Lace up those creepers, stud that leather jacket, wiggle your way into those ripped black skinny jeans, and get ready to do the Blitzkrieg Bop. This year's annual Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibition is going punk! "From Johnny Rotten's ripped and safety pin T-shirts to shredded Chanel suits and studded Givenchy gowns...this is the journey we will take this spring at the MET," Thomas P. Campbell, the Director and CEO of the museum, said in his opening remarks this Monday at apress conference.
Andrew Bolton, the curatorial mind behind 2011's Alexander McQueen "Savage Beauty" retrospective and last year's Prada/Schiaparelli "Impossible Conversation" show takes the helm this year for "PUNK: Chaos to Couture," opening May 9. Partnering with famed fashion photographer Nick Knight, the immersive multimedia show will feature one hundred original punk designs juxtaposed with the high-fashion offspring they inspired. Looks from Comme des Garçons, John Galliano, Rodarte, and Vivienne Westwood will stand alongside pieces from Debbie Harry, The Clash, and Johnny Rotten's wardrobe. The show's seven galleries will be themed, two of which will replicate punk's original cultural centers: New York's CBGB's and the UK's Seditionaries boutique at 430 King’s Road in London.
"Punk's legacy," Campbell said, "has had an enduring and pervasive influence on high fashion and on a broader culture; often to surprisingly beautiful effect." With the retro-cute, D.I.Y. aesthetic of the Internet slowly creeping into the the high-fashion vernacular (hey there, Jeremy Scott), we cannot think of a better time than now for an exhibition remembering this hugely popular and deeply cool movement. Oh, and we're already dreaming about the outfits we're going to be seeing on the red carpet! Dibs on Marc Jacobs rocking thigh-high Doc Martens.
Photo: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art