Impact of sub culture on fashion

                                              “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

-         Yves Saint Laurent

Fashion is forever changing, but style stays forever. Style is something personal and it reflects every individual’s character. Changes in fashion were seen throughout the 20^th century. They may be minor or major changes but there is always something distinct in clothing of one period from another.

These changes can be due to practical reasons, like changes in women’s clothing during World War II, or something due to popular influence like introduction of the Little Black Dress by Chanel in 1926.

Subculture is a group of people within a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. It is the want of being authentic that creates a subculture, the urge of defying the mainstream and finding their own distinct identity.

  

 

 Fashion is influenced by wars, conquests, law, religion and the arts. Similarly, the inspiration to develop a subculture comes from society, economy, movies, intellectual and cultural climate, fantasy, innovation, music movements, and many such factors. Being part of subculture is being molded by historical events and cultural phenomena.

Fashion subcultures are based upon certain features of costume, appearance and adornment that make them unusual from the rest and it depends on fashion for its existence. Gothic, hippie, grunge, punk, minimalistic, emo, heavy metal, boho, hipster are some of the major subcultures.

 

Punk

Punk fashion first began in United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States in the mid 1970s.punk subculture centers around punk rock, ideology, fashion, visual art, literature, dance and films. It is generally associated with loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock.

Punk fashion is described as the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, and jewelry, tattoos and body modifications of the punk subculture.

Early punk fashion adapted everyday objects for aesthetic effect, such as band t-shirts, leather jackets with metal studs and spikes, footwear like converse, dr. martens and combat boots. Crew cut hairstyle, arm pants and hooded sweatshirts are also worn as punk fashion.

Punk fashion has been popularized by many well established fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Gothic

Gothic is a contemporary subculture that began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post punk genre. Its imagery and cultures show influences from 19^th century gothic literature and horror films. Gothic fashion has borrowed styles from Elizabethan, Victorian and medieval periods. 

Gothic fashion is associated with stark black clothing and dark makeup. It is stereotyped as conspicuously dark, eerie, mysterious, complex and exotic. Ted Polhemus described Goth fashion as a “profusion of black velvets, lace, fishnets and leather tinged with scarlet or purple accessorized with corsets, gloves, precarious stilettos and silver jewelry depicting religious and occult themes.”

 Designers like Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Jean Paul Gaultier have brought elements of Goth to the runway. It was described as “Haute Goth” by Cintra Wilson in the New York Times.

Subculture has always been a part of, and will always depend on, fashion for its existence.