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The storming success of last summer's Cash is King - The Art of Defaced Banknotes book, which was launched at The Saatchi Gallery with a sell out exhibiton of framed and affordable money art from all over the world has led to a massive demand for Cash is King 2.

The limited edition of 1000 hardback Cash is King books, all signed and numbered by artists Bob Osborne and Carrie Reichardt, found its rightful place into the permanent collection of The British Museum and The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge as well as being sought after by countless galleries and private collectors. So what started as a fun project has gathered pace and become a piece of Art History.

Cash is King 2 will follow the format of the first book with 172 pages of colour illustrations in hardback with a dustjacket ripe for defacing and fascinating texts by academics and the artists themselves.

We have managed to get some outstanding curators on board who have bought in artists from all over the world.

We are constructing the book and planning to send it to print in St Ives ready for publication in May/June.

It is available to pre-order and purchase now and the first 100 copies will be sold for £15 each before the £20 retail price kicks in. Shipping costs will apply.

We are delighted to announce that The Saatchi Gallery will be hosting an exhibition and book launch of our Cash is King 2 - The Art of Defaced Banknotes project this August/September at:

The Saatchi Gallery

Duke of York's HQ

The dates of the exhibition and Private View are to be confirmed.

The Cash is King 2 book is being published by The St Ives Printing and Publishing Company in Cornwall and will be a high quality hardback book with a limited edition of 1000. You can pre-order your copy now via our online shop.

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The storming success of last summer's Cash is King - The Art of Defaced Banknotes book, which was launched at The Saatchi Gallery with a sell out exhibiton of framed and affordable money art from all over the world has led to a massive demand for Cash is King 2.

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How to screen print t-shirts at home (DIY method) | CharliMarieTV

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An in-depth explanation of how to screen print your own t-shirts talking through how to expose your screens, and how to use them. Get the PDF guide when you submit your email on this page: http://www.charlimarie.com/screen-printing This is a long video for a reason!

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Learning hand embroidery is fun and relaxing, plus it's an easy way to create beautiful art with fabric and thread. Getting started in embroidery means understanding some basic embroidery stitches. Most patterns only require a few basic stitches, learn these 15 embroidery stitches, and you should be able to tackle most embroidery projects.

Woven wheel stitch looks like a more advanced embroidery stitch, but it's actually quite simple. Start with a star of straight stitches and then weave the working thread to form a flower. Soon you have a stitch that will fill your hoop with amazing florals.

Definitely the most advanced stitch on this list, bullion knots are not for the faint of heart. But they are a stitch you should learn. Think of them as a really long french knot that can make gorgeous roses. Practice making them small and then start making them bigger. You'll be glad to know this one.

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15 Basic Hand Embroidery Stitches You Should Know

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Learning hand embroidery is fun and easy with these 15 essential stitch tutorials. Beginners and experienced stitchers will use them often.

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Very less do we know that we can create textures and pattern with the things easily available at home. Here are few interesting ideas to try with ....

Rust Dying - Rust dyeing is a process by which fabrics are colored using objects that are prone to rusting.It yields unusual and fascinating patterns and designs, and is very easy to do. You can use a single item for resistance or can also combine two or three different materials for your project. For example, use stapler pins, rusted keys, coins, etc for a beautiful textures.

Stapler Pins and Cloth pins-They are a good resistance for dying. Decide a pattern for your working, and staple the pins in that direction. You can then dye the fabric, once dried up just take the pins off the fabric. The texture of the pins will now be transferred to the fabric creating a beautiful pattern.

Safety pins- Safety pins create a very specific and strong texture. Use them for creating textures for clothing, babies napkins, table linens etc.

Salt Technique- Well this one is a little different then the rest. You have to first paint or dye the piece of the cloth and then sprinkle salt grains in those areas where you want the texture to be created. Salt grains takes away the dye from those areas leaving a grainy pattern behind. One can also work out different shapes and letters with it, or just create a simple all over pattern by just randomly sprinkling it all over.

Ice dying - Well this is an interesting dying method and can be easily done. Keep a fabric underneath and put ice cubes over it and now sprinkle the dye colors over the ice cubes. The cubes will keep melting and bring the dye to the fabric as it melts. Let the fabric dry, before you take it out.

Image Reference: Thegardenlove.com, juliawrightjewellery.blogspot.co.uk, Gillberrydesign.com, creativejeweishmom.com, Karolinayork.tumblr.com

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Interesting Way To Create Textures On Fabric | Threads

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Very less do we know that we can create textures and pattern with the things easily available at home. Here are few interesting ideas to try with .... Rust Dying - Rust dyeing is a process by which fabrics are colored using objects that are prone to rusting.It yields unusual and fascinating patterns and designs, and is very easy to do.

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'Punk' in its prime. | Roberta Bayley

In the summer of 1975, John Holmstrom saw the Ramones at CBGBs and bought the Dictators' debut album Go Girl Crazy!
These experiences, as he recounts in the new book The Best of Punk Magazine, out now, "totally rewired my mind."

