, smudgy eye make-up in their fashion shows and advertisements. But, the real question is, “how has ‘punk’ evolved?” Through the use of shock value in its statements, punk at its core, aims to achieve authenticity. Similarly, one of its central values resides in enabling followers to be heard by communicating personal statements and concerns, encompassing society with zero conformity.
With fashion houses built on this moral, such as Alexander McQueen’s, we can begin to witness the movement arise from the ashes and redefine itself through experimentation. These incorporations cover men’s wear with butterfly printed suits and sequined lace, bondage styled chains fusing glistening spider-like pearl drops that materialize the feminine edge, also including notable mismatched earrings.
While punk’s message may have preserved itself since its dawn, it has evolved to embrace femininity. Tracing back, the original perception of the ‘punk woman’ as unglamorous, rugged, and masculine has now become antiquated. In this new era of revolt, punk has shifted into a sleeker form, freely embodying figure-forming silhouettes, jewel-encrusted accessories, and gloved fingers. Namely, these fashions can be observed with Lady Gaga’s reinvention of the use of these gloves during the early 2010s with her neon blue lightning bolt make-up, short distressed but sparkling outfits. Even in her newer 2020 album “Chromatica,” its reinvention lives through large, hot pink sequined shoulder blades reminiscent of the iconic short-skirted leather dominatrix with a tinge of tartan and large chunky jewelry. Miley Cyrus also reconstructed this element of punk in her aesthetics to break from the innocence that society attempted to contain her in while redefining it to embrace sexuality.
Since the punk movement has always besotted with the oscillation of consumerism and political issues, its influence can be noted in Gucci bags that misspell the brand name along with large block letters that read “FAKE”. The reach of political means to the deterioration of the environment, is mainly observable in Collina Strada’s 2020 reinvention of the centralized idea of silhouettes by using shower curtain rods to display new shapes, as well as with a revolutionary piece called “Garden Ho,” the brand addresses global warming concerns.
Large, bulky, gem pressed jewelry trickled to menswear accompanying V-neck white tees, redefining “low cut” at Rick Owens’ Spring 2020 show. In a like manner, loud colored hair and re-invented cylindrical leopard bags were flaunted down the runway at Versace’s spring 2020 show. Punk has also become revolutionized through Harry Styles’ aesthetic in a polar manner by further embellishing on the masculine embracement of femininity through wearing large tulle skirts and dresses, big romantic ruffles, thick chain belts, pearl earrings, and mesh clothing. In a different way, we can observe Stefan Cooke’s Spring 2020 usage of tulle to ornate a pair of bone-colored pants which is accompanied by a blazer that appears like a backward corset, still maintaining that femininity while its duality of textures is what is used to gain shock values.
In today’s modern society, somehow the working class was removed as top designer brands eagerly began to gentrify Punk into multi-thousand dollar shirts with cigarette holes, rips, and some lines even including lock pendants emulating that of the legendary Sid Vicious, as can be observed in world-renown top-grossing establishments such as Tiffany and co. as well as Chanel. It is astonishing to see how punk has taken on opulence, exuding feminine notes with elements such as lace, ruffles, boned corsets, and pearled beading. It is evident how this fusion of the chic mod, with the movement’s traditionally unapologetic distressed features emphasizing gender equality, the embracement of femininity, alongside body positivity will continue to serve as a muse for designers for many decades to come.
Strike Out,
Writer: Stephanie Kopp
Editors: Cailin Rolph, Natalia Finnis-Smart
Miami