Punk
Lots of leather, tartan, safety pins, heavy make-up, chains and anything else you felt like wearing, to get you noticed whilst “pogo-ing” and to scare your Nan! (1977). The Punk era really pushed the glam and the glitter out of the door forever.
We had enjoyed Slade, T.Rex, David Bowie and hundreds of others, but now with the Sex Pistols, it all became a little more realistic. Not only did the music of the Sex Pistols change the pop charts, it also changed fashion in a few months. Not sure if it was for the better, but change, it surely did.
Gone were the flappy flares, and in were the drainpipe jeans all ripped up, with enough holes to ensure you saw a little skin here and there. The belts were mostly chains; often dog leads and some looked like they were the chain from my toilet! The image of punk seemed to cover anything. From those razor blades hanging around your neck, to the paper clips and safety pins displayed in as many places as you could find.
Tartan kilts, leather jackets, bondage trousers, the punk scene was certainly different from anything that had gone before and the look was aggressive and angry. Although not everyone was a full-blown punk, most people quickly jumped on to some of the styles and overnight wearing flares was something to be laughed at. The Doctor Marten boot was big with both sexes and it seemed as if you could really wear anything as long as it was suitably anarchic looking.
The punk wore more plain type T-shirts, and we never minded the bollocks either, when we saw them printed on those shirts for all to see.
It was a time that we went back to being feared. The punk era gave the older generation a hard time too. Walking past a crowd of tank tops and flares was one thing, but to have to walk past a group of punks in metal and ripped clothing sweating and looking “hard” was a little too much for most.
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