Punk Style

“Why are some subcultures traditional and others progressive? How are seemingly mundane design symbols powerfully meaningful? These types of questions have driven the author’s study of punk style. Based on powerful interview data, this timely book examines the past influences, contemporary manifestations and future directions of this iconic style.” ―Dr David Muggleton, University of Chichester, UK

“’Punk’s Not Dead’ is a slogan one still occasionally sees scrawled in crude letters on the back of a battered leather jacket. Monica Sklar’s Punk Style shows that writing about Punk is also very much still alive. Too often those who have written about Punk cover what happened on one side of the Atlantic only. Or they focus on the music while ignoring the look (or vice versa). Punk Style makes none of these mistakes. Here’s a clear, compact account of how and why Punk changed everything. Not just another, yet another subculture, Punk ushered in the post-modern age and Sklar shows how it is still gleefully ripping holes in a once coherent and comforting space-time continuum. How delightfully ironic that ‘No Future’ has kept on keeping on.” ―Ted Polhemus, author of Street Style (2010) and Fashion and Anti-Fashion (2011), UK

“…Punk Style examines the dress of this incredibly diverse, long-lasting and hugely influential subculture and its impact on mainstream fashion. Taking a comprehensive approach, the book includes a historical overview, a discussion of motivations behind dress practices, and a review of fashion cycles and merchandising methods. The book explores how this dominant subcultural style continues to expand via the internet, youth buying-power, and the constant re-appropriation of its distinctive styles.” ―Costume Society of America

“For that next generation, who may, as [author] Sklar has noted, be able to find and understand the history and legacy of punk style through the Internet, Sklar’s own contribution here will help continue that history and offer a set of perspectives and consideration on what punk style has, does and can mean.” ―Fashion, Society & Popular Culture