Vivienne WestwoodPunk’s Influence on Fashion

How Punk Started

Punk started with a proclamation and an embrace of discord. In America, early punk was a middle-class youth movement, a reaction against the boredom of mainstream culture. However, in England, it was begun by working-class youths decrying a declining economy and rising unemployment, chiding the hypocrisy of the rich, and refuting the notion reform. Early punk sought to tear apart consumer goods, royalty, and sociability; and it sought to destroy the idols of the bourgeoisie. Recommended post that highlights a scene that punk evolved from in New York.

What Is Punk?

In the dictionaries, punk was defined as many things and none of them were anything to do with a musical movement, and all the definitions used to describe it were negative. Punk was, in fact, a musical movement that most people over 21 could not understand. Punk was more than a youth movement of the late 70’s only to be characterized by anti-establishment as slogans and outrageous clothes and hairstyle. The years 1975 – 79 were a time of intense personal creativity shared in America and Britain, mostly manifested in USA by the music while in Britain, the focus was broader. People pushed the boundaries of fashion, graphics and design. Punk raw and freshness divided young and the older generation in two. Punk provoked the established and soon became seen by older people as a threat to society; at a point punk regarded as the biggest threat to the English society by Prime Minister Thatcher.

Punk’s InfluenceWith their spiked hair, black studded leather jackets, ripped jeans, bondage trousers and messages of rebellion and anarchy punks from the 1970s probably never could imagine the influence punk would have 40 years later. The punk style created from the -70s at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Kings Road boutique and images of The Sex Pistols to examples of punk’s impact on haute couture and designers such as Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano. Music genre such as grunge would hardly exits today without influence of the raw sound and energy of bands playing and writing punk songs as the Ramones, Clash or Pistols. However, most of all was punk celebration of DIY and creativity, not being afraid to be brave in yourself-presentation and in your creative music, art of fashion statement. Punk was all about challenging the establishment

Vivienne WestwoodDame Vivienne Westwood, (born Vivienne Isabel Swire on 8 April 1941) is an English Fashion Designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for Malcom McLaren’s boutique on King’s Road, which became famous as "SEX". It was their ability to synthesise clothing and music that shaped the 1970s UK punk scene, dominated by McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She was deeply inspired by the shock-value of punk - "seeing if one could put a spoke in the system".

Vivienne Westwood and the Punk Movement

Vivienne Westwood met Malcolm McLaren in 1965, and their son Joseph Ferdinand Corré was born in 1966. Their working relationship, which lasted from 1970 until 1983, launched Punk. Vivienne recalled 'I felt there were so many doors to open, and he had the key to all of them. Plus, he had a political attitude and I needed to align myself.'McLaren was born in 1946 in Stoke Newington. He attended art school between 1964 and 1971 and enjoyed the idea of 'using culture as a way of making trouble'. He was also obsessed with fashion and music and saw them as inseparable parts of a Rock 'n' Roll outlaw spirit. Rejecting the dominant hippie look, McLaren wore Teddy boy clothes and collected rock 'n' roll, 'the jungle beat that threatened white civilisation'.In 1971, McLaren opened a shop called Let It Rock, where he sold 'brothel creeper' shoes, and drape coats which he designed and had made up by an East End tailor. The mohair jumpers and drainpipe trousers were made by a local seamstress. Over the next decade the shop underwent frequent changes of identity and stylistic makeovers by McLaren.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140430204016/ladygaga/images/a/ac/Vivienne_Westwood.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ladygaga.wikia.com/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood&h=226&w=223&tbnid=__kAAWoLUDzEzM:&zoom=1&tbnh=186&tbnw=183&usg=__wLmxdjznTM1uqyX4RF3OzHa9pxc=&docid=4CtP1O4bU4ITZM&itg=1&ved=0CLYBEMo3&ei=wTIUVa2zH4ut7gb_0IHIAQhttp://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/vivienne-westwood-designs/

Smith, A. (2014). 1970s Punk youth Culture and Fashion Lookbook.Available: http://buddhajeans.com/2013/06/21/1970s-punk-youth-culture-and-fashion-look-book/. Last accessed 26th March 2015.