Context

The term grunge originally described a subgenre of alternative rock music born of elements from hardcore punk and heavy metal that emerged during the mid 1980s, characterized by sludgy, distorted sound and fuzz and feedback effects. By the 90s grunge had become big, popularized by banks like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and from this movement came an unofficial fashion style, consisting of a deliberate yet messy look – at the time most “grunge kids” shopped at thrift stores because it made more financial sense.  During the mid 90s the aesthetic heroin chic emerged, most notable from Kate Moss’ modelling, where under eye bags, pale skin, and angular facial features were glamorized, connecting and often incorporated with and into grunge fashion, labelled heroin chic because it firstly imitated the visual effects of regular heroin use and because heroin became significantly cheaper but also purer. In 2013, grunge experienced a resurgence of sorts, where a cleaner, more put together look incorporating and modernizing key elements of 90s grunge became widely popular. Many criticize the term grunge being used to describe clothing, especially during modern times when the era is long over. I have decided to label my interpretation as neo grunge as testimony to the fact that the term grunge is now outdated, but that it was inspired by the whole era.

Clothing

The main focus of our outfit was the docs – I included two pairs: the classic 1460s iconic boots and a slightly funkier pair of creeper docs in order to represent diversity between traditional grunge clothing and what the term means now. We incorporated a flannel and denim jacket, since both are widely acknowledged as staple items of grunge fashion, both being faded and a little oversized to represent the idea of their coming from a thrift shop and not being specifically tailored or brand new. The shirt I wore was also very oversized. I also made sure to include torn denim to portray a more lived in feel, tearing and distressing a pair of black jeans at the point where they would normally tear, the knees myself, and cuffing them above my docs as was popular where it came to denim and docs. I wanted to make sure that the music that was fundamental in the emergence of the style was represented, so my model wore a Nirvana tank top, which is probably today the item that holds the grungiest connotations. In order to show off my model’s angular (and thus heroin chic) legs and show some skin while incorporating leather in some way that wasn’t a jacket I opted for a short skirt which was worn relatively high up. In keeping with the whole theme of modernization she wore translucent knee high socks with her docs which is a trend I’ve seen more on social media’s grunge fashion.

Hair and Makeup

As for hair and makeup, it was relatively straight forward. At the time the model's hair was blue and mine was peroxide blonde, both shades are both very common within grunge fashion seen on social media. Inspired by the lived in and messy feel of grunge fashion we both allowed our hair to get greasy used dry shampoo to get more volume and slept on it, using our bedhead hair to be as authentic as possible. Makeup was where the heroin chic aesthetic really came into play as we both wore a shade of foundation too light for our skin tone and contoured very heavily with a gray-brown eyeshadow to give the appearance of sharper bone structure. I went all out on the eyes using brown and red tones to utterly over exaggerate the look of tired droopy eyes. My model also wore a dark cherry colored lip popular of the style.

Clothing choices:

Blue Dr. Martens: rare, similar here

Creeper Dr. Martens: here

Flannel: here

Denim Jacket: vintage Levis, similar here

Nirvana shirt: here

Jeans: vintage, similar here

Skirt: vintage, similar here

Knee high socks: here

Punk

Context

Often associated with anarchy, the punk subculture emerged in Britain, Australia, and the USA in the 1970s, its exact origin unknown. Like most subcultures it has a corresponding music style, in this case a very loud and aggressive punk rock, typically played in bands, featuring distorted guitar and noisy drumming. The punk subculture is very much known for its DIY approach to fashion, where punks would stay away from mainstream labels, preferring to produce their own music themselves. Politically, the punk ideology is predominately individual freedom, and thus anti-establishmentarianism. Punks typically believe in anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia, anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, and anti-nationalism. In terms of clothing, punk fashion was all about an idea of altering everyday objects for aesthetic effect, where clothing was ripped and adorned with spikes. The most famous punk designer is Vivienne Westwood, famous for making clothes for Malcom McLaren’s boutique in the King’s Road, now referred to as SEX. Punk hair is iconic in its vibrant color and spiky shape.

