A Short History of Defiance in British Fashion

A Short History of Defiance in British Fashion

By Chili Palmer

Gender Fluid

Harry Styles made history last year as the first man to appear solo on the front cover of Vogue, although his gender fluid fashion choice recalls a long history of binary breaking fashion by legendary British rock stars. The 2020 cover line reads: ‘Harry Styles makes his own rules’, featuring him in a lace Gucci gown paired with a masculine tuxedo jacket. While it’s great to see this mainstream publication reflect a dismantling of gender through fashion, I want to acknowledge the icons who first tore up the rulebook.

Gender fluid fashion was first brought into mainstream culture through rock stars of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as Rock music is known for its divergence from societal norms and daring disobedience. The 1960s saw Mick Jagger emerge as a style icon, secondary to his musical fame. He was a lover of bold suits in feminine cuts with oversized lapels (recently emulated by Styles), and performed with the Rolling Stones wearing a white flouncy dress in 1969; this diversity anticipated the growing swing towards androgynous style in modern fashion.

Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger by Leni Riefenstahl for The Sunday Times, 1974. Wearing suit by iconic tailor Tommy Nutter.

Harry Styles wearing Marc Jacobs at the Brit Awards 2020. © Richard Young/ Shutterstock

 

In the 1970s, the emergence of Glam Rock and its experimental spirit was epitomised by David Bowie and his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, transcending contemporary ideas of gender and sexuality. This subversive style and flamboyance was carried into the 1980s by the king of Queen, Freddie Mercury, who post-Glam Rock was inspired by the 1980s’ gay and club kid scene.

Subcultures

Moving away from the mainstream, a lasting defiant fashion sense was also cultivated by Britain’s subcultures which while varied, reflected the rebellious nature of Rock.  A prominent example of this phenomenon was Punk, which stemmed from Punk Rock music that rejected the extravagance of mainstream 1970s rock. Namely, London bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned. Embracing a DIY ethic, many bands self-produced their political and anti-establishment music, distributing it through independent record labels. By 1976 in the UK, Punk became a radical cultural phenomenon, and its DIY ethic and contempt for conformity was reflected in its style.

Vivienne Westwood, London, 1977

Distinctive fashions were adorned with safety pins and studs, incorporating elements of BDSM fetish clothing and often advertising anti-authoritarian slogans. Legendary fashion designer Vivienne Westwood embodied this movement as validated by her nickname, the “Mother of Punk”. Her then partner Malcolm McLaren, with whom she owned a boutique on the King’s Road, was the manager of the Sex Pistols who she created numerous pieces for, such as her iconic “God Save the Queen” t-shirt.

Other subcultures such as Skinheads, for example, had a much more precise wardrobe, relying on the impact of their uniform to convey their defiance. Emerging in the 1960s out of working-class solidarity and feelings of alienation, the first skinheads were apolitical and influenced strongly by reggae culture and rudeboys (despite their later associations with far-right and nationalist politics). Their look consisted of a shaved head, straight-leg jeans, braces, MA-1 bomber jackets and the classic Doc Martens boots.

While Doc Martens were worn by people from all walks of life, skinheads made them their own, charging them with countercultural potential as recounted by photographer and original skinhead Gavin Watson: “The way we cut off the leather at the front to reveal the steel caps – those boots were seen as weaponry”. Paralleling the punk DIY spirit, their reworking of a single mainstream item presents an alternative manifestation of defiance, creating an impactful subversion with an everyday staple.

Doc Martens boots with exposed steel toecaps, (1969), photo by Stefano Archetti.

Police surrounding skinheads – both groups sporting Doc Martens, Southend-on-Sea, (1982)

Westwood and McQueen

By 1981, Westwood’s fame within the Punk movement and her London boutique reached such heights that she entered the realm of high fashion. Her first collection, “Pirate,” inspired by pirates and a ‘plundering’ of history, proved her disruptive nature to be intrinsic to her design despite having shifted from the margins to the centre of the international fashion stage. In fact, at the time of her first collection she asserted: “My job has always been to confront the establishment…I don’t really want to talk that much about fashion. It’s only interesting to me if it’s subversive”. Westwood maintained this commitment to subversion throughout her career, taking traditional British fabrics such as Harris Tweeds and tartans and transforming them into her unique asymmetrical silhouettes, symbolic of her status as both fashion’s icon and iconoclast.

