An alternative thought to last Thursday’s post about the cosy conviviality of the Alaïa cafe-bookshop.
Reading Sheila Rock’s excellent 2020 photo book, Young Punks, her photo of the decidedly uninviting facade of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s 1976 SEX shop (above) revealed an audacious weirdness with intimidating appeal that lured people in out of sheer curiosity. (more…)
Did you enjoy yesterday’s post on Alex Michon and her punk style evolution? If so, there’s more. I asked her to unearth some photos for me and as well as the photos (apologies for the bad quality – they’re not scans, but hey, it’s punk innit), she emailed more commentary that I couldn’t resist adding.
So here is Part 2.
I hope you’ll find it as fascinating as I do. Alex was adamant she wanted photos that showed her as she really was – a ‘shy punk’ and not a poser. However, a lot of her photos do show her posing in her designs as a way of documenting the work. So I couldn’t really not include them – sorry Alex! (more…)
In December 2020, I interviewed my friend, the artist, writer and a director of Transition Gallery, Alex Michon for an article for Bon Magazine called ‘Can what you wear change who you are?’ I could only feature a couple of her soundbites in the piece, but on recently rediscovering the transcript, I realised she had some incredible insights into a pivotal time for young women and their attitude to clothes and self-expression. I spoke to her about her years designing and making clothes (alongside her friend Krystyna Kolowska) for The Clash at the peak of their influence along with her own personal style metamorphosis as a reaction to living in 1970s Britain. (more…)
‘We sat on the stairs watching a group of football fans and erstwhile hooligans who were sat a few steps below us as they hugged and (literally) made daisy chains together. Andrew [Wetherall] gestured towards them and half-whispered: “He’s a Chelsea fan, that one’s Millwall, those two are ICF [West Ham’s Inter City firm of hardcore fans], he’s Arsenal and I’m not sure about those two wrong-‘uns behind them but you can bet that a couple of weeks ago they’d have happily been kicking chunks out of each other. This “Summer of Love” thing could be getting out of hand.”‘
This quote from Dave Swindells comes from his new photo book documenting the Acid House raves, warehouse parties and clubs of 1988, the year that dance music changed British culture and society (if you want to get really deep). (more…)
