Women In Punk Band Fashion

With the sudden influx of female musicians into bands and the clothes they wore, there was a lot of focus from music papers and photographers not least the sexism angle of at any opportunity displaying some female flesh and making smart-arse sexist comments.

The difference between punk and prepunk was that the fashion was on the wearer’s terms and deliberately aimed to confuse mixing porn, fetish wear and whatever came to hand. Early punks mixed items from SEX/SEditionaries with short mini skirts in leather, PVC more traditionally the preserve of the sex worker and were used in conjunction with fishnets and any kind of heel. Often skirts were completely dispensed with, a jacket, shirt, or t-shirt just about covering the bits or again charity shop skirts/dresses suitably hacked.

In short anything was permissible to pull together into a look as long as it challenged as Viv from The Slits recounts.

Viv Albertine…I try to shock in all areas of my life, especially in … clothes. Referencing sex is an easy way to shock. I walk around in little girl’s party dresses, hems slashed and ragged, armholes torn open to make them bigger, the waistline up under my chest. My bleached blonde hair is not seductive and smooth, but matted and wild, my eyes smudged with black eyeliner. I finish it off with fishnet tights and shocking pink patent boots from the shop SEX…Men look at me and they are confused., they don’t know whether they want to fuck me or kill me. This sartorial ensemble really messes with their heads. Good. Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

Siouxsie surely had the most novel, and I’d say visually striking, use of a brand name and strangest punk piece of clothing to cover her bits. This was her use of Adidas black shorts paired with white waistcoat and fishnet basque ensemble! To be fair though, Siouxsie looked striking in everything she wore. And if we’re talking about the ethos of SEX as in bringing out fashion from the boudoir onto the street then she won it lock stock & two smoking barrels with her exposed breasts bodice and latex thigh boots ensemble at the Screen On The Green. Add to that her striking angular eye makeup short spiky hair and she had the lot.

Of course there were some exceptions. Gem from The Killjoys wore a ballet leotard or shirt and socks, Pauline from Penetration had a very androgynous look and initially wore a number of SEditionaries clothes like the parachute top, Poly Styrene from X Ray Spex wore a number of homemade ensembles that grabbed the attention as did Fay Fife from The Rezillos.

Above Gem from The Killjoys and Pauline Murray from Penetration
Below Poly Styrene (Marion Eliott) from X Ray Spex and Fay Fife from The Rezillos

Joan Jett (The Runaways) and Gaye Advert (The Adverts) dressed almost identically favoring a Suzi Quatro haircut and rocker leathers and jeans look with panda eye makeup. Chrissie Hynde of Johnny Moped, The Moors Murderers and later The Pretenders also favoured this androgynous rocker look. Deborah Harry from Blondie dressed somewhat provocatively before becoming more mainstream post their hits in 1977.

Above left Joan Jett & Gaye Advert. Right – Deborah Harry

Smaller bands with girls in them like Open Sore (Holly Channer aka Jenny Rate) & Blitz (Ruth Carr) were vaguely punkish while Muvvers Pride whose members nearly all worked in BOY and were well-known faces on the Roxy Club/Kings Road punk scene were pretty much head-to-toe hardcore punk well into 1978. Subie, their singer, features in many books and clips from the period.

Nina Spencer (Muvvers Pride)  The fishnets and skimpy outfits with bits of flesh showing through and the T shirts with safety pins etc was too much for the average straight male. I think the bondage gear etc got at least us girls into a prick teaser situation….so what’s new hahhaha. I remember speeding off my face, walking all the way back to South London in the highest heels, a little leather jacket and a pink rubber t-shirt with viva la rock frilly pants on and getting harassed by lorry drivers and drunken soul boys. Punk77 Interview

Above left – Jenny in Open Sore and right Ruth in Blitz
Below the legendary Muvvers Pride – photo credit Italian Vogue

By 1979 a lot had changed and we were well into post punk. The Adverts, X Ray Spex, Killjoys, Runaways, Muvvers Pride and Rezillos had all split up.

The Slits’ clothes softened but were still just as sexually charged and individually mashed together.

The Slits 1979 (Photo credit?)

Pauline Murray went all headbands, scarves and flowing shirts. Siouxsie also dressed more muted but would have changed by the time of their 4th album Ju Ju into her iconic goth punk look.

Gem would join Girlschool in the early eighties and Joan Jett would remain the same forever.

Meanwhile there still wasn’t a deluge of female punk players or bands as punk got harder and faster, white and almost exclusively male. If you were to name looks it would be the young Beki Bondage from Bristol’s Vice Squad, whose look combined a blonde/coloured punky haircut plus a leather miniskirt, fishnets and studded biker jacket typical of punks around 1979. That look would make her a regular on the front covers of magazines and music papers. And Siouxsie’s look (tye band had long moved away from punk) that ironically merged the early punk style and came to be known as the archetypal female goth look.

Above Penetration and Siouxsie (photo credit Mital)
Below Siouxsie and Beki Bondage of Vice Squad – early Eighties

Check out this documentary from The Culture Show “Girls Will Be Girls” BBC 2 Women in Punk directed by Martina Hall and presented by Miranda Sawyer (2014).

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