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At the time, Holmstrom was a 21-year-old student at the School for Visual Arts in Manhattan. His high school classmate Eddie "Legs" McNeil-who would later co-edit the bestseller Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk-was living at a hippie film commune on 14th Street called Total Impact, and directing the occasional feature-length porn film. But that Fall, their mutual friend Ged Dunn Jr. arrived in town with $5,000. Newly flush, the three men decided to start a magazine dedicated to rock & roll. This, they believed, would grant them scene cred and, more importantly, give them an excuse to hang out with the Dictators.

Punk 's first issue-released in November 1975 and printed on four sheets of folded tabloid newsprint-featured interviews with Lou Reed and the Ramones. Holstrom contributed a salty editorial entitled: "Death to Disco Shit! Long Live the Rock!" and McNeil starred in a photo comic in which he fails to pick up girls outside CBGBs.

The style-raw, messy, witty, inappropriate-nailed the essence of the burgeoning punk scene. James Wolcott, writing in the Village Voice, called Punk "the ululations of the new zeitgeist."

"Just a few weeks ago, I'd been a nobody," Holmstrom recalls in the book. "Now, I was the editor of the hottest magazine in New York."

Punk released just 17 issues before finally flaming out in the summer of 1979, weighed down by overhead costs and a lack of newsstand sales. But in those years, it both captured and shaped the rise of punk in New York City. In the book, Holstrom and his co-editor, Bridget Hurd, have collected the best comics, artworks, rants and photographs that Punk published. An introduction by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein precedes dozens of off-color interviews with artists like Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Brian Eno, and the Clash. Holmstrom strings it all together by supplying the highly amusing back-stories behind each issue.

I spoke with Holmstrom recently by phone to discuss the meaning of punk (and Punk), the inspiration for the magazine, what it was like to interview Lou Reed at CBGBs in 1975, and more.

Punk went out of business over 30 years ago. Why is this book coming out now?

I've been trying to get this out for 10 years. There was a failed collaboration between Legs and me, and a failed attempt to pitch the book in 2008, after the economic meltdown. It was supposed to come out a year ago, but I had to get permission from everybody for every photo and drawing, and then scan everything and track down all the original artwork. It took me longer to do this book than to put out the magazine!
Some people think you invented the term "punk" as it's now understood. What was the status of the word when you started Punk?
Punk rock already existed, but I think we helped define what it meant. I was a fan of punk rock in '74. Alice Cooper was on the cover of Creem that year as "Punk of the Year." I was a big fan of the Stooges, MC5, the New York Dolls, and it was those trashier, grungier, hard rock glam bands that were punk. Glam started to turn punk around '74. There was a turn to this sound and look that wasn't on most people's radar. Legs thinks the name for the magazine came out of his love for "Kojak" and gangster movies, where cops call the bad guys "punks." The truth is, I'd asked him: What do we call a magazine about punk rock? And he said: Why don't you just call it Punk?

And yet Legs left the magazine after the first issue.

The original idea was to have a film company and magazine together. But where the film company quickly fell apart, the magazine took off like a rocket. Legs wasn't a magazine or music guy, he was a film guy. At the time he was doing these public service announcements and anti-cigarette commercials, one of which involved him pretending to shoot up with a cigarette, equating smoking with heroin. Which is ironic because he's the biggest cigarette smoker in the world. We don't talk anymore, but the last I heard he's still at three or four packs a day.

Why do you think the magazine caught on so quickly? Within a couple weeks, you guys were the biggest deal in town.

We were at the right place at the right time, and I knew it. There'd been a few articles about bands like Television and the Ramones, and CBGB's was also just starting to take off. CBGB's fascinated everyone at the time because it was on the Bowery. People were afraid to go there. There were bums drinking at the bar, begging for change outside. But we captured the moment, I guess. We got the CBGB's door girl, Roberta Bayley, to shoot our photos. She was an amateur photographer but she took the earliest group shots of the Ramones, one of which wound up on the cover of their first record. Mary Harron [director of I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho] did her first interview ever with the Ramones for issue one.

And you did your first interview with Lou Reed, which must have been interesting.

I'd actually tried to interview the Ramones at CBGBs a few minutes before, but it didn't really work out. Then somebody told me Lou was there. I was this dumb kid, but for some reason he let me hang out with him all night. He wasn't exactly friendly, and I kept waiting for him to say 'OK, put away the recorder.' But he didn't. I'd recently bought Metal Machine Music [Reed's notoriously cacophonous, experimental fifth solo album] in quadrophonic sound, so you could listen to it on four speakers, and Lou tried to buy it from me. He also offered to buy my reel-to-reel tape recorder, which he was impressed by. But when he saw himself on the cover of the magazine a couple weeks later, he really liked it. He called me up about it.

Did you guys think you were making a music magazine or an art magazine, or something in between?

