With my research I want to find new ways to express punk through clothing. I believe that the initial ideology behind punk has been somewhat exploited for commercial reasons and therefore I think it’s important to bring back the values broad up by punks. My conclusion through visual research was that punk clothing and fashion does not have the same shock value as it did in the 70’s and 80’s. The original punk clothing is not relevant to punk music today but has rather gained popularity in high fashion. Together with an all-girl-punk-band, Gomme, I’ve made a collection of wearable pieces for their music video of their song ‘February Song’.

As I was simultaneously working on a side project I felt like the past month has been just cutting, stitching and sewing - rapid production without much planning. I am used to making proper designs and measured patterns before starting to make the final pieces of clothing. I usually make tryouts, mockups and drapings out of white canvas before even touching the final fabric. Therefore it was exciting to throw away everything I’ve learned during the past 3,5 + years and just start expressing my vision. I wanted the errors to be visual by showing raw unfinished seams and unflattering fits. To me it was the closest way to mirror the do-it-yourself -mentality of what punk represents. None of the garments are actually practical which, to me, reflects to the functionality of fashion industry of today.

It was important for me to work with a band consisting of only girls for female empowerment, and so the pieces I made are physically connected to each other illustrating the collective effort which I believe to be parallel to punk ideologies as well and feminine power. For that reason, I thought it was also important to use materials that matter to me personally. The fabrics used in the garments used to belong to my grandmother, from whom I’ve learned to express myself as a girl I am today. Using her old fabrics also creates a dialog between generations.

To Gomme, the fact that they are an all-girl band plays an important role in their existence: “From the beginning it was very clear that being all female was going to be directly important to our project, in Paris there are very very few all female rock bands (we might actually be 1 of 2) and we've gotten a lot of attention here for that fact alone. -- We very quickly saw how much women related to our band, and felt so comfortable at our shows (which famously is an issue for a lot of women at punk shows with men being too violent in the mosh pit etc) we've had a few shows with just women in the front moshing and dancing like crazy, and even a show in Vienna where two girls just sat at the front center and made out!! So it's clear we've created a safe space for women through our band, and for me I want to keep that as a priority with our band”, says Betsy, the founder of the band. She continues by saying: “We don't have a bassist right now because it's very hard to find a woman in paris who can play bass, likes the same music as us, fits personality wise with us, and a lot of people have suggested we get a guy, but for me it needs to be a woman, for me that's what inspires the women who come to our shows”. This triggered me to dive more into feminism and feminist punk in my research, which I will be handling more in my research paper.

To close the circle of my research I want to study the way Gomme interprets the pieces I have made for their music video. The construction of the garments is done in a way that it leaves space for the girls to do what they want with them. There are no rules how to wear my garments! The music video and their interpretation will hopefully inspire me to go further with my graduation collection next spring.

Since the actual music video will be filmed after our livestream video, I will show a video of what it COULD be.