Above: Vivienne Westwood - 1990 documentary, part 1 | part 2
In a gaming community forum I frequent, we're discussing Hot Topic, a successful suburban and exurban mall store chain that sells watered down punk styled clothes and whose staff generally display disdain and indifference to most of their browsers and customers.
I've never shopped at Hot Topic myself, but I've been there a few times in the past, usually with my nephew H. when on trips to the mall with family. H. went through his suburban punk rebel phase in high school where he sported his 12 inch high crimson coloured mohawk (the real shaved head version, not the lame, cowardly full headed gelled vanilla version many suburban kids usually go for) and his suggestively violent all black style. He freaked out the teachers and admins at this school so much that the principal threatened to kick him out unless he toned it down. Heh..
Those who shop at (or avoid) Hot Topic should know that that store owes a great deal to the original punk movement of the 1970s in London and New York, when punk truly was a very original, very shocking politically and socially charged reactionary phenomenon. I know my niece K., a young California woman of style who herself went through a passionate rebellious phase during high school and college, collecting tattoos and cutting her hair anime style and dying it orange (intently and effectively shocking and alienating her staid parents), would appreciate this blog post.
The World's End shop on King's Road in London. " Until 1829 the Kings Road was a private royal road leading from Hampton Court to the Palace at Westminster, and only those with a Kings’ pass could use it. The Swinging Sixties brought the King's Road to fame as both Beatles and Rolling Stones members lived here at one time. In the 1970s the King's Road saw the birth of the punk movement when Malcolm Mclaren opened a rock boutique, with the band The Sex Pistols launched from the shop in 1975. The shop still exists and has a large clock outside that runs very fast backwards. The Kings Road today is a busy artery, packed with fashion shops full with young people looking for designer items. " - Tourblaze.com
During the 1970s there were creative types in fashion and music who led the way, and among the most important, masterful, and influential was British designer Vivienne Westwood. She with her partner Malcolm McLaren explored, and exploited, the styles, symbology, and meaning of subculture and fetishes (S&M, pornography, bondage, anarchism). You can very easily trace back stores like Hot Topic to Ms. Westwood's 'designer punk' boutique World's End on London's King's Road and her aptly named collection of cutting edge clothing (Seditionaries, Sex, Let It Rock, etc.).
My only regret is that I was never able to acquire some of her clothing, but I did find some British streetwear designer stuff to wear back then.
Anyway, I have no ill will towards Hot Topic myself. I think many times the staff's general indifference, conceit, and their lack of professionalism and good customer service belie their boredom with their lame suburban or exurban life, and feelings of cultural and social isolation. Around their age (teens, early twenties) they're still questioning their own self-worth, accomplishments (or lack thereof), and wondering about their place in the world. I think it's just a phase that most of them will eventually outgrow.
The ancestors of Hot Topic and punk? Philosopher Socrates, and 17th century reactionary Guy Fawkes.
And yet that passionately expressive reactionary phase has a historical lineage threading back centuries, from the intellectual young rebels of ancient Greece (spearheaded by cutting edge philosophers like Socrates) to the intensity of Guy Fawkes in early 17th century London, to the Dada artists and writers in early 20th century Paris with their manifestos, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation in San Francisco and New York during the late 40s and 1950s, the hippie movement of the 60s, and of course punk in the 70s and early 80s.
I've never shopped at Hot Topic myself, but I've been there a few times in the past, usually with my nephew H. when on trips to the mall with family. H. went through his suburban punk rebel phase in high school where he sported his 12 inch high crimson coloured mohawk (the real shaved head version, not the lame, cowardly full headed gelled vanilla version many suburban kids usually go for) and his suggestively violent all black style. He freaked out the teachers and admins at this school so much that the principal threatened to kick him out unless he toned it down. Heh..
I'm pretty much a child of the 80s and back then I was in art school in Chicago (where I grew up) studying design, art history, and studio classes, and used to buy some of my clothes and accessories from stores like 99th Floor, The Alley, various vintage shops, Salvation Army stores, Army and Navy surplus stores, and big sales at otherwise posh places like Marshall Field's, City, and Parachute. These were some of the original sources that we poor city kids and starving art students had and it was great shopping. You got to mingle with many true hardcore types who worked in the art & design fields, were local musicians and band members, and staffed or owned nightclubs and concert venues.
