Rebel rebel: the new punk dress code

Can clothes still be worn as an act of rebellion? From snagged 10 deniers to piercings and DIY shredded denim, Tilly Macalister-Smith charts punk’s changing look
London punks on the march in the 1970s
Getty Images

Leaning up against a lamp post, hands shoved in the pockets of his studded leather motorcycle jacket, Sid Vicious’s sneering face was a screwed-up ball of angst and anger. It became the face of a generation, and his clothes the uniform of a movement, epitomising the pulsating wave of youthful rebellion that was to overpower the mellow mood left after the Sixties. It was an era of angry electric guitars, violent dancing and clothes that suburban parents could never have imagined: racy negligees worn with men’s suit jackets, ripped fishnets teamed with bovver boots and theatrical make-up, for girls and boys.

Above ground, the poster boys and girls of the movement could be spotted skulking along the Kings Road, lingering outside SEX, the boutique Dame Vivienne Westwood opened in 1974 with Malcolm McLaren. Below London’s surface, bands with graphic names — Sex Pistols, The Slits, Penetration — packed out sweaty clubs where the clothes mattered as much as the loud, anarchic music. Siouxsie Sioux ­performed with her black eyeliner, hacked-off hair and hacked off attitude; The Cortinas hollered in donkey jackets, windcheaters and cargo trousers; The Adverts wrapped their wrists in chains and steel handcuffs, used safety pins as ironic tie pins and studded their working men’s shirts with spikes.

In New York, The Ramones, Patti Smith and Andy Warhol adopted Lewis Leathers jackets, Converse trainers and drainpipe jeans — a look that is still emulated today by those looking to project a rebellious state of mind. But there was an elegance, too; girls wore almond-toe heels, boys adopted pointed Chelsea boots and tailcoats. The subverting, mixing and reappropriating of clothes from their traditional context was entirely new and arresting.

Diesel Black Gold SS16 

Perhaps it’s no surprise that London’s punks caught the eye of photographer Derek Ridgers, who started shooting punk shows across the capital. Then working as an advertising art director, he used a borrowed camera and pretended to be a professional photographer. His pictures — the subject of a recent exhibition at Paul Smith’s Albemarle Street store — became a visual record of a movement that would change British style for ever. Not that he was a punk himself: ‘I was a 26-year-old ad agency art director and wore to punk gigs more or less what I wore the rest of the time: Levis, a T-shirt or open-neck shirt, leather jacket, suede shoes or maybe plimsolls. And often — for a cold night’s walk home — a cardigan.’

Punk flared up but was short-lived and changed fast. Paul Smith recalls: ‘Right from when it started it all changed very rapidly. It only took a couple of years from ‘74 to about ‘77 for the codes of punk to move from Camden and the underground to influence mainstream culture and Oxford Street.’ But its legacy on fashion remains: designers such as Anita Koh are creating safety pin earrings, but covered in pavé diamonds. On the women’s SS16 catwalks, chain harnesses made a surprising appearance at Alexander McQueen and Calvin Klein — even more surprising was the uptick of polished street-style stars later seen wearing said chain ‘body jewellery’ over white T-shirts.

Sid Vicious 

The question remains, though: what does the commodification of sartorial rebellion mean? Has the high street overtaken and sanitised the movement? Has the mindset, and subsequently the clothes, become too commercialised, too mainstream, too contrived? Joe Corré certainly thinks so: this November, Westwood’s son will burn his archive of punk memorabilia worth £5m in defiance of the Queen giving her official blessing to 2016, the year of punk.

So what is the rebel uniform now? Is going barefoot at the Academy Awards now considered an act of punk? Arguably, rebellious dressing is less about piercings and tattoos and more about confounding convention. If that’s the case, there’s a band of modern-day rebels who can be legitimately considered thus for their anti-conformist outlook. First up, boisterous Beth Ditto with her ‘give a f***’ attitude and her brazen outfits, spilling out of corsets wearing black lipstick. Damon Albarn, Mark Ronson and Alex Turner — who would all give two fingers to conventional codes of conduct — wear Converse with their suits. The rapper Tyler, The Creator plays on his fame by covering his face with a balaclava. For recent gigs to promote her new album, Garbage’s Shirley Manson dyed her hair pink and took to the stage in black leather and leopard-print tights, brandishing her middle finger, while Grimes with her peroxide ‘Debbie Harry’ hair pulled on a tartan kilt and tights for a Texas gig last November.

Alexander McQueen SS16 

The idea of ‘shopping the look’ treads sticky ground (see Joe Corré’s point) but in the interest of ‘punking’ up your look, here are the fallback wardrobe codes you can try in order to at least imitate a little rebellion (even if you do prefer eight hours of sleep and decline double shots).

Grimes

Converse trainers are a must and are still as relevant as ever for their style (the Chuck Taylor All Star II is the classic 2.0 version) and indestructible properties (fact: they are the only shoes you can lace tight enough not to come off when crowd surfing. This writer tried and tested them to see Green Day at Reading Festival circa 2007. Twice.) Get some jeans — choose Levi’s 501s for their unisex appeal; only someone as rake thin and weathered as Iggy Pop can legitimately claim leather trousers as cool these days.

40 years of punk, in pictures

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Add a defaced leather jacket: an original Lewis Leathers will win respect from those born before 1960, otherwise try Faith Connexion, Elizabeth Ilsley or borrow your cool friend’s Claire Barrow. At the LC:M show of Coach 1941, contemporary ­artist Gary Baseman scribbled on leather jackets, just as the original punks defaced their denim jackets with biro, and for fashion girls today, the rebellious look still has an allure. Ripped jeans and leather jackets are a staple in the wardrobes of most millennials. (After all, who doesn’t want to look badass even if in reality they’re rather well behaved?)

‘Rebel rebel, you’ve torn your dress/Rebel rebel, your face is a mess,’ signed off that great precursor to punk, David Bowie, in his 1974 salute to rebellious dressing. Today’s beautiful delinquents may come more polished, but after all, punk is a state of mind, right?

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