Musicians played rock & roll. So what we wanted to do was make a magazine that was rock & roll, instead of being about rock & roll. I wanted the visual equivalent of rock & roll. Back then, rock & roll was being used to describe bands like Air Supply and Simon and Garfunkel and all these horrible soft rock bands. To me that was just pop music. But punk was faster and louder and more like the original rock & roll that scared people in the '50s. Growing up in the '50s, rock music was a menace. And so were comics. Rock & roll was bad for you, and comics rotted your brain, so I thought: What about a comic book about rock & roll?

Despite being the most talked about magazine in 1976, Punk struggled for the rest of its four-year run. Why was it so hard to keep it afloat?

Glenn O'Brien, a writer for Interview who later became an editor at High Times, once said that Punk was "the most important magazine in the world for one year." Our first issue got a glowing write-up in England's New Musical Express. It was selling out in London, where people paid the equivalent of about 12 bucks an issue. But it was tough to get the newsstand guys in the states to display it. Then the English punk scene exploded with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and suddenly the Brits were bored with the USA's brand of punk. This was also during the Carter administration. Carter, who was a Southern Baptist, is said to have walked onto the White House lawn and said, "We have to stamp this punk rock thing." I voted for Reagan because I hated Jimmy Carter so much.

But you had still plenty of supporters in New York.

We did. At our peak, for Issues 7 and 8, we were printing 20,000 copies. A guy named Tom Forcade, an underground journalist and activist, was helping us distribute it nationally. Tom was a huge fan of punk. He founded the Yippies, and when they stopped being radical enough he started the Zippies. He also founded High Times. He once threw a pie in the face of the chairman of the Committee on Obscenity and Pornography. Anyway, Tom was going to start a distribution press to help magazines like Punk, Interview and Trouser Press get on newsstands. But then somebody shot Larry Flint, who distributed Hustler and High Times, and that screwed up their cash flow. Issue 18 got pulled off the press by the owner of the company. Then everybody started dying. Tom killed himself. Sid killed Nancy, then Sid killed himself. All the bands were breaking up. Around 1979 I remember Joey Ramone saying to me 'We're the last rock & roll band left!' We didn't know about the hardcore scene yet or the West Coast bands. Some people blamed the death of punk on Punk. When it died, we thought that was the end. But, of course, it was really the beginning.
John Holmstrom will appear to launch 'The Best of Punk Magazine' at Powerhouse Arena on January 11 from 6-8 p.m. All images by Roberta Bayley, courtesy 'Punk' magazine.
This article tagged under:

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John Holmstrom talks about founding and editing 'Punk,' the chronicle of late-'70s New York

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In the summer of 1975, John Holmstrom saw the Ramones at CBGBs and bought the Dictators' debut album Go Girl Crazy! These experiences, as he recounts in the new book The Best of Punk Magazine , out now, "totally rewired my mind."

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The challenge facing Sarah Burton each menswear season is considerable, yet can be concisely summarized: How to work within the McQueen confines of tailoring, without winding up on the stuffy side of the fence? The label's founder apprenticed at one of the starchiest and most traditional houses on "The Row," Anderson & Sheppard, making suits for the Prince of Wales. But he used that tradition to buck the system-more visibly for women, granted, on whom an impeccably tailored menswear suit can look sharp and a little subversive, rather than staid.

For Burton, some seasons are more successful than others. Like this Fall. The designer started off, she said, in the London museum devoted to Sir John Soane. That ignited an interest in collecting, specifically in Charles Darwin and his voyages to accumulate specimens. "Talismans," Burton called them. "Collecting, traveling. Obsession." Obsession is a great word for McQueen clothes-and this collection was obsessed with McQueen talismans. The specimens Burton alighted on were butterflies and moths, examples of which were woven into the very fabric of her tailoring-jacquards laid out like a lepidopterist's dream ensemble, or embroidered in swarms across coats and blazers.

Moths are, of course, a McQueen talisman-live versions appeared in two of his shows, their likeness in numerous others. They were the most evident manifestation of a number of classic McQueen references here today, culled from collections for him and her alike. For Fall, Burton's McQueen men had their own contemporary savage beauty, with their punkish, pierced faces, cheeks seemingly impaled on safety pins dribbling filigree chains. "I would never dare call it 'street'," Burton balked. "But I wanted it to feel relevant to now." The collection did, even when it boldly trod on Lee McQueen's toes, in frogged hussar's jackets and red barathea wool scrolled with jet, couture, and Victoriana melding together. Those were atypical menswear, but typical McQueen. The menswear references were archetypal British tailoring-officers' mess dress, voluminous greatcoats, tautly cut double-breasted suiting. The feminizing touches were subtle-ribbons of velvet hemming coats, or as tuxedo-stripes trailing past hemlines, embroideries of jet and diamanté, and all those butterflies. But they had impact.

