Rebel, Rebel |
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| Written by Nicola Hyland | |
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You're not leaving the house in that! From gals being lads, to the rise of punks and goths, we looks at rebellious movements that have reshaped popular fashion.
Throughout the years, parents have faced the prospect of their precious offspring falling prey to the lure of Rebellious Fashion. For those who choose to stand against 'the establishment', fashion has continued to be an influential outlet for expressions of rebellion. From the inappropriate to the brazen, the openly defiant to the just plain scary, the fashion choices of society’s 'rebels' not only reflect contemporary culture, but have also made an enormous impact on the fashion industry itself. As societal taboos are challenged and longstanding rules over-ruled, rebellious fashion has become increasingly more extreme - and ultimately more acceptable in an age where anything goes. Bloomin' Scandalous A man in the nineteenth century might have been forgiven for thinking that women had no legs at all. The idea that a woman might bare anything beyond her ankles was simply scandalous. So when the Rational Dress Movement was introduced in England in the 1880s – its innovators hoping to reform women’s fashion into something more practical – the hysterical scoffing of the naive male population rang throughout the land. Nevertheless, leaders of the suffragette movement saw the idea of women's trousers - along with the 'emancipation from corsets' – as a huge step in gaining greater freedom and equality for women. Influenced by traditional costumes worn by women in the Middle East and central Asia, pants pioneers Libby Millar and Elizabeth Cady Stanton promoted loose trouser styles with a short dress or skirt and vest combination. The editor of women’s reform magazine 'The Lily', Amelia Bloomer became a devoted advocate of the trouser style that would eventually bear her own name – the bloomers. While trousers became a practical alternative for female athletes, manual workers and leisure bicyclers, Victorian society deemed women in trousers to be both unfeminine and unpatriotic. Female pants wearers were seen as 'gender benders' – bohemian artists and novelists who wore men's clothing simply to shock and scandalise. Even up to the mid Twentieth century, trousers on women were seen as either last-resort practical necessity, or the choice of loud-mouthed feminists. Celebrity rebels Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Lauren Bacall brought chic women’s trousers to the big screen, yet it was not until the 1960s that the fashion industry began actively marketing trousers to a demanding female populace. Rock and Rebel The explosive influence of Rock and Roll music in the 1950s brought with it a new culture of defiant fashion amongst a generation of rebellious youths. With Marlon Brando in The Wild One and James Dean in Rebel without a Cause, young wannabe motorcycle studs went out and brought leather jackets, jeans and – most scandalous of all – plainly visible t-shirts. T-shirts were introduced as a comfortable form of underwear, worn mainly by men in the military, around the outbreak of World War One. The t-shirt worn as outwear represented a new-found machismo and loosened morality amongst young 'wild' men. Mothers gasped as their sons left the house in only a tee, their hair slicked back and their attitude adjusted to 'cool'. As the youth became obsessed with the rock and roll culture, the establishment attempted to curb the growth of 'gangs' of young people "hanging out" at popular music spots and causing chaos with their anti-authoritarian views. The US government wanted to promote the image of clean-cut young men in crisp shirts, with nice manners and patriotic fervour. Yet rebellion to all forms of authority would continue to grow and take on a whole new look in the 1960s. Flower Power Fashion A new dawn of rebel culture celebrating sex, drugs and freedom of expression in fashion appeared when the Hippie movement began in the late 1960s. Hair became long on women and men – a visual protest against the shaved heads and conformity of the military service. Rebellious Hippie fashion saw garish bright colours, tie-dyed fabrics and plaid patterns in a new psychedelic style. Eastern influences in fashion flaunted societal fear and repression of experimental drugs and the spiritual 'unknown'. Perhaps the most rebellious fashion statement of all – nudity – was the ultimate expression of defiance against the rules and regulations of parental and Government control. With the growing contempt for the Vietnam War, a youthful protest movement in the United States used fashion as a means of expressing outrage. The creation of t-shirts with powerful slogans ["Make love