Outfit

I wanted my outfit to be as bold as possible, to be as characteristically punk as possible, and to convey a sense of DIY as much as possible. The characteristically punk aspects of the outfits are the accessories, each of which features its own closeup above: the spiked belt, the collar embedded with chains and studs, the chains attached to my jeans and the chain attaching my nose and ear piercing, all of which are very typical punk and embody the idea of adapting fashion for a rebellious effect. I also wore a heavy leather jacket which itself contained lots of metal buckles zips and chains – punks would typically adorn their leather jackets with band logos or the symbol for anarchy. My jeans are also very punk being obviously and deliberately destroyed, where I have integrated a chain, almost as if it were holding them together. I also made sure to include typical punk tartan somewhere, my t-shirt being sewn half black half tartan, thereby also incorporating the DIY aspect further. The shoes I wore were my platform red Dr Martens which are bold and colorful, but also historically accurate as Dr Martens did become symbolic punk footwear.

Hair and makeup

In terms of hair I did my best to replicate a Mohawk on what I had, where I smoothed down the sides as much as possible and spiked up the top and back – it wasn’t long enough to come to one specific point as I would have preferred but the spiky effect is still present. I made my eyebrows colorful, very angular, and diagonally straight, in complete defiance of their natural state, for effect. For my eyes I went bold but very clean and precise, creating a  thick over-exaggerated cat's eye, making it obvious that it was very deliberate. I adorned this with a decorative line just for emphasis contrasting with the white I used on my waterline. I wore a bold purple lip color, also attention grabbing and bold, but this time also colorful. I contoured heavily so that my face would appear more angular and thus more in sync with my angular brows, hair, and eye makeup. 

Clothing choices:

Leather jacket: vintage, similar here

T-shirt: DIY, made from this and this

Jeans: DIY from similar to this

Dr Martens: here

Studded belt: similar here

Collar: similar here

Chains/cuffs: came with these

Goth

Context

The goth subculture originated in 1980s England, deriving from post-punk, and is often associated with the color black. Visually, influences from 19^th century gothic literature and horror films are apparent. The goth look is known for its black clothing, pale skin, and black hair, however, throughout the fashion style there are influences from punk (piercings, studded leather) , deathrock, and even the Victorian era (lace and corsets). Goths will typically listen to gothic rock, industrial, death rock, post-punk, darkwave, ethereal wave, neoclassical, and gothic metal. Gothic fashion contains a multitude of different branches or variations, most notably, tradgoth, romantic goth, cyber goth, fetish goth, hippy goth, Victorian goth, and medieval goth.

Clothing

I went for quite a traditional goth look with my clothing, keeping to a theme of all black. To acknowledge some of the punk influence I wore my leather jacket, just like I did for the punk look. To incorporate some of the feel of fishnet tights so popular within gothic fashion, I wore a mesh black top underneath the jacket, inkeeping with the translucent feel. Goths are also very big on tights, particularly ripped ones, the look of which I imitated by destroying a pair of leggings using my scissors and ripping them. In terms of footwear I used my black creepers – creepers were at the forefront of any gothic shoe market I found in Camden Market, and made a nice addition to the bold outfit, inkeeping with the theme. To show yet more punk reference, I included two piercings, one in the septum and one on my lip in silver, as is traditional goth when it comes to accessories. 

Hair and Makeup

For the hair I used a long, black wig, in order to emulate typical goth hair. In one closeup, I flipped it, so that my shaved side was visible, imitating a sidecut often found on goths, although theirs would be bald shaved whereas mine was not. In terms of makeup I literally drew my eyebrows on and colored the outlines in with a black eyeliner pencil, making them as harsh and arched as I could without my naturally quite straight eyebrows showing through – goths typically shave their eyebrows off and draw them on in very arched thin shapes. For my eyemakeup I used a lot of black creating a massively dramatic wing with liquid eyeliner, also lining my bottom lashline pulling the line slightly downwards to give me more space to highlight the area with white and elongating my eye. I brought black and gray eyeshadows up to my eyebrow blending them as seemlessly as possible, keeping it darkest in my eye socket so as to add a lot of intensity to my eyes and contrast well against my pale skin, for which I used a foundation quite a bit lighter than my natural skin tone to add to the contrast. The black lipstick is also very trademark goth, incorporating the black and adding further to the contrast. I contoured with a dark gray eyeshadow to add more definition and sharpness to my face. 

