'I speak through my clothes' - Eco, 1973

The clothes they wore showed genuine signs of aggression and angst; rips, tears and tight fitting. Although they constructed this look within their own language it was also a language that was ‘current’ and spoke to people. Hebdige says that this accounts ‘first, for the appropriateness of the punk metaphor for both the members of the subculture and its opponents and, second, for the success of the punk subculture as spectacle: its ability to symptomatise a whole cluster of contemporary problems.’  They served as a sign of something undesirable; a ‘symptom’ as it were of ‘Broken Britain’. 

Punks took everyday objects and turned them into something else, a symbol of the subculture. Uninteresting and unremarkable Items such a s safety pins were taken from being used as a household utility and used as decorations as it were - shoved through cheeks, ears, lips etc. Even lavatory chains made their way into the punks wardrobe, draped across chests and hanging from ripped trousers etc. Although the clothes themselves were destined to be offensive (swear words, slogans etc) they punks made it so even their 'ornaments' were offensive. They wore cheap materials like pvc and plastic,; they wanted to look trashy hence the regular appearance of mock leopard print and 'nasty' colours.

The idea that make-up was a feminine luxury was also discarded; despite advice from several women's magazines make-up was worn to be seen by both females and males. 'Faces became abstract portraits: sharply observed and meticulously executed studies in alienation'. Hair was dyed crazy colours, bleached, spiked into mohicans, coloured tufts and featuring question marks.

't-shirts and trousers told the story of their own construction with multiple zips and outside seams clearly displayed. The perverse and the abnormal were valued intrinsically.'