Posh and Punk

[Photograph by Miguel Flores-Vianna from Mary McDonald: Interiors: The Allure of Style, 

Rizzoli New York 2010. Click to enlarge.]

In less than two months, The Met's major 2013 Costume Institute exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, opens. One of the themes of the show will be how Punk's DIY, non-reverential, take-matters-into-your-own-hands spirit influenced not just fashion but contemporary culture as a whole. For example, 21st century online media, a frontier where all sorts of creative individuals equipped with digital cameras can become players. So I've begun to ponder interior design, wondering about the possible impact of Punk. Instant Space designer Max Humphrey, with his appreciation for The Clash and Vivienne Westwood, definitely comes to mind first, along with Betsy Burnham and Kelly Wearstler (thinking of her graffiti walls and semiprecious skulls).

[Detail of Westwood's later "riveted" botanical wallpaper.] 

[Westwood Opus with Pirate Squiggle cover.]

Why did I re-post Mary McDonald's polished and apparently un-subversive chinoiserie vignette, at top? There are no bold hits of black, no studs, no chunky padlocks, no edgy uses of tartan. True, but there is a bamboo trash can turned upside down and put into action as a lampshade.

In 1978, during England's garbage strikes and period of serious economic strife, John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, transformed pink and green government-issued trash bags into clothes. In short, this is bricolage -- repurposed found objects that might be simply practical or in other cases statement making (curator Andrew Bolton elaborates in a recent video).

McDonald's lampshade may have more to do with the really Old School improvisations of Sister Parish or Nancy Lancaster. Still, with MM's background in fashion, it's interesting to speculate about all potential influences.