Top left to right: Original 'designer punk', 1970s. Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. | White gold plated diamond safety pin necklace. Vivienne Westwood. Price - $1,520. | Bottom: "Bondage" suit, 1976. Vivienne Westwood (British, born 1941); Malcolm McLaren (British, born 1941); Black cotton with metal fittings. "Bondage" pants, late 1970s Vivienne Westwood (British, born 1941); Malcolm McLaren (British, born 1946); Black cotton sateen with two-piece matching black wool over-kilt.
Those who shop at (or avoid) Hot Topic should know that that store owes a great deal to the original punk movement of the 1970s in London and New York, when punk truly was a very original, very shocking politically and socially charged reactionary phenomenon. I know my niece K., a young California woman of style who herself went through a passionate rebellious phase during high school and college, collecting tattoos and cutting her hair anime style and dying it orange (intently and effectively shocking and alienating her staid parents), would appreciate this blog post.
The World's End shop on King's Road in London. " Until 1829 the Kings Road was a private royal road leading from Hampton Court to the Palace at Westminster, and only those with a Kings’ pass could use it. The Swinging Sixties brought the King's Road to fame as both Beatles and Rolling Stones members lived here at one time. In the 1970s the King's Road saw the birth of the punk movement when Malcolm Mclaren opened a rock boutique, with the band The Sex Pistols launched from the shop in 1975. The shop still exists and has a large clock outside that runs very fast backwards. The Kings Road today is a busy artery, packed with fashion shops full with young people looking for designer items. " - Tourblaze.com
During the 1970s there were creative types in fashion and music who led the way, and among the most important, masterful, and influential was British designer Vivienne Westwood. She with her partner Malcolm McLaren explored, and exploited, the styles, symbology, and meaning of subculture and fetishes (S&M, pornography, bondage, anarchism). You can very easily trace back stores like Hot Topic to Ms. Westwood's 'designer punk' boutique World's End on London's King's Road and her aptly named collection of cutting edge clothing (Seditionaries, Sex, Let It Rock, etc.).
My only regret is that I was never able to acquire some of her clothing, but I did find some British streetwear designer stuff to wear back then.
Anyway, I have no ill will towards Hot Topic myself. I think many times the staff's general indifference, conceit, and their lack of professionalism and good customer service belie their boredom with their lame suburban or exurban life, and feelings of cultural and social isolation. Around their age (teens, early twenties) they're still questioning their own self-worth, accomplishments (or lack thereof), and wondering about their place in the world. I think it's just a phase that most of them will eventually outgrow.
The ancestors of Hot Topic and punk? Philosopher Socrates, and 17th century reactionary Guy Fawkes.
And yet that passionately expressive reactionary phase has a historical lineage threading back centuries, from the intellectual young rebels of ancient Greece (spearheaded by cutting edge philosophers like Socrates) to the intensity of Guy Fawkes in early 17th century London, to the Dada artists and writers in early 20th century Paris with their manifestos, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation in San Francisco and New York during the late 40s and 1950s, the hippie movement of the 60s, and of course punk in the 70s and early 80s.
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1 comment:
I liked to wear dark but punky clothes back in high school because I felt like it represented how I felt - rebellious, gloomy, angry at times. They were also affordable clothes and most of the time I actually found this style in Goodwill on Haight Street in SF or even in Berkeley. Like you, I don't really have any ill will towards Hot Topic, but it was too trendy for me and nothing looked original anyway. My close girlfriend Bianca always wore punk clothes but she made them herself - torn clothes hemmed onto sleeves from another T-shirt, all of her stuff was frankensteined like most punk clothes I would say we adorned every day. Anyway, thank you for the insight on Punk history in reference to the style and culture. Would have loved to hang with you during that time when you went through that phase yourself!
P.S. Most of those kids that work at Hot Topic are posers. They aren't very nice and they have lax lives in their world of suburbia so their only way of looking cool and fitting in is to appear as though their life sucks. Yes, I'm mean.
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