Fashion

Punk fashion developed, innovated & borrowed from political theory, disco & gay clubs, the drug speed, fetish wear and various punk bands gradually turning into a more utilitarian look of jeans, mini skirts, boots, t-shirts and leather jackets.

Punk fashion aimed to shock using spiky hair, graffitied clothes and safety pins and toilet chains as accessories & fetish wear.

Early fashion for women in punk bands evolved from a provocative street look of 1976 of clothes from SEX and anything that could be customised for the ‘look.’

The St Trinians was a popular early punk look as a school uniform offered all the constituent parts to be modified to a punk look.

Nothing says Seventies like flared trousers and jeans. For punk rock and its narrow leg fashion, it was an obvious indicator of them and us.

Punk not only changed the music world but also the fashion world and not least in the introduction of the short spiky or backcombed look.

Safety pins were a punk fashion and jewellery accessory for the early UK Punks, sometimes involving piercings through the cheek, ear or nose.

The bin liner (or bin bag) was one of the more stranger household items that early punks co-opted into their fashion wardrobe!

The trench coat is an iconic fashion classic worn by army officers and royalty and conversely Hollywood femme fatales, world-weary private eyes and … musicians and punks like Adam Ant & Ian Curtis.

‘All Good Clean Punk – and dirt cheap, too.’ was an article in the Sunday Mirror 12/12/76 by Eve Pollard explaining how to look punk.

‘Punks Cut Out Page’ was a two-page fashion cut-out page spread by Liz Kurtzman that featured in PUNK magazine #11 from 1977.

How To Look Punk! was a 16 page punk fashion pamphlet guide published in the US in 1977 written by Mary Elizabeth Norton (aka Marliz) who was a trend forecaster.

Punk badges were an easily affordable way to accessorise your punk look and signal your band and political preferences.

Joly MacFie was founder of Better Badges in 1976 that revolutionised punk badges and band promotion and got involved in helping fanzine production.

Not everyone could buy from Seditionaries, Boy or Acme Attractions so to fill the void and demand Punk By Post arrived in the music weeklies and magazines.

The King’s Road in SW3 London was known for Mary Quant, the swinging sixties and in 1977 the place for Punk shops with BOY & Seditionaries and Teds v Punks battles.

430 King’s Road was the location of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s infamous shop that had several changes in name and style.

Let It Rock was at 430 King’s Road London and was the first incarnation of McLaren & Westwood’s clothing shop selling to Teddy Boys.

Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die was the rocker leather and studs themed shop for McLaren & Westwood at 430 King’s Road London.

SEX at 430 King’s Road was McLaren & Westwood’s move into fetish wear and what would become known as confrontational punk couture.

Seditionaries was McLaren & Westwood in full punk effect with confrontational anarchy muslin t-shirts, bondage suits and parachute shirts.

BOY was a punk shop on the King’s Road London run by John Krivine & Steph Raynor and was a rival to Seditionaries further down the road.

Beaufort Market was an indoor market, notable for its punk stalls, located just off the King’s Road in Chelsea, and just a short walk from Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s shop SEX. 

coming soon – in progress

Smutz was a punk fashion stall upstairs in Beaufort Market off the Kings Road London. It was run by Nigel Brickell and was a key punk destination point after BOY and Seditionaries along the Kings Road.

PLAZA was a revolutionary shop in the King’s Road London, owned, designed and clothes made by designer Antony Price who was involved heavily with Roxy Music.

Shades was a retro clothes shop in Chelsea Antiques Market Kings Road London run by Troy and Boy George worked or a time there.

Acme Attractions was the stall/shop set up by John Krivine & Steph Raynor in Antiquarius in the King’s Road London selling subculture style.

Kensington Market was a hotbed of stalls, designers and subcultures from the lates Sixties that housed Artificial Eye and others from 1979 onwards till its closure.

Artificial Eye was a punk fashion retail/wholesale outlet in Kensington Market London in the late seventies that produced variations/copies of Seditionaries and BOY clothes.

KITSCH-22 was a London punk fashion shop from 1977-1979, owned and selling original designs (including Modzart) by John Dove and Molly White till it merged with BOY.

The London Leatherman was an early 70’s London leather fetish shop serving the S&M gay/straight subculture and whose items early punks wore particularly studded wristbands and belts.

Alex Michon and Krystyna Kolowska were two seamstresses recruited by Bernie Rhodes who designed the distinctive urban clothes for the Punk band The Clash in 1977 and again in 1980.

In 1978, the NME did a Guide To Rock & Roll London that included a feature on fashion by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons and a great snapshot in time reflecting the punk zeitgeist.

TV Chat show host Derek Nimmo gets a punk makeover at Seditionaries in his show Just A Nimmo, originally broadcast 24 March, 1977.