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Alexander McQueen Fall 2016 Menswear Fashion Show

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The challenge facing Sarah Burton each menswear season is considerable, yet can be concisely summarized: How to work within the McQueen confines of tailoring, without winding up on the stuffy side of the fence? The label's founder apprenticed at one of the starchiest and most traditional houses on "The Row," Anderson & Sheppard, making suits for the Prince of Wales.

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In the early 1970s anarchy was hand delivered to the UK by the likes of Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and The Sex Pistols but fast forward more than forty years and the spirit of punk lives on. With it, the subculture employs a heavy dose of symbolism from the circle-A and the black flag but perhaps the most instantly familiar is that of the safety pin.

With individual freedom, anti-establishment and a DIY ethic at their core, punks adapted everyday objects to align with their aesthetic; bare clothes were embellished with marker pens, painted upon, ripped and held together by safety pins. This wasn't just about style; this was about an entire philosophy. But what does the safety pin mean now?

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While it will always maintain a level of anarchism, this year has seen it become a totem of solidarity. In the wake of the EU referendum, the UK experienced an increase in racial incidents which probed people to wear the safety pin as a sign of tolerance and a bid to promote unity with immigrants. Perhaps for this reason, the unlikely accessory found its way onto the catwalk too; were designers adopting the safety pin as a symbol of unity or rebellion? Either way, it's certainly taken off.

At Celine they were fastened together to make a necklace while Balenciaga and Sonia Rykiel opted for oversized statement earrings and brooches. In true punk ideology, this isn't a trend bound by gender, oh no, just take a look Alexander McQueen's army of punctured punk kids.

It's a symbol whose influence hasn't been lost over the years, from Maison Margiela's Spring Summer 2016 collection to Liz Hurley's 1994 Versace dress, the safety pin continues to symbolise uprising and the adventurous side of fashion. It's quite simply the ultimate mark of fashion meet function.

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Punk kids are back in town with the return of the iconic safety pin

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In the early 1970s anarchy was hand delivered to the UK by the likes of Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and The Sex Pistols but fast forward more than forty years and the spirit of punk lives on.

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This is the book in which i drew inspiration from as i came up with my own designs.

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art; design; museum; fashion; factory ceramics

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Claire Wilcox is Senior Curator of Fashion at the V&A and Professor in Fashion Curation at University of the Arts London. She curated the exhibitions Vivienne Westwood (V&A 2004), and The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957 (V&A 2007), and also edited the accompanying catalogues.

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I've constantly tried to provoke people into thinking afresh and for themselves, to escape their inhibitions and programming.

Vivienne Westwood was born in a village in Derbyshire in 1941, the daughter of a factory worker and cotton weaver. She moved to London with her family as a teenager where she trained as a primary school teacher. Having split up with her first husband, it was meeting and later working with art student Malcolm McLaren (born in London in 1946) that gave Westwood a focus for her restless idealism, as well as the opportunity to harness a natural flair for dressmaking.

Rejecting the hippie ethos that was fashionable towards the end of the 1960s, Westwood and McLaren created clothes that referenced youth culture's recent past, selling rock'n'roll fashion in a shop unit at 430 King's Road in Chelsea. In 1974, the shop took on its most notorious identity: SEX, with Westwood and McLaren designing fetish wear that they sold to prostitutes, those with 'underground' sexual tastes, and young proto-punks brave enough to take a seriously edgy look out onto the street. The pair enjoyed shocking people, designing garments and shoes that referenced 'deviant' sexual practices, including rubber dresses and stilettos bristling with spikes.

In 1976, 430 King's Road was refitted and renamed Seditionaries: Clothes for Heroes. The collection remained in the same risqué territory as the clothes sold in SEX, featuring the likes of bondage trousers. A punk archetype, these trousers mix references to army combat gear, motorcyclists' leathers and fetish wear, and feature a zippered seam under the crotch, a removable 'bum flap' and 'hobble' straps that restrict movement. Other key looks that expressed a new 'distressed' form of fashion included loose-woven, 'unravelling' mohair jumpers and torn-looking dresses and tops decorated with metal chains and safety pins.

Clothes at Seditionaries were also known for their challenging graphics. The highly-charged imagery screen-printed on to frayed-looking T-shirts and muslin tops included swastikas, the Queen with a safety pin through her lips, a pair of naked breasts printed at chest height and pornographic cowboys.

Other Seditionaries T-shirt designs hint at the direction in which Westwood's tastes would develop. Her 'nippled' T-shirt uses bunched fabric as a way of clothing yet unclothing the body, demonstrating a form of provocation that is more cheeky than aggressive. Many of the items sold at Seditionaries were worn by members of the Sex Pistols (1975 - 78), the punk group McLaren had brought together to exploit what he saw as youth culture's readiness for a protest-based band.