not War"] shaped a continuing tradition of young radicals wearing their hearts, literally on their sleeves (or chest). While the image of rebel leader Che Guevara still creates enormous revenue in the fashion industry, new images stir controversy even today. Recently in Australia, a t-shirt featuring the face of George W Bush and the slogan "Number One Terrorist" caused a man to be refused entry on a commercial flight. Go ahead, Punk One of the most controversial and confrontational rebellious fashion trends is that of the Punk culture. With its roots in Britain during the 1970s, the punk movement celebrated anarchy at its most potent. The influence of designer Vivienne Westwood and punk music icons the Sex Pistols and the Ramones saw a growing population of angry youths sporting ripped clothing, studded leather and denim jackets and vests and angry slogans. As punk music and style became more 'hardcore' in the 1980s, the punk fashion look cemented, with staples including patches with anarchic images and symbols, fishnet stockings, heavy Doc Marten boots, body piercings and plaid skirts. A DIY approach saw the use of the safety pin as a punk fashion must-have as well as the growth (literally) of the most iconic aspect of the punk movement – the Mohawk. Inspired by traditional hairdos of the Mohican American Indian tribe, the huge bright coloured spikes of the Mohawk and Liberty Spike epitomised an extreme rebellious culture. While a minority of confirmed 'true' punks hold true to the ethos of the original punk movement, a recent youth-oriented fashion culture of sanitised punk has emerged thanks to the influence of 'pop punks' such as Avril Lavinge and the Veronicas. A new generation of teens wearing brand-new Sex Pistol t-shirts have turned the original rebellious nature of 'punk' into a parent-friendly mainstream fad. You Goth the look A component of the original punk scene, Goth culture influenced a community of youthful rebels characterised as being obsessed with death, darkness and general miserable behaviour. Inspired by 18th century horror/mystery literature and the legend of a rebellious Germanic tribe of barbarians, Goth fashion has long been associated with eccentric vampire-inspired dark clothing. Goths are generally seen in dramatic, elaborate black outfits, accessorised with bondage gear, very pale make-up, dark eyes and intricate religious symbols. Like punk, the Goth look has become more and more mainstream, with the brief re-introduction of Victorian corsetry and the growing popularity of a pale 'English rose' look in mainstream fashion. The growth of pop-Goth musical acts – such as Evanescence - has also promoted a kind of sanitised homage to Goth styles in youth fashion. 'Emo' culture – inspired by 80s band The Cure, fuses Goth influences with a kind of androgynous 60s ‘mod look’ characterised by modern devotees of the band 'My Chemical Romance'. Smells like Grunge Kurt Cobain – with his lank unwashed hair and old-man cardigans - inspired not only a generation of music-makers, but also the fashion of a seemingly unloved youth in the 1990s. With the anthem for disenchanted adolescents - "Smells like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana motivated millions of kids to forgo showers and seek high fashion from the Salvation Army reject bin. Grunge began to represent a blasé attitude to fashion, where it paid to look as though you had just got out of your bed after a three month hard-partying orgy. Cobain's downward retreat into drug addiction and despair coincided with the growth of a new rebellious fashion statement: 'Heroic Chic.' Pioneered by Vincent Gallo's Calvin Klein advertisements featuring Kate Moss, 'Heroin chic' seemed to glamorise an emaciated, sunken-eyed anti-fashion movement inspired by drug addicts and wastrels. With the timely release of the cult film Trainspotting, millions of parents worldwide were alarmed at the promotion of a culture encouraging a menu of illicit drugs and live-short/die-young philosophy. Calvin Klein may have changed their advertising, but the continued lauding of Moss as a fashion icon – perhaps even because of her partying lifestyle – signals the pervasiveness of the grunge/post-grunge style in mainstream fashion. You're Grounded Today’s youth have to go to far more extravagant lengths to be fashion rebels. Dreadlocks and piercings may come and go, but nothing says "Take that, Mum and Dad" like the time-honoured tattoo. Not long ago, a short skirt or a low-cut top was enough to outrage the average parent; today it might take a flesh-tunnel piercing or a Britney-style head shave to have the same effect. No matter what form of rebellious fashion you take, the chances are that in a few years time you will look back and say "What was I thinking?!" |
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