Postmodern Aesthetics: The Legacy of Punk.
By Deborah Counsell
Introduction
In this analysis on Punk, I
intend to deconstruct its social significance in the 1970s. And consider the
legacy on fashion and where its influence can be found in the postmodern and 21st
century.
How did punk rock the
world? My main research shall define
specific aspects of punk and how it came to influence not only fashion but also
popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st
centuries. These aspects are anti-fashion,
subversives, Dada, expressions of isolation, and magpie, bricolage.
What is Punk?
At a time of civil
unrest and high youth unemployment, adolescents with time and no money hung
together in areas such as the Kings Road, London, dissatisfied with the previous
“hippy culture and ageing rock stars” (Polhemus: 1994: 14) young people sought
a new sound and look to express the feelings of disquiet and unrest. Instead of civil unrest the revolt took the
form of anti-fashion and subversives, an aggressive look and attitude, which
began on the kings road and the ‘Bromley set’ (Figure 1). This small clique of a couple of hundred
people were served and swayed by SEX a clothing shop opened by Vivienne
Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in 1975.
The shop sold clothing and experimental sex items for fetish and
bondage. These influenced the youths
that hung there. The Punk look of
slashed t-shirts, ripped trousers, safety-pin piercings, brightly coloured
Mohican hair was re-enforced when Malcolm McLaren’s “Sex Pistols” gave its
infamous TV interview during which they swore.
Popularity of the group increased when their first album was banned from
TV and shop windows for its offensive title of “Never Mind the Bollocks”. The album cover used a distinct Dada style of
lettering looking like type tor from a newspaper as in the works of Dada artist
Kurt Schwitters, ‘Kleine
Dada Soirée’, (1922).
The late 70s and 80s will be
remembered as a time of riots and vandalism; strikes and poverty. As part of the ‘Winter of Discontent’ my
father, a mature student at the time, turned away a beer lorry at a picket line
this almost caused a riot.
Punk appeared in our village
in the early 80s in the form of one brave individual. The funny man, my mum explained, he had green
or orange spiky hair and wore a kilt over ripped jeans with Dr Martin boots, he
looked like Johnny Rotten.
What started as a gang
became a global phenomenon with rise of pop rock music the Damned were the
first in the charts but were quickly out shone by the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols clothes were Styled and
designed by Vivienne Westwood.
Street Style and Counter Culture
An interesting twist to the
Punk movement came in the form of “Minor Threat” a North American Punk
band. They released a song called “Out
of Step (with the World)” that spoke about “self restraint, personal
responsibility and social awareness” (Atkinson: 2003). This turned away from the usual nihilistic
theme of punk.
Although the music and style
were the same tattoos took on another meaning of group/tribal belonging. They advocated clean living, “no drink, no
smoking but at least we can fucking think” (Atkinson: 2003). The movement comprised of young white urban
middle class that had not experienced the tougher side of life.
This time was a melting pot
of many anti-fashion styles and culture.
Among the many was Biker, Ska, Skinheads, and Mods, almost all linked to
music. Some embraced the multi-culture
society forming in urban Britain, while others created their own sense of
family such as the Bikers.
Bikers’ style took a more
functional approach to clothes needing certain items to enable safe riding of
their motorcycles. These were denim
jeans, leather jackets and t-shirts.
Other items worn were waistcoats made from leather or denim. All garments were personalized with insignia
pertaining to the biker’s regional gangs.
They also used body adornment such as piercing and tattoos. These groups were often seen as a family unit
which comprised of loader males mainly of a working class, as bike were cheaper
to run and license than cars.
Punks used clothes to
express their discontent. They rebelled
against the establishment in a shock and awe way using violent music and
language to enforce the obscene and disturbing attire. This subculture comprised mainly of working
class youth that were affected by the high unemployment rate of that time. The look took elements of Biker with its
leather jackets and denim jeans. Punk
also took on the personalization of deconstructing by slashing and
ripping. Items were bricolaged such as
straps and chains which were draped rom one area to another in swathes like a
draped curtain of sash around under arms or hips. Rips in jeans or trousers were held together
with safety pins these were known as bondage trousers. Garments were often written or painted on and
mimicked in vandalism.
Clothing meanings are often
intangible in words but when compared with each other as style of clothing as
in Hippy and Punk we know that the two are very different and stood for
different things. Hippy – peace and
harmony. Punk – offensive language and
anarchy. Also when we compare Punk and
Biker as in figures 1& 2 noticeable differences are apparent even though
descriptively they have similarities.
