Welcome, young rockstar, to our online store! We’re passionate about rock, punk and punk rock. In this article, we dive into the unique history of punk rock style! 🤘 🔥THE MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS🔥
Punk Fashion Ideology
Strong, fast and simple, punk rescued rock’n’roll from the excesses that were suffocating it, giving it a razor’s edge it hadn’t had since its beginnings. The rebellious spirit and willingness to question established conventions, such as the idea that you need to know how to play an instrument to start a band, then found their way into almost every significant musical revolution that followed: from hip-hop to rock to techno. 🎶
But music was only one facet of punk’s identity. It was much more than just a musical style, it was a way of life, a philosophy, an attitude and above all, a look!
Characteristics of the Punk Style
The sonic foundations of punk were laid in New York by the movement’s pioneers, such as Lou Reed, the Ramones, Suicide and the New York Dolls, who sought to strip back the rock of the time to give it a more brutal dimension. While Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones fulfilled their ambitions by filling stadiums with equally elaborate velvet and sequined suits, rock’s new rebels preferred Levi’s t-shirts and jeans. 👖
The Ramones created a style out of ripped Levi’s 505 jeans and black leather jackets. In the mid-70s, the New York sound and style became known thanks to Blondie, among others. Singer Debbie Harry was a pioneer, mixing faded Levi’s with designer pieces. Bands like Television and Blondie influenced the music and style of the time. “Back then, it was shameful to wear ripped jeans, and the Ramones would say, ‘That’s who we are! And we’re ready to impose our style on the whole world so that it recognizes it.” Little did they know how right they were….
Look Punk and Glam Rock
“We left the glam scene by introducing the punk look,” says photographer Paul Zone, author of Playground: Growing Up in the New York Underground. “When glam rock began to decline in 1974, half the people who had adopted the style were involved in what would become the punk scene and the look that went with it.”
In the glam era, members of the Dolls wore children’s Levi’s jackets so small they could barely fit their arms through them.” This sartorial ideology has given way to a more masculine, less eccentric style. However, while imposing their own style, notably thanks to the Levi’s brand, which greatly contributed to the rise of the punk look at the time.
Holey jeans and ripped T-shirts
In the mid-1970s, punk music and the new punk look took off, thanks in particular to the Ramones, as we saw earlier. But also thanks to Television, whose guitarist Richard Hell was one of the first artists to sport disheveled hair and ripped T-shirts held together with safety pins…
“They had no money,” recalls photographer Jenny Lens. “The holes in Joey’s knees were from wear and tear. It wasn’t about fashion. I have photos of Dee Dee Ramone wearing a leather jacket with completely worn cuffs. As mentioned earlier, at the time, it was shameful to have holes in your jeans. Yet these guys created a sartorial style that would conquer the entire planet! 🌍
Arrival of Punk Fashion in Europe
By the time people started referring to it as “punk”, the revolution had already begun to spread around the world. Malcolm McLaren, who had previously run the New York Dolls, returned to London with his partner Vivienne Westwood and opened a boutique called “Sex”. Inspired by what he’d seen in New York, he combined the Dolls’ eccentric style with Richard Hell’s deconstructed look to create a distinctly British style of punk fashion. He enlisted the help of his new clients, the Sex Pistols, to promote this style. 🇬🇧
“McLaren returned to England and gave the look a touch of shine. In particular, he colored the hair to achieve a “trashier look”, explains Zone, a journalist at the time. Meanwhile, other London punks, such as X-Ray Spex, embraced the “DIY philosophy” of punk fashion and began using basic items such as jeans and leather jackets as blank canvases to be decorated with pins, paint and nails. 🎨
Description of the Punk Style
If we had to describe the early punk look in one word, it would be “DIY”! Let’s see why:
Almost simultaneously with its expansion into the UK from New York, punk also made its mark in Los Angeles, where fans of the Ramones and Blondie adapted their distinctive look to the city’s unique identity. “What we were doing in L.A. had to do with a lot of factors, including the climate. We didn’t have the rain, snow and cold that you had in London or New York. As a result, our style of dress was very different here! However, the spirit was always there. We were very DIY-oriented, just like in Europe. Having a punk style meant knowing how to reuse clothes. Cutting them up, painting them, sewing them… It meant being an artist of sorts. ✍️
The Punk Rock Fashion Connection
Punk bands were very diverse. From pop bands like the Go-Go’s to the anti-commercial approach of the Germs, to bands like the legendary “X” who were somewhere in between…. But one thing always united them, creating this magnificent punk rock community: punk fashion! 👔
“Fashion was very free,” says Lens. “There were no stylists for this style. We were all stylists and musicians at the same time. We’d go to stores or thrift stores together, sharing our clothes with each other. It was really an opportunity to dress up every day, to express yourself and be an artist. You could be an artist expressing yourself solely through your clothes if you wanted to. And I think that’s what appealed to the public at the time. People could express themselves by creating their own style.”
Los Angeles punk style shines through in one of the most iconic photos of the era, where singer Exene Cervenka and set designer Pleasant Gehman pose in a shower in a loft where Slash magazine, the precursor to the fanzine, was throwing a party for Devo. Pleasant had bleached her jeans and written “Slash” in reference to Slash magazine, she recounts. “Back then, nobody bleached their jeans. We were doing a lot of things that other people weren’t doing. This is one of the definitions of the punk look. 🕶
Fashion influence
Forty years after punk’s beginnings, the music continues to resonate, not only in the punk scenes that have emerged in cities around the world, but also in the independent and alternative movements it inspired. 🤘
In fashion, its influence has been amplified even further. Today, the classic jeans and t-shirt can be found all over the world and with every generation. And in music, leather and denim jackets personalized with the names of artists or bands have become almost systematic… especially for rap stars.
The most enduring legacy of punk style can’t be reduced to one particular item of clothing, or even to the popularity of ripped jeans and colorful hair. Rather, it’s the idea of being authentic, the fact that if you do your own thing and dress your own way, you can really change the world. In short, punk style influences fashion, and fashion never influences punk!
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