READ THIS: Punk Chaos to Couture by Andrew Bolton; With Richard Hell, John Lydon, and Jon Savage Our Coverage Sponsored by Dee Keller Designs
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How Punk Has Influenced Fashion!!!
It's fashionable to be a rebel, didn't you hear? We speak in an aesthetic sense. Punk Chaos to Couture celebrates the phenomenon called Punk started in both New York and London in the early/mid 1970's, and its fashion evolution that has proven to be far and wide reaching. If you don't think Punk is you, then re-examine your nature: anyone with any fun in them at all will love this book and the accompanying exhibit. It boasts total quality right down to every last detail. It is evocative of paramount style.
Featuring designers such as Givenchy, Vivienne Westwood and Balmain, this is an exhibition that will have lines going out the door and wrapped around the block for the coming weeks at The Met we predict. So line up, Manhattan! After all, it is Sam Gainsbury who was Exhibition Design Consultant who also did McQueen-we loved that legendary exhibit. We believe if you loved McQueen, you'll also love Punk, although we miss the salute to plaid (in fairness, we do see plaid in the book-we do not recall seeing it in the exhibit-however it was extremely crowded...)
Punk also exhibits notes of AngloMania, which we loved as a regular person before Whom You Know started. Edgy, cool and complex, Punk Chaos to Couture celebrates all that is fun about fashion and to completely enjoy the exhibit, you must read this book cover to cover by the Met and published by Yale University Press first.
See how to make something out of nothing!
Be inspired!
Design.
Several DIY (do it yourself) impulses are pursued in these pages, and it is important to note that Punk is looked at as an aesthetic, not an attitude. Its anti-nostalgic vibe says that the American version was about art while the version across the pond was about politics. Following the Sponsor's Statement and the Introduction by Andrew Bolton, chapters in the book include:
"Punk" Couture: Insides Out
A Beautiful Ugliness Inside John Lydon
Symbols Clashing Everywhere: Punk Fashion 1975-1980 Jon Savage
Clothes for Heroes
D.I.Y. Hardware
D.I.Y. Bricolage
D.I.Y. Graffiti and Agitprop
D.I.Y. Destroy
We applaud The Met for their commitment to the underlying fashion and leaving personalities out of Punk.
Our favorite pictures-we think you will like them too:
*page 43 McQueen
*page 59 Helmut Lang
*page 86 Burberry
*page 91 Versace
*page 92 Thom Browne
*page 119 Dior by John Galliano
*page 181 Moschino
*page 201 Miguel Adrover
*page 214 Balmain by Christophe Decarnin
*page 215 Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld
*page 233 Rodarte
On a personal note, this exhibit and the looks in this book remind us of Bike Week in Daytona Beach, as that is when Peachy was at her Punkiest looking like a Biker, believe it or not...a lot of fun with Grampy then! And senior year she worked for ESPN for Bike Week on the track...we were looking for the Harley in this exhibit. She still has the ripped Calvins from the early 80's that were her dad's that are oh so punk. Perhaps if she was not going to the Met Club for NY Landmarks for lunch she would wear them to the fashion trade shows tomorrow...
Add a safety pin here and there, wear leather, use zippers and pick up this great work for you and every fashionable friend you've got, and march yourself to this exhibit! Whom You Know Highly Recommends Punk Chaos to Couture by Andrew Bolton and team! Bravo Met once again- and
during the press preview we were especially delighted to meet Gwen Roginsky, Associate Publisher and General Manager of Editorial for the great books that the Met publishes with Yale. Gwen made this post possible tonight-thank you Gwen!~!!!!
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Since its origins in the 1970s, punk has had an explosive influence on fashion. With its eclectic mixing of stylistic references, punk effectively introduced the postmodern concept of bricolage to the elevated precincts of haute couture and directional ready-to-wear. As a style, punk is about chaos, anarchy, and rebellion. Drawing on provocative sexual and political imagery, punks made fashion overtly hostile and threatening. This aesthetic of violence – even of cruelty – was intrinsic to the clothes themselves, which were often customized with rips, tears, and slashes, as well as studs, spikes, zippers, D-Rings, safety pins, and razor blades, among other things.
This extraordinary publication examines the impact of punk’s aesthetic of brutality on high fashion, focusing on its do-it-yourself, rip-it-to-shreds ethos, the antithesis of couture’s made-to-measure exactitude. Indeed, punk’s democracy stands in opposition to fashion’s autocracy. Yet, as this book reveals, even haute couture has readily appropriated the visual and symbolic language of punk, replacing beads with studs, paillettes with safety pins, and feathers with razor blades in an attempt to capture the style’s rebellious energy. Focusing on high fashion’s embrace of punk’s aesthetic vocabulary, this book reveals how designers have looked to the quintessential anti-establishment style to originate new ideals of beauty and fashionability.
Andrew Bolton is Curator at The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Richard Hell was a founding member of Television in 1974, departing before the band recorded; the Heartbreakers in 1975, ditto; and Richard Hell and the Voidoids (1976-84). Since abandoning music in 1984, he has published the novels Go Now (1996) and Godlike (2005) and the collection Hot and Cold (2001). His autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp, was released in 2013. After fronting the Sex Pistols, John Lydon formed Public Image Ltd in 1978. Outside of PiL he has released several solo records and collaborations. He also brings quality TV to the masses. Jon Savage is a writer, broadcaster, and filmmaker who lives in North Wales. His books include England’s Dreaming and Teenage. His films include the award-winning documentary Joy Division and the forthcoming Teenage.
