Punk fashion: Westwood, McLaren and the SEX shop
Punk fashion as we know it was largely invented at 430 King’s Road in Chelsea, London, where Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood ran a shop that became SEX in 1974. Bondage trousers, ripped T-shirts and DIY customisation spread from there through the London scene and beyond. By the late 1970s, high-fashion designers were already borrowing the look.
What was the SEX shop?
SEX was a clothing shop at 430 King’s Road, Chelsea, run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. It was one of the shops Westwood co-ran with McLaren in the mid-1970s. The shop sold rubberwear, leather, ripped T-shirts and bondage trousers, and it became a meeting point for the early London punk scene.
The shop’s importance was as much social as commercial. McLaren was managing the Sex Pistols, and the band and their circle wore the clothes. The shop’s assistants and customers included people who would become central to the scene. SEX was where the look and the sound overlapped.
Who invented bondage trousers?
Vivienne Westwood designed clothes for SEX in the mid-1970s, with Malcolm McLaren. The trousers were covered with straps designed to restrict movement. They were impractical, deliberately so, and they became one of the defining garments of London punk.
Westwood’s design drew on fetish wear and historical tailoring, but the result was something new. Bondage trousers were sold at SEX and worn by the Sex Pistols and their associates. They were never cheap or mass-market in the early days, which is part of why they became a signifier of the inner circle.
How did DIY clothing become punk’s default?
DIY clothing — modifying, cutting, painting or making your own clothes — became punk’s default because most people could not afford Westwood’s prices and because the scene’s ethos pushed against buying a ready-made look. The tools were cheap: safety pins, bin liners, paint, razor blades, stencils, patches.
The classic example is the ripped T-shirt held together with safety pins, but the same logic applied to jackets, trousers and shoes. If you want a practical guide to one part of it, our piece on how to make a punk battle jacket that actually lasts covers the basics. The DIY approach also connected punk clothing to zines and flyers — see how to make a punk zine and a short history of punk flyer art.
How did high fashion absorb punk?
High fashion began absorbing punk almost as soon as it appeared. Zandra Rhodes showed a punk-inspired collection in 1977. By the 1980s, elements of punk — leather, studs, ripped denim, tartan — were appearing in mainstream collections and on the high street.
Vivienne Westwood herself moved from SEX to her own fashion line. Her later work took punk’s confrontational energy into historical and tailored forms. McLaren continued to work with music and fashion, including the shop’s later incarnation Seditionaries.
The absorption was not one-way. Punk style borrowed from fetish wear, surplus clothing and earlier youth cultures, and high fashion borrowed back. The result is that many items now sold as punk fashion have little to do with the scene that produced them.
What did punk fashion look like outside London?
Punk fashion varied by city and scene. In the UK, the London look spread through shops, bands and fanzines, and by the late 1970s a second wave — often called UK82 — had its own studded leather and painted jackets. Our piece on UK82 street punk covers that period.
In Sweden, punk fashion followed similar lines but with local differences. The first wave — Ebba Grön, KSMB and others — is covered in Swedish punk’s first wave. Later Swedish hardcore and käng scenes developed their own look, documented in Käng: how Sweden became a d-beat superpower.
| Place | Key garment or style | Period |
|---|---|---|
| London | Bondage trousers, ripped T-shirts | 1974–1977 |
| London | Studded leather, painted jackets | late 1970s–early 1980s |
| Sweden | Patched jackets, band shirts | late 1970s onward |
| US hardcore | Plain T-shirts, jeans, short hair | early 1980s |
Why does punk fashion still matter?
Punk fashion still matters because it demonstrated that clothing could be a direct, cheap and personal statement. The DIY approach — modify what you have, make what you need — has outlasted the specific garments. It connects to wider DIY cultures, from zines to small labels; see starting a small DIY punk label and punk and free software for the same logic in other fields.
The commercial absorption of punk is a cautionary tale, but it has not erased the original idea. People still cut up shirts, paint jackets and trade patches. The tools are the same; the point is still to make something that is yours.
FAQ
Who invented bondage trousers?
Vivienne Westwood designed bondage trousers for the shop SEX in the mid-1970s, with Malcolm McLaren. They were sold at 430 King's Road and worn by the Sex Pistols and their circle.
What was the SEX shop?
SEX was a clothing shop at 430 King's Road in Chelsea, London, run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood from 1974. It sold rubberwear, ripped T-shirts and bondage trousers, and was a meeting point for the early London punk scene.
When did high fashion adopt punk?
Designers were borrowing punk ideas by the late 1970s. Zandra Rhodes showed a punk-inspired collection in 1977, and Westwood herself moved from SEX to her own fashion line.
What is DIY punk clothing?
DIY punk clothing means modifying or making your own clothes — painting jackets, adding patches, cutting and safety-pinning shirts — rather than buying a ready-made look. It grew out of necessity and the scene's anti-consumerist ethos.