The break up of the Sex Pistols and punk's rapid absorption into the mainstream left Westwood feeling disillusioned. Turning 40, and with a new interest in 'high' culture, she felt drawn to more subtle means of subverting the establishment, and began to look for different versions of an outsider aesthetic. Her and McLaren's next collection, and the first they took to the catwalk, was Pirate (Autumn/Winter 1981). With clothes that evoked what has often been described as an "age of highwaymen, dandies and buccaneers", the collection was named for its "plundering of ideas and colours from other places and periods". It featured loose-bottomed, wide-striped Bucaneer trousers, and oversized shirts worn with draped sashes. Partly inspired by Westwood's interest in silhouettes and portrait paintings of the 17th and 18th century, what became known as the 'New Romantic' look was hugely influential, and filtered quickly through to the mainstream via some of the era's leading musical acts.

Westwood relied less and less on McLaren's direct input for her next set of collections, which were all inspired by images of indigenous people she'd seen in the pages of National Geographic magazine. The most influential was Buffalo Girls/Nostalgia of Mud (Autumn/Winter 1982). Intended to demonstrate how western culture is rooted in that of various earlier societies, the collection fused Westwood's interest in historical costume with references to traditional South and North American cultures, in particular the full pleated skirts or 'polleras' and small bowler hats worn by Aymara women of the Central Andes, South America, known as Cholas or 'Cholitas'.

In an era when structured power suits were de rigueur, Westwood's collection showcased a muddy-coloured array of garments all based on a softly tailored silhouette: tattered, hip-slung dirndl skirts, woollen dresses with right-angle sleeves and raw-cut, drop-shouldered sheepskin jackets worn with crumpled felt hats. The collection was also the first to introduce underwear as outerwear, with 1950s-style satin bras worn over dresses.

After Buffalo Girls came Punkature. Launched in autumn 1982 - a period during which Westwood and McLaren split up - it featured distressed, recycled-looking 'hillbilly' garments in pre-washed and over-printed materials. Westwood described working on this show as a turning point - the first time she thought of herself as a designer, and more than "just an interpreter of Malcolm's ideas". Westwood and McLaren's last official collaboration was Witches (Autumn/Winter 1983). Sparked by images of Haitian voodoo, this collection harnessed the "magical, esoteric sign language" of New York graffiti artist Keith Haring, printing his images on boldly graphic, stretch-fabric bodies and tube skirts. It also featured oversized garments that "pushed and pulled and slightly fell off", innovatively tailored double-breasted jackets with hugely extended shoulders, and unisex cream-cotton macs with exaggerated, bat-wing sleeves.

With support from her new business partner, Italian fashion publicist Carlo D'Amario, Westwood gradually extricated herself from what had become a toxic business relationship with McLaren, and continued to produce collections. Marking Westwood's growing international reputation, her Hypnos collection (Spring/Summer 1984), made out of synthetic sports fabrics, was shown at the Best of Five global fashion awards in Tokyo. The Hypnos signature look was the bodysuit. Based on professional footballers' shirts, this cheekily provocative 'extended T-shirt' featured an exposed jockstrap, and became popular as club wear on London's gay scene.

The Mini-Crini collection (Spring/Summer 1985) marked what Westwood described as a "cardinal change" - a shift towards tailoring and "things that fitted" - and a more deliberate focus on reworking ideas taken from historical dress. The stand-out garment of Mini-Crini was Westwood's short, bell-shaped skirt - another cheekily sexual garment that combined the outline of a child's party frock with an abbreviated version of the Victorian crinoline. Other influential Westwood designs from the mid-1980s include the corsets-as-outerwear and fitted Savile jackets of Harris Tweed (Autumn/Winter 1987).

For Time Machine (Autumn/Winter 1988), Westwood made precisely constructed reworkings of styles taken from traditional English tailoring, such as the Norfolk suit (a belted jacket worn with knee breeches). This collection also featured articulated metallic jackets and corsets with removable sleeves that were inspired by medieval armour. The final collection of the 1980s, Voyage to Cythera (Autumn/Winter 1989), was a gift to the tabloid press: many of the models were skirtless, wearing thick white tights overprinted with a strategically placed metallic fig leaf.

Westwood's striking early 90s collection Cut, Slash and Pull (Spring/Summer 1991) looked to Tudor portraiture for inspiration, specifically the 16th-century practice of cutting and pricking to reveal underlying layers. In Westwood's version, it was bare skin that was exposed. Other garments included dresses of slashed voile and a decidedly modern take on the codpiece, nestled on the front of slashed silk pants trimmed with gigantic faux-fur bobbles and worn with a plunging fur-trimmed bodice and full-length gloves.

Although she was often judged 'uncommercial', Westwood remained undeterred, buoyed up by acclaim from the fashion industry, including a Womenswear Designer of the Year award from the British Fashion Council in both 1990 and 1991. Her ideas often hit the mainstream very quickly, and she had begun to make a significant amount of money from her London shops and international sales. In 1992 she was recognised by the Establishment with an OBE.

