“Sense of Style” guides you to discover the fashion world, this month presents Punk, a style to be interpreted according to who created it.

PUNK RE-GENERATION exclusive interview with Malcolm McLaren.

Like a great music remix, the echoes of punk fashion is making itself heard. From designer catwalks to city streets around the world, outfits inspired from the punk movement of the ‘70s are popping up everywhere. Musical events like the famous “Punks wear Prada” reflect the current trend of mixing “high” fashion with “alternative” street fashion. Models embodying the “punk look”, like Alice Dellal, are becoming new style icons, and even glossy magazines like Vogue have featured Bob Geldof’s young, tattooed daughter on their covers. Today’s economic and political crisis is provoking reactions from all artistic sectors: fashion is becoming more aggressive, music is getting “harder”. Why? We’ve asked Malcolm McLaren—the true godfather of punk, a man who helped to create the movement and lived it first-hand—for his point of view.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MALCOLM MCLAREN

What’s the typical punk outif to you?
Red, spiky hair, tartan kilted bondage trousers (with the McLaren belt/
strap between its legs), a T-shirt that spells out the word, “Destroy”
over a psychedelic colored swastika, an upside down crucifix and an
English postage stamp of the Queen with her head decapitated.

What are your personal style tips?
My personal style tip is, if your costume doesn’t have a beat, in
other words, you can’t dance to it, or with it, it doesn’t groove, or
uncover and display the look of music, it may be not working. But,
you might be onto something else bigger than that

Does fashion follow music or vice-versa?
Fashion and music seem to go together like a horse and carriage. You
can’t have one without the other. Sometimes it begins with fashion,
sometimes music. Whatever the circumstances, what we can say is, that
it is all we had cared about passionately for the past fifty years or
more. Pop culture has seemingly ruled the way we think, act, and
reference, when it comes down to style.

Punk is a fashion trend or a form of protest?
Punk is a form of protest that extolls the virtues of every pre-
pubescent child’s desire– the sex, subversion, and style. It’s what
makes their heart beat, what takes the pillow off their head in the
morning, what makes them dress up to mess up… it is the absolute
cult of the amateur at its most virulent and has spread like a
contagious disease since its birth in the 70s. It is the ultimate
uniform of all those that wish to stretch the boundaries of sexual
provocation and political art. It is more than a trend. it is a map
of feelings of every new generation. It is a classic identity for the
cultural terrorist. Sadly, in recent years, it has at times been
utterly corrupted by corporate thinking and when such corporate
business succeeds in this regard, Punk has with it, descended into a
pathetic self-parody. It was a natural development of myself and a
young, virginal generation in the 70s, born in the store I designed,
called SEX on the King’s Road, Chelsea, in 1974. The alchemy that
took place then married bondage trousers, the explosion of the body
and declaration of war against repression by translating sex into
fashion and in doing so, make fetishism the very embodiment of youth.
The store SEX became a magical place. People spent hours there. No one
wanted to leave, and in it, I created a feeling that was both euphoric
and hysterical. You felt an enormous range of possibility that
whatever was happening couldn’t be predicted, but it was a movement
towards a place unknown.

Does talking about Punk still make sense today?
Punk remains enigmatic in the culture today. Unwilling to be
accepted, coopted, desired, and therefore, continues to be
uncontrollable irresponsible, and everything this society hates. The
cultural establishment (museums, governments, PR agencies and business
moguls) try and try and try again to buy its cool factor but it is not
for sale. Therefore, Punk is still the best conversation you can have
right now, pertinent at its core, brave in its past, romantic with its
future. It is an art thing and this never dies. It might become
unfashionable for a moment, but like all great artistic movements, it
supercedes such shallow criticism.

PUNK PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD