They were worn with heavy Doc Martens footwear, a utilitarian, practical traffic meter maid type of footwear in that era, not seen on many young women until then. Trousers were deliberately torn to reveal laddered tights and dirty legs. Until then fabric had been treated as a material to keep as pristine, new looking and beautiful as possible. 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. It deconstructed garments into new forms.

Punks cut up old clothes from charity and thrift shops, destroyed the fabric, and refashioned outfits in a manner then thought of a crude construction technique, making garments designed to attract attention. The clothes suited the lifestyle of those with limited cash due to unemployment and the general low-income school leavers or students often experience. Closely aligned was a music movement that took the name punk.Īnti Fashion - Torn Fashion Becomes Punk Fashion About 200 young people defined themselves as an anti-fashion urban youth street culture. Punk first emerged in the mid-1970s in London as an anarchic and aggressive movement. Today everyone knows what punk fashion is, but in 1970 it didn't exist. What Was Punk Fashion in the Early Days of the 1970s?

70s light rock