What
I hadn't realised before visiting Punk: Chaos
to Couture at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is that the spirit of punk is totally de rigueur in how we live our lives today and
what I love about our kids fashion market.
Punk, for all of its anti-establishment underpinnings (and safety pins), is
about independence and personal style.
A movement that started in
1974 on the Bowery, and in parallel at 430
Kings Road in London, it is a tale of two cities
that resulted in an explosion of self-expression. Taken together, the hallmarks
of the movement include graffiti, paint splatter, destroyed, ripped and torn
garments, copious amounts of hardware and “bricalage” or appropriating
whatever’s in your environment - to your get up. Tees and
jeans were decorated with everything from plastic trash bags, coins and buttons
to soap bars, photos, paper plates and spoons.
The exhibit takes you to the highs and the lows from Givenchy’s white
grommeted jacket to Moschino’s trash-bag couture gown and is a must if you visit New York this summer.