For the remainder of the 1990s, Westwood mixed teaching, new commercial relationships, and, in her couture collections, the expression of a new form of elegance - condemning what she called the 'ugly casualness' of much of contemporary fashion. She began to focus on the historical exchange of styles across the English Channel, mixing English "tailoring and easy charm" with French "solidity of design and proportion". Between 1993 and 1999 she produced several memorable reinterpretations of the past, including the clan tartans of Anglomania (Autumn/Winter 1993), the cushion bustles of Café Society (Spring/Summer 1994) and the gigantic sack-back gowns of Les Femmes ne connaissant pas toute leur coquetterie (Spring/Summer 1996), which were inspired by garments in paintings by French Rococo painter Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, Westwood built a hugely popular fashion brand, with shops across the globe and a number of separate fashion lines, as well as separate knitwear, accessories and perfume lines. Her work has been the subject of many major museum retrospectives (including at the V&A in 2004) and she continued to produce and show regular collections, as well as take more of a focus on activism, addressing issues including climate change, civil liberties and nuclear disarmament. In March 2016, Westwood handed over the reigns of her Gold Label line to her husband Andreas Kronthaler, who had worked alongside her for many years. They continued to design the main lines together, though the Gold Label became officially called Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood. She became a Dame in 2006.

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Vivienne Westwood: punk, new romantic and beyond · V&A

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A round-up of key looks and moments from Vivienne Westwood's career, from her punk era collaboration with Malcolm McLaren, through new romantic style and beyond

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Highsnobiety's founder David Fischer told Digiday in 2017, "Subculture is the new pop culture." And he's right.

From the start, youth subcultures have been in constant conversation with mainstream society, appropriating and remixing its products to their own ends. And though it's common to assign political aims to subcultures, they're not always necessary either. Subcultures can and do exist without overt political identities. They don't need to stand for something or even stand against something. They just need to stand apart, separating themselves from the mainstream by taking aspects of that culture and subverting them in ways that create meaning for participants and members.

That's why sneakerheads, for example, are just as much of a subculture as punks. Sneakerheads take something with a specific intended use and repurpose it to their own needs, subverting its original meaning without political intentions. Take Jordan 11s, sneakers designed to be worn for basketball. They're performance shoes right down to the full-length carbon fiber plates in their soles. So, when a sneakerhead repurposes Jordan 11s as a fashion statement, an icon of commodity fetishization, and a marker of community identity, that original athletic intention has been subverted.

The mainstream wears Jordan 11s for basketball, but sneakerheads wear them as an emblem, creating a whole web of meaning around them that exists outside of athletics. And that's the essence of a subculture.

With that dynamic in mind, we've rounded up the ten most influential subcultures of the 2010s, showing how groups as disparate as skaters and cowboys, goths, and scumbros exercised outsize influence on cultural conversations and fashion trends during this strangest of decades.

Check out the most impactful subcultures of the past decade.

When Highsnobiety founder David Fischer mentioned subcultures to Digiday, he was talking about sneakerheads and hypebeasts, two distinct but intertwined subcultures united by a love of limited drops and rare drip. And though both sneakerheads and hypebeasts date to the 1990s and 2000s, decades which saw them lining up along downtown New York streets in hopes of copping Pigeon Dunks or rare Supreme collaborations, they truly took over during the 2010s.

During this decade, sneakerheads and hypebeasts changed not only youth culture, but also high fashion, influencing staid European labels like Gucci to adopt graphic-heavy, active-inspired clothing and limited drop releases, while sending Virgil Abloh, one of their own, to the pinnacle of success as the first Black artistic director at Louis Vuitton. Streetwear has infiltrated and defined the new luxury market.

Beyond that, sneakerheads and hypebeasts pioneered online reselling, making the notion of buying rare items to "flip" for a profit more mainstream. Flipping became so popular and lucrative during the 2010s, that it inspired a whole new business sector, spurring the creation of sneaker reselling platform StockX and growing apps like DePop into international phenomena, all while injecting sneakerhead and hypebeast slang into mainstream conversations.

Now one's middle-aged mother is just as likely to know what "grail" means in this context as your 14-year-old cousin is. And that's huge. Over the past decade, it's clear, sneakerheads and hypebeasts made the world their own. This modern subculture is probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

Skaters

Like it or not, hypebeasts and sneakerheads are also responsible for the popular influence of skateboarders on fashion during the 2010s, showing the world there was a market for skate-specific footwear and clothing far away from the local ledge spot or plaza. Though real skaters kept things core, looking at fashion's interest in their culture with wary eyes, some couldn't help but spread skate culture and clothing around the world via their other interests.

Enter rap supergroup Odd Future and Tyler the Creator, their skateboarding figurehead, who broke out in 2011, bringing Supreme, Vans Old-Skools, Thrasher hoodies, Huf weed socks, and eventually their own Golf Wang line to the masses. Their success, as well as huge skate videos like Supreme's "cherry" and Lil Wayne's embrace of skateboarding in his 30s, inspired both high fashion fans and other hip hop artists to adopt and produce skate-inspired gear. Thrasher hoodies were particularly popular, appearing in Vogue and on the backs of celebs like Rihanna.

