Thursday, May 9, 2013

Can There Be Such a Thing as Punk Couture?



With all apologies to Neil Young, this is the story of Johnny Rotten, or at least the story of his clothes. PUNK: Chaos to Couture, which opens today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and runs through August 14, argues that Punk rock and its accompanying look didn’t fade away, but rather lingers on in our culture in an important way. Begun as a raised middle finger to the establishment, Punk seems a strange bedfellow for an esteemed institution such as the met or a fancy shmancy terms such as “couture.” Can there be such a thing as Punk couture? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Can There Be Such a Thing as Punk Couture?"

[Image: Sweater by Rei Kawakubo (Japanese, born 1942) for Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969), 1982. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph by Peter Lindbergh.]  
[Many thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to PUNK: Chaos to Couture, which runs through May 9 through August 14, 2013.]

1 comment:

Ann ODyne said...

'Couture' means 'unique' and it could be argued that since English punks of 1976/7/8 all devised their own ensembles, that they were truly couture, if not 'haute'.
Vivienne Westwood designs they might have bought from 'Let It Rock','Sex', 'Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die', 'Seditionaries' and 'Worlds End' boutiques, were not really mass produced.
Madonna was one of very few who got the dress code right at last weeks punk Met Ball.