“When we dress we wear inscribed upon our
bodies the often obscure relationship of art, personal psychology and social
order.” (Wilson: 2003: 210)
Young adult/adolescents form
gangs as a reaction to a social gap created by the lack of community. As young people reach an age ready to leave
the family home but not yet ready to form families of their own. There is a void left and gangs fill the
vacuum.
A form of attire usually
denotes gangs and all members are known to each other and within a certain
location of territory. When a look
becomes popular it moves form gang to style tribe as numbers are increased and
personal awareness within the social group is lost, clothing and music are the
links between its members. Style tribes can become national and global as in the
Punk era.
“Construction of identity is
based on leisure rather than business clothes.
Popular culture redefines social phenomena and social identities.” (English:
2007: 78)
Many groups or gangs use
clothing as a uniform and not a fashion statement clothes become a symbol of whom
they associate themselves with as in Bikers.
Often using tattoos and piercings are used as a rite of passages and an
initiation into the group. In figures 1
& 2 we can see each group has a distinct style, which is used with in each
group. Giving each a symbol to each
other as well as society. Their clothes state
I’m with you guys and guys I’m part of this group.
To choose to dress
differently is a brave one that often incurs prejudice, threats and abuse from
people frightened of difference.
The Influence of Vivienne Westwood on Postmodern
Fashion.
Westwood said, “I am never
more happy than when I parody the British in context of a classical
perspective”. (Hennessy: 2012: 390)
Initially selling Teddy boy
clothes Vivienne West, partners with Malcolm McLaren rebranded their shop on
the Kings Road in 1975 to SEX. This shop
became a hub for local youths and sold fetish and bondage items as well as
clothes.
As well as selling her Punk
clothes in figure 3 we can see Vivienne wearing a tartan coat with straps
hanging from it in homage to the bondage sex items she sold.
Westwood’s finger was on the
pulse of the time and met with the youth cultures demand of unrest and
disquiet. She learned from her
surroundings and launched a collection of punk clothing of slashed trousers and
porn t-shirts with offensive images and language.
Westwood bases her designs
on research into the past using classical British garment and construction to
inform her designs. As a Postmodernist
she regularly copies from the past to parody it on the catwalk with collections
such as the Pirate dubbed the New Romantic look, and Anglomania.
On the feminist front
Vivienne has also had her opinions in the mid 80s she produce a series of ‘mini-crini’
(Hennessy: 2012: 78) a shortened version of the 19th century
crinolines that were styled with tailored jackets in reaction to the masculine
power dressing suits. Westwood is also
credited for reclaiming the corset using it emphasise women’s figures rather
than imprisoning them within it.
Alexander McQueen also uses
historical items in his collection especially in ‘Highland Rape’ collection
where he uses Westwood’s influence and mixes tartan and leather, in
appropriation of the past and fetish wear.
Why do we wear clothes and how we see ourselves?
“Humans as well as other
species of animals, were consistently motivated by novelty and newness. Thus it is constitutionally hard wired human
behaviour to be attracted to the novel, to adopt it, and also to move on after
only a short period of stability.”
(Wilson: 2003: 205).
Freud tells us that there
are three parts to human personality the ego, super ego and the id. The ego is the part we present to the world
in the conscious where as the super ego and id is our unconscious selves. The super ego good and modest the id that has
wanton desires and easily tempted, each in balance controlling each other. Super ego wants us to dress modestly whilst
id wants us to wear more erotic attire while ego listens to social environs. These personality traits coupled with our
basic instinct for the novel governs our desire for change and novelty in the
fashion world.
Our constant search for novelty
and taboo breaking are seen on the international catwalk with innovative
designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Rifat Ozbek. Chalayan’s use of revealing nudity by varying
the length of a burka is ironic and parodies the meaning of the garment. He also objectifies the women models by
keeping their faces covered with the full facial veil as can be seen in figure
7.
Through displacement our
clothes serve a contradictory purpose covering up for modesty sake and the need
to be sexually attractive. This can be
explained through psychology where men view women as object of desire and women
place themselves as desirable objects, both complementing each other. Woman wanting to look good and be desired
under male gaze and man wanting women to be desired.
“Socially determined we
maybe, yet we consistently search for the crevices in culture that open to us
moments of freedom. Precisely because
fashion is at one level a game (although not just a game), it can be played for
pleasure.” (Wilson: 2003: 210)
There is no free choice we
simply follow an almost predestined path that hides. We are first born with genetic heredity that
is our blueprint that alters and updates along the way with environs that can
affect us for good or ill. As humans we
live more than on instinct alone. Our
social network determines us. In figure
we can see the modern social group known as Chavs, their style is denoted by
cheap sports/fashion wear such as tracksuits, baseball caps, hoodies, and
trainers.
