"I AM AN ANTICHRIST,
I AM AN ANARCHIST,
DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT
BUT I KNOW HOW TO GET IT,
I WANNA DESTROY PASSERBY…"

Hippies were always a friendly bunch, with their flowers in their hair, and clothing adorned with beads and happy faces. But we live in a world filled with contrast, and there cannot be a yin without a yang. Representing the polar opposite of these peaceful folks is the punk movement - the antithesis to mainstream anything, the anti-social alleyway-dwelling anarchists with an attitude.

Pierced with safety pins, sporting hairstyles that shocked with their vivid colors and menacing spikes, punkers were the personification of a bad attitude and a parent’s worst nightmare. Rather than disco the night away, they slam-danced. Rather than aspire to role-model status, they embraced urban decay, unabashed anger and universal disgust at just about everything deemed popular.

Dubbed “punks” for their affinity for punk rock music, the culture emerged alongside the underground sounds of such artists as Iggy Pop and Velvet Underground. While overshadowed through much of the late 60s, they found their voice and their fashions in the decade that followed, thanks in part to the acknowledged godparents of punk, Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood, who opened a clothing store in London in 1971 called Let It Rock, which initially catered to a Teddy Boy revival style. Located on the wrong side of the tracks from the trendier British boutiques, they established a counterculture foothold on King’s Road that would eventually be appropriately known as “World’s End.” Soon, other punk shops followed, Malcolm changed his store’s name to SEX and their Mecca was firmly established.

Soon, the streets were filled with all sorts of unconventional styles, from studded and spiked leatherwear to torn stockings and combat boots. The body itself proved to be part of the confrontational canvas as well, with their numerous piercings that went well beyond the ears, along with shaved heads, or for those who preferred to keep their locks, fluorescent shades and spiky Mohawks.

Four particularly angry youths that spent their time around SEX were a group of rowdy musicians who, in 1975, would dub themselves The Sex Pistols. With McClaren taking on their management responsibility, The Sex Pistols set out to create the genre of shock rock - in no small part due to one particular member, the late Sid Vicious whose preferred look consisted of padlocked dog collars, a perpetual snarl on his face, and an unhealthy fondness for both self-mutilation and heroin (The latter would bring about his death in 1979.)

Accomplished musicians, The Sex Pistols were not, but that fit in perfectly with the anachronistic destructive underground movement, which eventually migrated in the mid-70s to New York City, notably in a small club called CBGB’s, launching pad for such punk icons as Patti Smith, Blondie and The Ramones. It wasn’t a place for the meek or timid and slam dancing reigned supreme.

But no matter which continent you called home, the fashions were similar and always took center stage above the music. “Do it yourself” was not only a mantra of the musicians, it was also the only three words in the punk clothing instructional manual. Forget tailoring and sewing machines. All of that pent up aggression was taken out on jeans, dresses, kilts, even garbage bags, each ripped and shredded with reckless abandon. And once they lay in tattered ruins, simply reconstruct them with safety pins and you were good to go. A razor blade made for a nice necklace, spray paint provided a splash of color, and anything with foreboding metal spikes completed the look.

Then there was the hair. If you didn’t shave it all off or shear it haphazardly in a way that would make any accomplished stylist shudder, you could pull out the Elmer’s glue and form formidable liberty spikes, an armor-piercing Mohawk, or simply use Jell-O, Rit dye, or if the budget allowed, Manic Panic hair coloring to create the most technocolor hairdo ever imagined.

As the 80s came to a close, so did the heyday of the punk movement. All but the most hardcore followers finding new avenues for their angst in the romantic, goth and skating subcultures. But for those that lived through this alienating and aggressive movement and lived to tell the tale, the affinity for the era will never truly die. And while the clothing and music may have morphed into other styles, at least a sliver of the attitude remains within each of their hearts. And they likely still look upon those lovable and naive hippies, not to mention the mainstream, with a healthy dose of disgust.