Unisex designs on show at Vivienne Westwood’s Pirate Show, Olympia, London, (1981)

 

Her quintessential subversion was her revival of corsetry, (which is now enjoying a resurgence in popularity). Westwood was in fact the first designer to take the controversial garment from underwear to outerwear, first producing them as daywear in her fetish collections of the 1970s. She went on to refine the garment in her couture collections such as ‘Harris Tweed’ (AW 1987-88) and ‘Time Machine’ (AW 1988-89). Pertinently, she named the corset of her ‘Harris Tweed’ collection ‘Stature of Liberty,’ emphasising her reframing of the constricting undergarment into a bold assertion of women’s liberation.

Model Erin O’ Connor on the runway for McQueen’s 2001 show: VOSS

While Westwood is famed for her unique historical reimagining, Alexander McQueen was notorious for his bold exploration of dark themes not usually approached in fashion. From his 1992 graduate collection from Central Saint Martin’s titled “Jack the Ripper stalking his victims”, until his tragic suicide in 2010, his work was as contentious as it was admired. In his unforgettable runways he pushed a complex narrative, embracing a raw sense of destruction alongside the beauty of his garments. While shaking up the industry, his shows were unparalleled in their artistry and feminist sensibility, encapsulated in his statement: “I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress”. This attitude was reflected in the way he coached his models to approach the runway, encouraging them to walk like ferocious feral animals in his 1997 A/W show ‘It’s a Jungle Out There’, contrasting the vacant mode favoured by modern catwalks. One of his most unforgettable runway moments has to be from his 2001 show ‘Voss’, where models with bandaged heads performed as patients within an asylum style set. McQueen encouraged the models to inhabit a mindset of delusion and destruction, but gave them free reign to express their own emotions as described by Erin O’Connor in a SHOWStudio interview with Nick Knight. The dress she wore for ‘Voss’ was created entirely from razor clams, which she destroyed during the show upon McQueen’s instruction. She ran her hands up and down the dress causing them to break and smash to the ground, conveying a sense of destruction as she cut her hands in the process, but also a powerful freedom in the spontaneity of her performance and shocking impairment of the fragile couture gown.

J W Anderson’s eco-conscious ‘Made in Britain’ collection, (2020).

Sustainability Today

With the modern move towards sustainable fashion, the meaning of defiance has majorly shifted. In an increasingly troubled planet, defiance on the part of the consumer has become an opting out of the fast fashion industry: buying vintage or second hand, or from sustainably made or eco-friendly brands. For designers, there is increasing independence with platforms such as Instagram and Depop allowing space for and spotlighting small businesses. This move reflects, albeit in a more wholesome way, the anti-consumerist DIY philosophy of punk. Companies are increasingly being held responsible to be transparent about the sustainability of their manufacturing, as in a recent study, almost two thirds (62%) of British consumers admitted they would stop buying from a brand if they discovered them to be detrimental to the environment. In addition, one fifth (20%) of consumers say they are fully committed to only purchasing from sustainable brands, marking a major change in the industry. Vivienne Westwood has herself been spearheading this movement from within the industry itself, warning us, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes”. The continued power and defiance of her political messaging within her designs, is now projected through her activism. It is also worth noting that binary gendered fashions are still being dismantled, with recent British designers at the helm: Charles Jeffrey of Loverboy, non-binary designer Harris Reed and genderless label ART SCHOOL directed by designer Eden Loweth.

 

Finally, while the meaning of defiance has certainly shifted, people are still finding creative ways to express themselves. Using fashion as a channel for political statements and an expression of diversity and empowerment.  Britain has been a powerhouse in supporting those brands and their audience as we vote with our feet to defy the mainstream.  The demise of so many mainstream brands and shops is a testament perhaps to how the consumer also gets their say!

Vivienne Westwood protesting at the Climate March, London, (2015)