Sex Pistols and the 70s.

Punk first emerged in the mid 1970s in London as an anarchic and aggressive movement. About 200 young people defined themselves as an anti-fashion urban youth street culture. Closely aligned was a music movement that took the name punk.
British people got shocked with the punk way of dressing, clothes, body piercing and self mutilation, hair and make up.
Punks cut up old clothes from charity and thrift shops, destroyed the fabric and refashioned outfits in a manner then thought a crude construction technique, making garments designed to attract attention.
When thinking about punks, people immediately remember black leather, studs, chains, mufti fabrics, black T shirts...
Whilst torn fabrics, frayed edges and defaced prints are now considered normal in the 21st century, in the 1970s it shocked many people, because it had never been seen before. Until then fabric had been treated as a material to keep as pristine, new looking and beautiful as possible.
Body piercing was done in parts other than the usual accepted placement in the ear lobe. This was quite unusual.
A focal point of the punk look was the hair which was spiked as high as possible into a Mohican hairstyle by a variety of means including sugar and water solutions, soaping, gelatin, pva glue, hair sprays and hair gel.
An alternative look was to shave areas of the scalp. Both sexes did this.
Eyes were emphasised with black and sometimes cat like eye make up and vampire like lips drew more attention to the face.


Punk lyrics introduced a confrontational frankness of expression in matters both political and sexual, dealing with urban boredom, rising unemployment in the UK racial tensions and social upheaval as we can see in the Sex Pistol's anthem parody. Others copied or looked to designers to provide styles that fitted the mood of an era that had returned to nature and was anti-Vietnam-war in outlook.

Of course, today we still have issues such as rising unemployment, violence, conformism... Young people still are the revolting main force. Just like in the 70s, we find groups like Green day or Blink 182 that protest against the system and its problems.