Clothing choice:

Leather jacket: vintage, similar here

Mesh top: here

Leggings: here

Creepers: here

Emo

Context 

The word emo itself actually describes a type of rock music, consisting of self-expressing and emotional (as the name suggests) lyrics. It was originally known as emotional hardcore when it originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement. Original 80s emo music from bands such as Rites of Spring sounded very different to that of today, and has since evolved influenced by elements from pop punk and indie. Emo music itself became big in the early 2000s and stayed popular until the end of the decade, and from this emerged the subgenre “screamo” which is nowadays typically more commonly associated with the term emo, using typical rock instruments combined with chaos and screaming vocals. Another more commonly known subgenre is emo pop which combines elements of pop punk with emo. The word emo is often associated with emotional, shy people and more stereotypically with depression, self-harm, and suicide. Emo fashion was also originally quite different to that of today – during the 90s and 2000s, emo fashion was known more for its lose jeans, shaggy hair, and vintage thrift store feel in contrast the stereotypical tight jeans band T shirt and converse with dyed black or brightly colored choppy straightened hair with side swept bangs.

Clothing

The outfit I chose for my model was very stereotypical emo clothing. My model wore a band T-shirt with the logo of My Chemical Romance, a widely renowned emo band one of the absolute trademarks of emo fashion. She also wore tight jeans with a studded leather belt, tight jeans featuring in almost every single emo outfit I’ve researched, studded belts also being quite popular. In terms of footwear, I decided on pink Converse All-Stars, since again Converse feature in almost every single emo outfit I’ve researched, but I switched the laces for ones with a checked pattern and stripes are often worn and compliment the whole aesthetic quite nicely.

Hair and Makeup

In terms of hair I clipped two bleach blond extensions into her side swept bangs. She already had the choppy layers associated with emo hair so I just backcombed her hair to give it more volume. Emo makeup centers around the illusion of big eyes which I achieved by placing white eyeshadow on her lid and contouring heavily with dark purples browns and then black in the eyelid crease and below the lash line, adding winged eyeliner over the top with a lot of black mascara. I filled in her eyebrows really dark with a black eyeshadow without making them overly drawn on. To even out her skin tone and add definition I used a skin colored foundation with a light concealer to highlight and a dark concealer to contour. 

Clothing choices:

My Chemical Romance t-shirt: here

Skinny jeans: unbranded, similar here

Converse: here

Hair extensions: here

Belt: sold out, similar here

Checked laces: here

Skinhead

Context

 

Originally inspired by both West Indian “rude boys” and British mods, the skinhead subculture emerged in the 1960s within the working class youth in London and then spread throughout the UK and then to other nations, focusing initially on fashion, music, and lifestyle, the fashion being friendlier for the budget of the working class. The name skinhead derives from the shaven heads, typical of members of the subculture. Politically, the skinhead subculture spanned from far right to the far left, although many skinheads were apolitical. Skinheads listened to “black music” – Jamaican reggae and American Soul music, linking back to their West Indian inspiration. Throughout the 70s and 80s the skinhead subculture, being one comprised of British youth, gained a reputation for rising crime and violence and were seen as a threat to social morality, a reputation that was somewhat true but grossly over exaggerated. On the whole, however, the skinhead subculture served as unification for the mostly white, male working class youth, rooted in a nationalist desire to be dressed individually presentably.

Clothing

Skinhead footwear was always boots, first army issued steel capped boots, then Dr Martens – I wanted to include this as clearly as I could so I wore my 14 hole Dr Martens, straight-laced as was the fashion with two different colors of laces, yellow and white, which I had most frequently seen when searching through skinhead fashion images. The colors skinheads laced their boots with was originally those of the football team they supported but later became symbolic of their political beliefs – different colors meant different things based on the time period and area. Skinheads typically wore straight fitting jeans cuffed over their boots, (typically levis 501s) as I have done for the photoshoot. Derived from mod fashion but staple pieces in skinhead fashion and budget friendly are both long and short sleeve button down shirts and Harrington jackets, both of which I wore, sometimes the button down by itself, sometimes with the jacket over it. The final important piece of clothing was the braces, distinctive to skinhead fashion and rooted in practicality, due the nature of skinhead’s work.