Punk Influence on Youth Culture
In today’s world of a multi-media
existence we are continually bombarded with imagery that is not always screened
or age appropriate. These come from TV,
computer gaming, film and Internet.
Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”
video with its erotic imagery and Iced-T’s misogynist gang rape lyrics help
promote erotica and pornographic attire (Bordo: 1993: 247) TV and computer
gaming’s portrayal of subordinate women back up these images.
Madonna pushed the erotic
taboos increasingly through the 90s with Jean Paul Gaultier’s help using
corsets and bondage crinolines as shown in figure 6 Gaultier draws his
inspiration from Britain’s street style.
The wide spread use of
risqué imagery is prolific especially in what poses as innocent with the use of
low cut necklines and suggestive dancing in Disney films and the styles of
Bratz™ dolls
The fashion industry has
answered the erotica call with skanks – “sequined, belly baring, sparkly and
made of fishnet materials which reveals children’s bodies in a more adult
fashion.” (Clancy: 2011: 41). Primark
have marketed a padded bra thus sexualizing girls and marking them for
paedophiles.
On the other hand if we
consider the argument of intertextuality, that we innocently appropriate
without truly understanding the meaning of what we are wearing. When using this to view children wearing skank
the garments become nothing more than frilly sparkly clothes as seen in figure
5.
In Japan women wear clothes
that make them look like ‘Little Bo Peep’ or ‘Little Miss Muffet’,
children. They copy the anime` cartoons
style of character dress as seen in figure 8.
People wouldn’t accuse them of pandering to paedophiles because we know
they are merely playing with fashion.
Punk has also seen its
influence spread through intertextuality in Steam and Cyber Punk. Steam Punk is a vintage appropriation of Victoriana
and the industrial steam age as seen during the Para Olympics closing ceremony
as seen in figure 10. Cyber Punk
assimilates modern technology for their style looking like “Star Trek’s”
“Borg”.
Conclusion
Punk emerged from a poverty
struck Britain to voice its discontent, as stated earlier Punk rose from small
group of young people known as the Bromley Set at a time of great recession. It became global in its infancy but has
continued as part of our culture, by some traditional Punks still existing and
by reinvention and intertextuality such as Steam and Cyber Punk. Its bricolage` nature has bee adopted y
mainstream fashion and haute (figure 9) couture fashion to such an extent you
can now buy designed damaged goods. All
ages of society has been affected by it anti-fashion ways as with skank clothes
and Bratz ™ and the anime` dresser in
Japan. They questioned our silence with
its subversive attitude and gave us the stomach to fight as in the Poll Tax
riots of 1981. Punk dared to be different as
with all anti-fashion movement they give the confidence to express ourselves as
we see fit.
Bibliography
· Changing Fashion, Annette Lynch and Mitchell d. Strauss, Berg, 2007
· A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th
Century, Bonnie English, Berg 2007
· Street Style, Ted Polhemus, 1994, Thames and Hudson.
· Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads & Skaters: Subcultural
Style from the Forties to the Ninties, Amy De La Haye and Cathie Dingwall, 1996
The Overlook Press.
· Fashion: The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style,
Senior Editor Kathryn Hennessy, 2012, D. K.
· Micro-Pedia – British History, General Editor
Proffessor Eric Evans, 1999, Paragon.
· The Fashion Reader, Linda Welters & Abby
Lillethun, Berg, Oxford & new York, 2007
1.
Material Girl:
Madonna as Postmodern Heroine, Susan Bordo, 1993, University of California
Press.
2.
Punks and
Pirates: The Costiff Collection of
Vivienne Westwood, Sonnet Stanhill.
3.
Feminism and
Fashion, Elizabeth Wilson, 2003, I.
B. Taurus, London & New York.
4.
Vivienne Westwood
and Postmodern Couture: A Competer of Modernism and ‘Good Taste’, Catherine
Baxendale, 2012.
5.
Fashion at the
Edge, Caroline Evans, 2003, Yale University Press.
· From Childhood to the Tweenhood: An examination of the
impact of Marketing Fashion to tweens on Tween self-image and Mother-Child
Interaction, Sarah Jane Clancy 10th January
2011.
· Body Art and Social Status: Cutting, Tattooing and
Piercing from a feminist Perspective, Sheila Jefferies, April 14th
2007.
· The Civilizing of Resistance: Straightedge Tattooing,
Vicheal Atkinson, Memorial of New Foundland, 2003.
· What’s Up Sisters?, Catlin Moran, Style, Sunday Times,
10th March 2013.
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