Fashion site SHOWstudio, led by fashion guru and “Bound 2” director Nick Knight, has been premiering a series of fashion films that attempts to explore the present-day ethos and soul of punk identity and DIY culture.
Today, the site premiered a short film by Carrie Munden, the brains behind Cassette Playa and a clothing designer who has attracted attention from artists like M.I.A. and Rihanna. The video, titled PVNK, is a sensory teeth-kicker that attempts to investigate “the tribal aspects of punk and subcultures by exploring scarification and body modification using 3D modelling.” In otherwords, we see an animated human figure evolve, grow a spike-y mohawk, and change colors.
Videos by VICE
Ironically, the only “punk” aspect (at least in the Dick Hebdige, 1970s version of the term) is the mohawk sported by the model. Otherwise, the video is just a cool interpretation of 3D modelling, as compared to an enlightening work about punk identity. Even the background music by Sewn Leather sounds like DJ Dogdick-meets-Night Slugs, rather than something Richard Hell could get down with.
A luxury, high-end fashion house may not be the best source to explore the down-and-out, nihilistic characteristics of punk. At the same time, this series was created to coincide with the recent Met exhibition Punk: Chaos To Couture, which traced punk’s stylistic roots from safety pin earings and the Blank Generation, to hyper-expensive, vaguely Sid Vicious-influenced garb, designed by la creme de la creme in fashion.
Maybe this film is an attempt to spread the idea that punk is what you make of it. As Bradford Cox of Deerhunter infamously said this year, “My idea of punk is not being interested in what other people think of punk.”