That market saturation forced now-deceased Thrasher editor Jake Phelps to announce that his magazine didn't send boxes of gear to celebs like Justin Bieber. During the 2010s, Kanye West also dressed daughter North West in skatewear staples like Thrasher and Supreme, before releasing the Yeezy 500, an adidas runner that looked just like an éS Scheme, a puffy-shoe icon that first dropped in 2001. That release seemed to spark a frenzy for old-skate-shoe-inspired kicks, with A$AP Rocky working with Under Armour to create the SRLo, a high-concept sneaker that drew obvious inspiration from Osiris's D3 skate shoe.

Now, this subculture seems to be going full circle, with original 2010s skate-influencer Tyler the Creator popping up this month to unveil the GOLF le FLEUR* x Converse Gianno, a puffy trail shoe that also recalls the late '90s phatest skate kicks, including yes, the D3.

Normcore

Ah yes, normcore. You probably remember it. Though satirical trend forecasting K-Hole came up with the term to refer to the novel concept of rebellion through fitting in, normcore didn't blow up until a 2014 New York Magazine article came out detailing how downtown New York scenesters were dressing like suburban moms and dads. From there, it created a firestorm, as mainstream press and actual normies couldn't even conceive of something so seemingly stupid actually existing, while the cool kids-the actual normcore adherents-rejected the term, almost embarrassed at being called out flexing in their white runners, turtlenecks, Crocs, and light-wash jeans.

The young and hip never like to be identified as such, with that kind attention piercing their carefully crafted aloof rebellion. And though the term "normcore" flamed out fast, its influence was massive, affecting fashion and style throughout the 2010s. In normcore's wake, mom jeans and dadcore became huge trends, with the latter aesthetic holding sway over vast swaths of cultural territory, from skaters to high fashion runways, where Balenciaga's Demna Gvasalia made it one of his hallmarks.

Gvasalia dedicated his entire spring 2018 show to the dadcore, while selling loads of chunky, artfully smudged Triple S runners. But that's not all. Shia LaBeouf's intuitive normcore style would also make him a street style star and unexpected Kanye muse, setting the stage for normcore-inspired style subcultures like "scumbro" to emerge later in the decade.

Seapunk

In the past, most subcultures formed in the streets. Now, many form online. And seapunk was a leader in this space as one of the first online subcultures to make it big. But before it went online though, it emerged in a dream. In 2011, video director Lil Internet dreamed about a leather jacket crusted in barnacles instead of metal studs, tweeting about it as soon as he woke up. From there, artist, Lil Internet associate, and Twitter personality Lil Government tweeted #seapunk out into the world with a wink and a nod, where it would be picked up by the New York art pranksters at Dis magazine and teens on Tumblr, before exploding into the wider world.

Eventually, the seapunk aesthetic, which included plenty of aqua, green, and oceanic iconography like shells and dolphins, appeared up on everyone from Rihanna to Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj to Katy Perry, and of course, Frank Ocean himself. Eventually, seapunk's aesthetic and its related musical genres like vaporwave grew so big even cultural gatekeeper's like The New York Times took notice, covering the subculture and eventually burning it out and, well, sinking it. But seapunk remains iconic as one of the first online subcultures to develop during the decade of smartphone-driven social media.

Roadmen

UK grime first appeared during the 2000s, as artists like London-born Dizze Rascal gave the world its first taste of truly original UK hip-hop. With its minimalist electro beats and vernacular rhymes, no one could mistake grime for a poor imitation of American hip hop. It was unique and it was totally English. Still, grime seemed to disappear from the global stage for a decade, bubbling along in the UK, before reemerging on the global stage in 2015 thanks to artists like Skepta and Stormzy. And a new style subculture also went global in conjunction with the grime renaissance. Alongside grime, the UK roadman, bedecked in tracksuits, technical outerwear, low profile caps, Air Max runners, and the omni-present shoulder bag would become a worldwide fashion obsession.

Roadman, English slang for young guys who hang out in the "roads," is akin to the American "corner dude," but it has a style all its own, updating traditional, sporty UK football casual style for the 21st century. No moment captured the intersection of UK grime and roadman style quite like Skepta's 2015 " Shutdown" video, which saw the emcee and his crew outfitted in enough minimalist sportswear to stock an entire boutique. Though the whole roadman look remains influential today, no item was bigger than the sidebag, a small sling or repurposed fanny pack worn over the shoulder, which was also adopted by skateboarders and active-influenced high fashion lines like Cottweiler and Y-3.

Drillers

Throughout hip hop's history, the Midwest sat outside the mainstream, doing its own thing while the East Coast beefed with the West and the South rose to global domination. Sure, there were outliers like Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony and Kanye West, but even they made their names by partnering with coastal superstars like Eazy-E and Jay Z. Perhaps that's what made Chicago's drill music so unexpected when it emerged around 2011. Coming directly out of the city's poorest South Side neighborhoods, drill spread as talented innovators like King Louie, Chief Keef, and Young Chop posted their work directly to Youtube.

