Posh punk: fashion turns the clock back to 1977 | Fashion | The Observer
I guess in a way it’s refreshingly honest to have someone quoted as saying DIY culture would endanger the profits made by retail consumerism? Or maybe just depressing - either way I’m in two minds about whether it was a good idea to click through on this link, which moves seamlessly (pun unintended) from namechecking the Exploited to Lisbeth Salander and the “traumatised gothic punk” of the Stieg Larsson trilogy beginning with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:
“The film’s costume designer, Trish Summerville, has already collaborated on a collection in the H&M clothing chain inspired by the anti-social computer hacker with a history of awful abuse. “Lisbeth has a ferociousness and fearlessness about her, she does not stand idly by, but rights the wrongs,” said Summerville. “Women can identify with that, they can feel empowered.”
The collection revolves around Salander’s leather jacket and hooded sweatshirts, according to Anna Norling, H&M’s head designer for Divided department, which is targeted at younger buyers. “The look is very wearable, and spot on trend,” she said.”
Yeah, the notable empowerment of buying chain-store movie tie-ins. But before you can say ‘co-option’ the article moves on from the transparent to the obscene:
“Designer Karl Lagerfeld picked up the theme by announcing last month he had a crush on so-called “posh punk princess” Alice Dellal, the well-connected daughter of a British millionaire. He chose her to be the face of a spring campaign to sell his latest Chanel handbag.
Already having modelled for Vivienne Westwood and Agent Provocateur, Dellal’s tattoos, relatively diminutive height (5ft 5ins), half-shaved head and fondness for ripped fishnets have worked in her favour in a fashion world constantly looking for something as explosive and new as punk was.”
There’s probably some merit in the first (the second being the quote above, at top) of the concerns raised:
“Dellal’s rich rebel image is not universally popular among fashionistas, especially after as she has been photographed around drug paraphernalia. One industry figure said fashion had worked hard to get away from the “grungy, druggy image” of the Kate Moss years and had no desire to go back there.”
But in the case of image being everything and essence nothing, it seems hard not to think there are more fundamental problems. That’s not to say that punk, as a movement that thrived on obscenity and a certain kind of pomo superficiality, doesn’t have a more complex (no-)future in contemporary culture, fashion included. The rest of the article does, it has to be fair, comprise a decent enough investigation of the historical context and parallels of punk - culminating with an interesting list of comparisons of varying import. There are also quotes from Jon Savage, on the previous Jubilee year in Britain, including:
“Bankers and politicians are probably more of a threat and concern to teenagers today. In those days the royals were the apex of English society; now the anger is crystallising around the banks and the economic situation.”
and someone to give the cultural studies view:
Punk fashion has long lost its shock appeal for all but the most faint-hearted, according to Shannon Price of New York’s Costume Institute. “Punk was both a product and a victim of late capitalism. As the most quickly digested of all previous youth subcultures, it came to fruition and fell victim to mass marketing in less than three years.”
and of course, to close, a mention of John Lydon’s butter ads:
“John Lydon – Johnny Rotten – the Sex Pistols’ frontman, is financing his next album using money he raised by promoting butter in TV ads. “It is important to realise that in all the years I have been in the music industry the only people that treated me with any real respect was a butter manufacturer,” he said.”
