We break down the Vintage Style of doyen of punk, Malcolm McLaren, on what would have been his 77th birthday
walked down the Kings Road wearing a replica of Elvis’ blue lame suit. That day he would be given the keys to his first shop, which he would run with the then-unknown designer Vivienne Westwood. He called it Let It Rock and the rest, as they say, is history.
McLaren created the sartorial signature of the 1970s punk era, responsible for torn vintage T-shirts, dog collars and spikes. He coined the term ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ and designed the infamous swastika T-shirt worn by Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols, whom McLaren managed. He fused pop culture, art and fashion, pioneering thick-soled ‘brothel creeper’ shoes, Teddy Boy suits and tartan.
"He fused pop culture, art and fashion, pioneering thick-soled ‘brothel creeper’ shoes, Teddy Boy suits and tartan" ‘Let It Rock’ went under several names - Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Sex, Seditionaries and eventually World’s End. This was all part of McLaren’s clever marketing drive to keep people interested. It pushed sexual taboos with rubber curtains and printed T-shirts featuring semi-naked cowboys by US artist Jim French, topless models and pornographic text from the book School of Wives by Alexander Trocchi.
McLaren passed away in 2010 after a long battle with cancer, leaving the world with the same unexpected shock with which he arrived, bequeathing a legacy of punk and all that it encapsulated, a maverick spirit that still beats on today. The Malcolm McLaren award was established in 2011 to celebrate, perhaps ironically, his anarchic influence on modern culture.
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