Punk Designs of Malcolm Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood

In the mid-1970s, a defining fashion style known as punk emerged in the fashion industry. Fashion is known to begin with various ways in a particular section of the larger society. Punk started through a genre of as Punk rock. In this case, fans of to develop their own style of dressing, promoted by new designers of particular types of clothes to define their identity. On many occasions, the styles were influenced by so many factors related to the politics of the day or . The popularity of Punk is attributed to the Rockers of the 1960s, who aspired to develop their own identity and a means in which they would form their own sub-culture and alienate themselves from mainstream society (Hart 2008).

Considered to have a diverse origin, the general agreement is that Punk emanated from a wave of new sub-culture of British society in the mid-1970s. Many such as Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren operated a series of shops selling punk-designed clothes. These were years of by the peoples somewhat bleak future (Hart 2008). In fact, there was a lot of social dissatisfaction and the state was not able to control the emerging social pressure despite facing the threat of collapse. According to OByrne (2009, p.27), punk was the most extreme and nihilistic expression of aggressiveness against the state machinery, although it may have had just a few hardcore supporters. This paper discusses the origin of the Punk style with particular reference to the designs of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood between (1974- 79).