Fashion Moment: Punk Luxe

It was 1970, on the King’s Road in London. Out of the back of a shop called Paradise Garage Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren used to sell second hand 1950’s rock and roll albums. One year later they took over the business and called it Let it Rock. This was the beginning of Westwood’s career: although she never was trained as a designer, she started creating copies and interpretations of the Teddy Boys’ style. Let it Rock soon became Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, and Westwood began dealing with biker rock items. After that, it changed again into SEX and specialised in leather and rubber clothing that were previously considered solely for the fetish market. SEX changed name again in 1977 into Seditionaries.

Thanks to the various makeovers of this boutique combined with the success of the Sex Pistols –named after the boutique itself and managed by McLaren - the Punk movement developed internationally and Vivienne Westwood became one of Britain’s most prestigious designers.

As Vogue defined it, “The punk cult gained its aggressive thrust from the aimless ranks of those who were young, sullen and often workless.” However, soon enough Zandra Rhodes introduced into her designs some of the Punk elements, making it more acceptable to a high end market: since then, Punk hasn’t stopped inspiring the creations of artists and designers.

The biker jacket has become a basic, every shop includes torn and distressed clothing in their collections. A/W catwalks in 2011 were abounding with leather items, studs, chunky jewellery, gothic lace and bondage-resembling details, often combined with a glam rock look. Culturally, the cinema Swedish trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, also contributed to a comeback of Mohawk hair styles, aggressive gothic looks and ear studs.