The next Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute theme has been set for next May, and it chronicles and celebrates a fashion movement that was so huge, so revolutionary, and so significant, that Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton said it "broke all the rules when it came to fashion, and everything became possible after [it]."
That movement is punk, and the Met's exhibit, "Punk: Chaos to Couture" will detail the dual-city origins of punk (the musical movements that started in downtown New York and the political/social movement in London), the early designers that dressed the movement (Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren), and the eventual appropriation by high fashion (starting with Zandra Rhodes).
Says Bolton, "Punk has had one of the biggest influences on fashion over the past 30 years, and sometimes people wear punk without even realizing it." Its legacy? High-low mixing, DIY, deconstruction, purposeful dishevelment — basically all the stuff that makes fashion accessible and fun. (WWD)