Hair and Makeup

Since I was not willing to shave my entire head, I styled my hair pushed back to one side, because this was typical of suedeheads, a skinhead variation and movement in the 70s. In terms of makeup I kept it very minimal as skinhead males would not generally wear makeup, and used an eyebrow pomade and an angled brush to make my eyebrows appear thicker and wilder and generally untamed, since skinheads did not seem overly concerned with their eyebrows and would likely leave them natural.

Clothing choices:

Dr martens: here

Checked shirt: sold out, similar here

Straight fit jeans: vintage, similar here

Braces: second hand, similar here

Harrington jacket: unbranded, similar here

Laces: here and here

Neogrunge

 

Context

The term grunge originally described a subgenre of alternative rock music born of elements from hardcore punk and heavy metal that emerged during the mid 1980s, characterized by sludgy, distorted sound and fuzz and feedback effects. By the 90s grunge had become big, popularized by banks like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and from this movement came an unofficial fashion style, consisting of a deliberate yet messy look – at the time most “grunge kids” shopped at thrift stores because it made more financial sense.  During the mid 90s the aesthetic heroin chic emerged, most notable from Kate Moss’ modelling, where under eye bags, pale skin, and angular facial features were glamorized, connecting and often incorporated with and into grunge fashion, labelled heroin chic because it firstly imitated the visual effects of regular heroin use and because heroin became significantly cheaper but also purer. In 2013, grunge experienced a resurgence of sorts, where a cleaner, more put together look incorporating and modernizing key elements of 90s grunge became widely popular. Many criticize the term grunge being used to describe clothing, especially during modern times when the era is long over. I have decided to label my interpretation as neo grunge as testimony to the fact that the term grunge is now outdated, but that it was inspired by the whole era.

Clothing

The main focus of our outfit was the docs – I included two pairs: the classic 1460s iconic boots and a slightly funkier pair of creeper docs in order to represent diversity between traditional grunge clothing and what the term means now. We incorporated a flannel and denim jacket, since both are widely acknowledged as staple items of grunge fashion, both being faded and a little oversized to represent the idea of their coming from a thrift shop and not being specifically tailored or brand new. The shirt I wore was also very oversized. I also made sure to include torn denim to portray a more lived in feel, tearing and distressing a pair of black jeans at the point where they would normally tear, the knees myself, and cuffing them above my docs as was popular where it came to denim and docs. I wanted to make sure that the music that was fundamental in the emergence of the style was represented, so my model wore a Nirvana tank top, which is probably today the item that holds the grungiest connotations. In order to show off my model’s angular (and thus heroin chic) legs and show some skin while incorporating leather in some way that wasn’t a jacket I opted for a short skirt which was worn relatively high up. In keeping with the whole theme of modernization she wore translucent knee high socks with her docs which is a trend I’ve seen more on social media’s grunge fashion.

Hair and Makeup

As for hair and makeup, it was relatively straight forward. At the time the model's hair was blue and mine was peroxide blonde, both shades are both very common within grunge fashion seen on social media. Inspired by the lived in and messy feel of grunge fashion we both allowed our hair to get greasy used dry shampoo to get more volume and slept on it, using our bedhead hair to be as authentic as possible. Makeup was where the heroin chic aesthetic really came into play as we both wore a shade of foundation too light for our skin tone and contoured very heavily with a gray-brown eyeshadow to give the appearance of sharper bone structure. I went all out on the eyes using brown and red tones to utterly over exaggerate the look of tired droopy eyes. My model also wore a dark cherry colored lip popular of the style.

Clothing choices:

Blue Dr. Martens: rare, similar here

Creeper Dr. Martens: here

Flannel: here

Denim Jacket: vintage Levis, similar here

Nirvana shirt: here

Jeans: vintage, similar here

Skirt: vintage, similar here

Knee high socks: here