So, I just finished watching SLC Punk. I remember I first got into punk fashion when I started listening to the Sex Pistols in high school, and then the New York Dolls, and so on and so forth. That's when I discovered Vivienne Westwood. I had never really cared about fashion designers before I discovered her. I guess you could say the Sex Pistols are who got me into fashion, oddly enough. An anti-fashion, anti-conformist band influenced me into fashion. I guess that makes me a poser? Anyway, I looked at Westwood's collections and studied her earlier influences and whatnot. Good stuff. Vivenne Westwood worked with Malcolm McLaren, who was the Pistol's manager for a while, and they opened a store to sell clothing geared towards this punk rebellion crowd.
This is where I open a debate in my head. If punk rock is "a youthful reaction against older generations, considered oppressive and outdated, as a product of the newly recognized and influential youth culture," why would punk rock anarchists, partically punk rock bands that are there to spread the anarchist word, want to create this subculture? Anarchy is chaos, and chaos does not mix well with subcultures.
The answer? To make money. That's where fashion comes in. If entrepeneurs, such as a young 1970's Vivienne Westwood, can make a killing off of selling punk rock clothing to an up and coming subculture of people, why wouldn't they take advantage of it? I'm not saying that I don't adore Westwood's designs any less, I'm just saying she was part of the reason that punk rock anarchy turned into punk rock fashion, thus no longer allowing it to be anarchy.
That's what happens when fashion gets a hold of any kind of political, artistic, or cultural movement. Look at the 1960's with the hippie movement, the civil rights movemen
t, and the Native American movement. These all influences fashion trends that we see today, such as tie dyes, peace signs, natural black hair, fringed boots and feather earrings. These are great trends and all, but are the followers of these trends wearing them because they like what they stand for or just because Vogue told them to?I wear moccasins because my father is Native American, and my good friend wears her African American hair natural because she wants to embrace her natural self. What's everyone else's excuse?
Quote from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vivw/hd_vivw.htm
Sex Pistols image from google images
Fringed boot from Bestey Johnson
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