Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Contemporary street punks wear leather, denim, metal spikes or studs, chains and military-style boots, and often wear elements of early punk fashion such as kutten vests, bondage trousers (often plaid) and torn clothing. DIY-created and modified clothing is common — ripped or stitched-together trousers or shirts, trousers tightly tapered — and jackets and vests often carry patches or are painted with logos expressing musical tastes or political views. Bullet belts and belts with metal studs are popular, and hair is often spiked and dyed in bright, unnatural colors, arranged into a mohawk or liberty spikes, or sometimes cut very short or shaved.
In general, contemporary street punks wear leather, denim, metal spikes or studs, chains and military-style boots. They often wear elements of early punk fashion, such as kutten vests, bondage trousers (often plaid) and torn clothing.
DIY-created and modified clothing, such as ripped or stitched-together trousers or shirts, or trousers that are tightly tapered, are common. Jackets and vests often have patches or are painted with logos that express musical tastes or political views. Bullet belts and belts with metal studs are popular. Hair is often spiked and/or dyed in bright, unnatural colors and arranged into a mohawk or liberty spikes, but it is sometimes cut very short or shaved.
Oi! skinheads, sometimes known as skunks or punk-skinheads, fuse traditional skinhead style with street punk fashions. The look is characterized by Dr. Martens boots (or similar boots made by a different brand), braces, and tight rolled-up jeans, sometimes splattered with bleach. Other common items are T-shirts (featuring band names, political beliefs or other text and images relevant to skinhead culture) and denim jackets or flight jackets. These jackets are sometimes decorated with buttons or patches, and in the case of the denim jackets, sometimes splattered with bleach.
Hair is typically shaved shorter than with traditional skinheads. Other items from traditional skinhead fashion (e.g. Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts) and, to a lesser extent, punk fashion items (e.g. short mohawk hairstyles, metal studs on jackets) are also sometimes worn.
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youth. The Oi! movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic...and losing touch". André Schlesinger, singer of The Press, said, "Oi shares many similarities with folk music, besides its often simple musical structure; quaint in some respects and crude in others, not to mention brutally honest, it usually tells a story based in truth." For instance, “Such Fun”, from Oi! Oi! That's Yer Lot! by The Blood, is an extension of the 1977 Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen", which attacks the abuse of power by those who hold themselves in a royal or religious majesty.
Learn more about various punk fashion styles from the main page of this section.
Street punk is the branch of punk fashion that stayed closest to the original method: make it yourself and wear it hard. Ripped and stitched-together trousers, tapered legs altered by hand, jackets and kutten vests accumulated with patches and painted logos — the clothing is a working surface, modified continuously, and its value rises with wear rather than falling. The hardware follows the same logic: spikes, studs, chains and bullet belts are applied to ordinary leather and denim, converting shop-bought basics into subcultural uniform one rivet at a time.
Oi! singer André Schlesinger of The Press described the music as sharing similarities with folk music — “quaint in some respects and crude in others, not to mention brutally honest, it usually tells a story based in truth” — and the dress makes the same claim in cloth. The skinhead half of the style (boots, braces, rolled jeans, Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts) was already a working-class uniform before Oi! fused it with street punk's studs and shorter-shaved hair. Songs such as “Such Fun”, from Oi! Oi! That's Yer Lot! by The Blood, extended the 1977 Sex Pistols song “God Save the Queen” in attacking the abuse of power by those who hold themselves in royal or religious majesty — politics stated as plainly in the lyrics as the patches state it on the jackets.
A vest — the word comes from the German for a monk's habit — worn in street punk dress, typically denim or leather and covered with patches or painted logos that express the wearer's musical tastes or political views.
Oi! skinheads, sometimes known as skunks or punk-skinheads, fuse traditional skinhead style with street punk: Dr. Martens boots, braces and tight rolled-up jeans, sometimes splattered with bleach, band or political T-shirts, and denim or flight jackets decorated with buttons or patches. Their hair is typically shaved shorter than traditional skinheads'.
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youth, partly in response to the perception that early punk had become the province of “trendy university people.”