Depending on your definition, punk began in one of two places. If you ask Patti Smith, it all began in the fetid bathrooms of New York’s CBGB. And if you ask Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, punk wouldn’t have even existed had Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood not sought to dress the heroes of London’s working class. Both observations speak to different and short-lived scenes that were aligned by one idea: chaos. So what do anarchy and destruction have to do with the elitist world of couture? Evidently, a lot. PUNK: Chaos to Couture, opening May 9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, succeeds in demonstrating this relationship by focusing on elements of customization, hardware, bricolage, graffiti, and deconstruction.
The first gallery takes you back to the roots of punk, providing fantastic recreations of the CBGB bathrooms and McLaren and Westwood’s Chelsea boutique, Seditionaires (later SEX). Between the two installations are a series of ready-to-wear items, made iconic by those who wore them, including Johnny Rotten's mohair sweaters, Adam Ant’s Two Cowboys T-shirt, and Jamie Reid’s God Save the Queen shirt. Leather bondage pants, also by McLaren and Westwood, stand alongside Rodarte’s knit dress from the Fall/Winter 2009 and Junya Watanabe’s tartan twill look from Fall/Winter 2007. The experience is a sensory overload: dizzying visuals (provided throughout by Nick Knight) and booming soundbites from McLaren and Westwood hurl you right back to the scene.
From there the gallery stretches into a hallway, lined with gowns characterized by their heavy hardware. Safety-pins combine panels on a Gianni Versace dress (think Liz Hurley), a heavy silver belt with padlock closure cinches a delicate tulle gown by Dolce and Gabbana, and brutish studs decorate Givenchy’s biker jacket. All at once, punk’s bender from the grimy streets to the ateliers of Paris, New York, Milan, Belgium, and Japan is made apparent.
The third gallery focuses on D.I.Y. bricolage, with gowns by Moschino, Hussein Chalayan, Prada, Helmut Lang, and John Galliano, as well as a number of Maison Martin Margiela pieces. Black trash bags, aluminum foil, bubble wrap, rubber, plate shards, Scotch tape, and bottle caps are just some of the materials used. Spray-painted ball gowns by Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, and Stephen Sprouse occupy the next room, which leads to the final gallery, themed "D.I.Y. Destroy". Deconstruction is an arena dominated by Rei Kawakubo and the gallery represents this with eight pieces from the Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2005 and Spring/Summer 2013 collections. Even Coco Chanel's precious little black jacket goes punk. The show closes, humorously, with a mannequin, dressed in Maison Martin Margiela, flippin' the bird. For a movement that reportedly only lived for 100 days, the feedback is as loud as ever.
Through August 14, 2013
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 5th Ave New York
NY 10028
MAP![]()
Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel, Vogue, March 2011. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph by David Sims
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Facsimile of CBGB
The first gallery takes you back to the roots of punk, providing fantastic recreations of the CBGB bathrooms and McLaren and Westwood’s Chelsea boutique, Seditionaires (later SEX). Between the two installations are a series of ready-to-wear items, made iconic by those who wore them, including Johnny Rotten's mohair sweaters, Adam Ant’s Two Cowboys T-shirt, and Jamie Reid’s God Save the Queen shirt. Leather bondage pants, also by McLaren and Westwood, stand alongside Rodarte’s knit dress from the Fall/Winter 2009 and Junya Watanabe’s tartan twill look from Fall/Winter 2007. The experience is a sensory overload: dizzying visuals (provided throughout by Nick Knight) and booming soundbites from McLaren and Westwood hurl you right back to the scene.
From there the gallery stretches into a hallway, lined with gowns characterized by their heavy hardware. Safety-pins combine panels on a Gianni Versace dress (think Liz Hurley), a heavy silver belt with padlock closure cinches a delicate tulle gown by Dolce and Gabbana, and brutish studs decorate Givenchy’s biker jacket. All at once, punk’s bender from the grimy streets to the ateliers of Paris, New York, Milan, Belgium, and Japan is made apparent.
The third gallery focuses on D.I.Y. bricolage, with gowns by Moschino, Hussein Chalayan, Prada, Helmut Lang, and John Galliano, as well as a number of Maison Martin Margiela pieces. Black trash bags, aluminum foil, bubble wrap, rubber, plate shards, Scotch tape, and bottle caps are just some of the materials used. Spray-painted ball gowns by Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, and Stephen Sprouse occupy the next room, which leads to the final gallery, themed "D.I.Y. Destroy". Deconstruction is an arena dominated by Rei Kawakubo and the gallery represents this with eight pieces from the Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2005 and Spring/Summer 2013 collections. Even Coco Chanel's precious little black jacket goes punk. The show closes, humorously, with a mannequin, dressed in Maison Martin Margiela, flippin' the bird. For a movement that reportedly only lived for 100 days, the feedback is as loud as ever.
Through August 14, 2013
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 5th Ave New York
NY 10028
MAP
Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel, Vogue, March 2011. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph by David Sims
Facsimile of CBGB