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Punk 

The season’s most unexpected wearable trend

Anarchist, subversive and, err, wearable? Forget all you thought you knew about punk: the new season’s biggest trend can be pared back and surprisingly versatile. 

Punk it up >

Versace jumper / 16 Arlington skirt / Alexander McQueen boots (available in store)

For Versace’s autumn/winter 2019 show, attendees were sent a box of gold safety pins with their seat numbers instead of printed invitations. They proceeded to sit beneath a giant pin, suspended from the ceiling, while listening to a soundtrack of Kurt Cobain’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and Courtney Love’s ‘Celebrity Skin’. With the reprisal of the iconic fastening – first seen at the brand’s spring/summer 1994 show – the mood was clear: Versace had gone punk. 

Shaun Leane earring / Versace jumper / 16 Arlington skirt / Alexander McQueen boots (available in store)

 

 

There was an unmistakeable shift in mood this season, with punk influences dominating the cities of high glamour.

 

Ahead of the show, Donatella Versace said she’d been thinking about how life today is lived on screens, which has led to an obsession with perfection. Punk, with its spirit of rejecting the obvious choices and constructing something challenging and new, was her response. Indeed, as Selfridges’ Designer Womenswear Buyer, Philippa Holden, notes “there was an unmistakeable shift in mood this season, particularly at Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks, with punk influences dominating the cities of high glamour”. From Gucci’s dramatic spiked leather masks, designed to represent the sharp divide between our true selves and the persona we project, to Louis Vuitton’s antidote to homogenised wardrobes, a riot of textures, prints, punkish metal detailing, exaggerated ruffles and leather skullcaps – punk’s ideas of imperfection and individualism coursed defiantly through the cities’ shows. 

Kepler tank top / Omut chain tank top (coming soon) / Isabel Marant trousers / Alexander McQueen boots (available in store)
Bottega Veneta dress (coming soon) / Prada bag

In spite of all this, the season’s interpretation of punk does feel – dare we say it – wearable. Wearable punk might be an oxymoron, but this is the thing about it: there’s nothing very punk about laying down all kinds of rules about what you should and shouldn’t be wearing. So, if you want to edit punk details into something chic and modern, then go ahead. A peek of an Omut body chain under a classic black tank, perhaps. The punk police can hardly come and tell you off for breaking the rules, now can they? 

MM6 Maison Margiela dress (coming soon) / Amiri bag (coming soon)

 

 

It doesn’t always have to be so dark to count as a rebellion or to be punk. 

 

 

 

It doesn’t always have to be so dark to count as a rebellion or to be punk.

 

For Julia Cumming, our punk model muse (and lead singer of American band Sunflower Bean), “Rebelling can even involve being glam sometimes – it doesn’t always have to be so dark to count as a rebellion or to be punk.” Cue Ganni’s tiger-print dress, made from tiers of organza (arguably the most glamorous fabric out there) and new-to-Selfridges label Magda Butrym’s velvet LBD, complete with pearl and crystal straps. Punk made pretty.

Chrome Hearts necklace, ring and ring (available in store) / Ganni dress

 

 

You don’t literally have to have safety pins holding your top together, unless, of course, they are Versace.

 

Chrome Hearts necklace, necklace, ring and ring (available in store) /
Magda Butrym dress / Alexander McQueen shoes (available in store)
Chrome Hearts necklace, necklace, ring and ring (available in store) / Magda Butrym dress / Alexander McQueen shoes (available in store)

So, a form of punk that feels elevated with no rules? Almost. As Selfridges’ Lead Stylist, Molly Donovan, puts it: “You don’t literally have to have safety pins holding your top together, unless, of course, they are Versace.” 

Shop punk > 

Pretty in punk

Cobalt-blue eyeshadow, dramatic eye liner and a half-shaved head not really your thing? Luckily, neutral colours and subtle texture have turned edgy this season.

OUR TOP 5: PUNK MUSES

You don’t have to thrash a guitar to be punk. In essence, punk is a renegade attitude that urges us not to meekly accept the status quo. Here, we celebrate a wide range of women who are spearheading strong pockets of resistance. 

  • 1Julia Cumming

    Alongside modelling for our shoot and making her Glastonbury debut this year with her band Sunflower Bean, Julia Cumming is also the founder of New York-based activism initiative, Anger Can Be Power. The aim, she told us, is to “inspire people to think about activism in a different way and create unique situations for people to realise that, if they can make activism interesting for themselves, they can make it part of their lives.”

  • 2Greta Thunberg

    Last summer, aged 15, Greta Thunberg skipped school to protest outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change. On 15 March this year – the same month Thunberg received three nominations (from three Norwegian MPs) for the Nobel Peace Prize – an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting.

  • 3Greta Thunberg

    Last summer, aged 15, Greta Thunberg skipped school to protest outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change. On 15 March this year – the same month Thunberg received three nominations (from three Norwegian MPs) for the Nobel Peace Prize – an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting.

  • 4Greta Thunberg

    Last summer, aged 15, Greta Thunberg skipped school to protest outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change. On 15 March this year – the same month Thunberg received three nominations (from three Norwegian MPs) for the Nobel Peace Prize – an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting.

  • 5Greta Thunberg

    Last summer, aged 15, Greta Thunberg skipped school to protest outside the Swedish parliament about the need for immediate action to combat climate change. On 15 March this year – the same month Thunberg received three nominations (from three Norwegian MPs) for the Nobel Peace Prize – an estimated 1.4 million students in 112 countries around the world joined her call in striking and protesting.