How To Look Like A Punk Vol. 4 - The Early Years

Looking like a punk rocker isn’t easy. The whole premise of punk philosophy is to be yourself and to hell with what people think of you. Expressing yourself, no matter how, is what’s important. But you want people to know what that philosophy is, and you want people to know you’re a punk. Being punk is part of who you are! So let’s take a look back at the beginnings of the genre to see how the first punks made themselves stand out from the crowd.

The Sonics: 1960-1968

They weren’t the dapper young lads that people expected a band to be in the 1960s. Predating the actual punk scene, the Sonics were loud, crashing, abrasive rock and roll that repulsed the masses. They sang songs about the devil, drinking poison, and cruising for chicks in their hometown of Tacoma, Washington. Almost every punk band in existence has listed the Sonics as a primary influence in their sound. But how about their look? At the time it was common for bands to take promotional photographs while wearing slick suits and humble clothing. It had worked for the Beatles when they crossed the pond, so record labels thought it could work for anyone. Rather than wear what they were told the Sonics preferred to wear high collars, sweater vests, plastic sunglasses, and leather jackets. Very few pictures were taken and circulated of the band because the label thought they would be rejected as vulgar by the American public. The Sonics never gained much mainstream success, but their style set off a chain of events.

The New York Dolls: 1971 - 1977

They laid the path for punk rockers. Dee Dee Ramone and Joey Ramone developed their friendship by dressing up in glam and going to New York Dolls shows. Glam Rock like Gary Glitter and David Bowie had been around, but the Dolls were the first to use the glitz and glam to shock the crowd instead of woo them. The Dolls wore way too much make-up and bent their gender to the max. Many 80s metal bands and the entirety of the hairmetal genre tried to rip off the Dolls’ style - teasing their long hair, slipping into shiny one-piece skintight suits, and bashing together other recognizable styles - like a one-piece white suit with tails. Other aspects of their outrageous style got adopted into other parts of punk. British goth-punk band Specimen adopted the heavy makeup and outrageous hair. Seattle-based turn-of-the-century punk band The Briefs shares the Dolls’ love of pink. Leather was a big part of the New York Dolls look. At the time their leather bands and studded belts were not common or popular. The 70s were a time of repression and persecution for people who were gay and/or kinky (the distinction between the two was not made clear for years) and the leather was shocking and considered inherently sexual, adding to their lusty and edgy appeal. Perhaps the biggest contribution to fashion from the New York Dolls was their refusal to be pigeonholed. Throughout their career they were constantly innovating new subtleties to their attire, and creating more depth to their look while still working within their obvious draw: glam, glitter, androgyny, and skintight suits.

The Ramones: 1974 - 1996

Big, bad, and terrifying - that’s what most people thought of the Ramones. When they toured Europe, people were afraid of violence because the leather jackets and denim jeans they wore were the uniforms of gangsters in the media. Since the 1950s people had been wearing what is now the classic Ramones look - white tee shirt, blue denim jeans, and black leather jacket. They were called “greasers”, like the main characters from the hit Broadway musical “Grease”, who were renowned for getting into fights, starting gang turf wars, racing customized cars at high speeds, and to a lesser extent doing stimulant drugs like amphetamines. None of the Ramones did much of these things (except getting in fights on occasion, and Dee Dee was a big drug user) but the image was vivid. The Ramones were not terrifying people, and for the most part they were genuinely nice guys, but they put on the image of a tough group of people because it was the image they wanted to convey. And it worked. The combination of fast, loud, raucous music and an outfit to kill in fused the images together and now they are inextricable. For more on the Ramones and the history of leather jackets, visit How To Look Like A Punk Vol. 1 - History of Leather Jackets

The Sex Pistols: 1975 - 1978

Lights that burn bright burn quicker. The Sex Pistols were only around for a measly three years, but their impact on music, philosophy, politics, and society is incalculable. Lyrically they were edgier than their mainstream peers, and although they neither invented nor perfected punk rock, they made it accessible and consumable for the average listener. There was no uniform or image from the Sex Pistols in their clothes. What they did manage to do for fashion was popularize the look of poverty. They made it okay to look like you don’t make very much money, because very few people do. Sid Vicious was famous for his leather jacket not because leather jackets were expensive - which they were - but because it was an old beat-up and heavily modified piece of clothing he’d found in the trash. Looking at photographs from the time it’s obvious Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones would frequently wear one another’s clothing. Both Vicious and Johnny Rotten would wear jeans with the holes in the knees because they couldn’t afford patches, which at the time was a major taboo even for people who worked very hard for their paychecks. Now, however, you have to pay extra for jeans that are already worn down in the right places. The irony is that the Sex Pistols, in their attempt to promote poverty as a lifestyle, have made it very expensive to look poor by making it fashionable.

At their last show ever, in San Fransisco, the Sex Pistols were frayed and dissonant. They had split ideologically, with Rotten and Vicious wanting to maintain the band’s independence from the influence of manager Malcolm McLaren versus Paul Cook and Steve Jones’ desire to make money from their music. Most interestingly this dissonance was expressed in the form of clothing. Vicious wore only leather pants, going shirtless as was common. He was not going to compromise just because they had sold out a show in the States - he was going to dress like it was a pub in London. Rotten came on stage wearing a leather vest and button-down shirt mimicking artists from more mainstream bands like the Runaways and Cheap Trick. Why the sudden interest in high-price fashion? He looked ridiculous, and he wanted his band mates to see, because guitarist Steve Jones had come on stage wearing an extremely expensive red crushed velvet suit jacket and slacks. Jones’ decision to spend a lot of money on clothing had irritated Rotten, and Rotten decided the only thing to do was try to upstage Jones’ silly outfit. Did he succeed? It’s up to you to say. Click here for a YouTube video of that performance.

What did we learn today?

Recap. What do all of these people have in common? The Sonics pioneered a whole new way of thinking about fashion by using it to intimidate and intrigue the audience. The New York Dolls used glam and flashy androgynous outfits to shock the population while remaining non-threatening and fun. Conversely the Ramones used the association between violence and leather jackets to foster an image they had designed. And for the Sex Pistols clothing was a symbol of status, and they (at least in the classical notion of their philosophy) reveled in their poverty.

There is a throughline: no uniform. Punk rock fashion is about taking what’s around you, how you know people react to certain things, and what you like to do and wear and creating something no one else would think of nor have the guts to wear. So if you want to look like a punk, take a page from the original punk rockers - be original.