PUNK, a counterculture movement defined by its anti-consumerist “do-it-yourself” ethos and rebellious style, may be nearly gone in its original form. But after four decades its legacy lives on in music, design and most notably in fashion. Vivienne Westwood, a British fashion designer, built her career on it; John Galliano and Martin Margiela embraced its hard edges; and a new generation of designers such as Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte and Gareth Pugh continue to draw from it. “Everybody loves a rebel,” explains Andrew Bolton, the curator of “Punk: Chaos to Couture”, a new exhibition about the role of punk in fashion, now on view at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Economic uncertainty and political discontentment in the 1970s helped spur the anti-establishment aesthetic of punk, which flourished in London and New York. In downtown New York crowds gathered at the now-legendary music club CBGB to see the likes of Patti Smith, Blondie and the Ramones perform. Meanwhile on Kings Road in London Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren ran a boutique called Seditionaries (formerly SEX), which sold everything from anarchy T-shirts to bondage wear. (via The legacy of punk: Destroy and create | The Economist)
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 