With programs like Fruity Loops and high-resolution cameras increasingly available to all, Chicago drill was a true DIY movement, returning hip hop to an authentic gangster sensibility not seen since the emergence of Schooly D and N.W.A in the late '80s. Like trap, the 2010s' other great hip hop genre, drill relied on digital beats, synths, and distinctive snare sounds, but focused on a colder, more ruthless sound often accented with dark, theatrical strings and bells that echoed older Memphis tape rap.

Drillers like Chief Keef and Fredo Santana also boasted their own unique style, favoring skinny, low-slung True Religion jeans, Jordans, chains, flashy designer belts, and slim T-shirts and hoodies, even as other subcultures moved on to baggier clothing. Drill's sound and aesthetic also proved globally influential, moving from Chicago to Brooklyn and even London, where teenage street gangs used the music and its attendant Youtube videos to boast and taunt "opps," eventually leading to a moral panic in the UK where politicians tried to ban the genre. Sadly, drill's authenticity came at a price, with rappers like Lil Jojo and L'A Capone losing their lives to gun violence, while others, like Fredo Santana passing away due to drug abuse.

Despite those deaths, drill remains among the world's most important modern subcultures today.

Goth

Born in the 1970s, Goth never quite goes away. That might be because its morose, romantic outlook is the perfect encapsulation of teenage ennui. Or maybe it's because black looks good on everyone. Either way, goth was huge during the 2010s, inspiring all sorts of spinoffs and updates, from "street goth" to "health goth" and more. Goths of color fueled much of this creative expansion, as artists like DJ Venus X grew her GHE20G0TH1K parties from local New York phenomenon to global brand, inspiring rappers like A$AP Rocky to come along for the ride. Fashion designers, both new and old, also played a huge role in the 2010s goth explosion.

Hood by Air's Shane Oliver kept rappers, club kids, and celebrities dipped in his neo-goth hip hop gear, while high fashion elders like Rick Owens saw his career rise to new heights. Along the way, goth-made skaters and even rappers want to paint their nails, while inspiring a vast genre of "goth girlfriend" memes and think pieces online. And, as a testament to goth's staying power and importance during the 2010s, none other than Highsnobiety has recently predicted yet another goth comeback.

Yeehaw Agenda

History aficionados know that black people lived and worked in the American West from the start. Many were cowboys, with the range offering African Americans a level of freedom and decent pay that wasn't available in the East of the South. Until recently, that history had largely been forgotten in popular culture, though black cowboys never completely disappeared. Enter the "YeeHaw Agenda," a phrase coined by Texan Bri Malandro in the late 2010s to refer to the renewed popularity of Westernwear and cowboy chic among African Americans.

Though named by Malandro, the cowboy look had been bubbling up among African Americans for a minute, with designer Kerby Jean-Raymond casting the Compton Cowboys and Cowgirls of Color in his fall 2018 Pyer Moss "American Also" campaign. Later that year, Atlanta's Lil Nas X provided the YeeHaw Agenda with a theme song, releasing his hip hop-country mega-smash "Old Town Road," a tune that went viral thanks to the #YeeHawChallenge on TikTok.

Written off as a novelty hit by some, "Old Town Road" proved both incredibly durable and controversial, with Billboard deciding to take it off its Hot Country Songs charts despite its huge popularity. That didn't stop Lil Nas X or the song, as defenders like Billy Ray Cyrus hopped on the tune for remixes that helped "Old Town Road" go Diamond faster than any song in history, moving more than ten million total units in the U.S. alone. At the same time, celebs like Beyonce, Solange, and Megan Thee Stallion helped push the YeeHaw Agenda, adopting the cowboy look in what some saw as a repudiation of Trump's MAGA movement.

Scumbro

The scumbro subculture arose in 2018 at the confluence of Shia LaBeouf's normcore and skate style, as stylists like Karla Welch helped push the look on client Justin Bieber, just as other adherents like Jonah Hill, Pete Davidson, and John Mayer were seen dressing similarly out in the streets. Scumbro style is simple, a mix of skate hoodies, frat boy tie-dye, rare sneakers, and sweatpants worn with a dirtbag nonchalance. Adherents got bonus points if they could grow a wispy mustache.

The scumbro style helped make Jonah Hill an unexpected street style icon, as menswear fans lauded him for his newly independent look that mixed tie-dye and dad caps with Palace gear and new tattoos, just as his skate flick Mid90s gained him acclaim as a director. Scumbro also made Pete Davidson a style icon, as he rode his scumbro look and high profile-relationship with Ariana Grande right into a modeling gig in Alexander Wang's Collection 1 2020 fashion show. Though some publications say scumbro died in 2018, it's scruffy grooming, tie-dye shirts, and scuzzy dad caps remain popular with aspiring dirtbags today.

Eboys

Despite their recent outsize influence on pop culture and mainstream fashion, subcultures remain largely teenage concerns. So it's fitting that teenagers created the final subculture on this list. Just squeaking in towards the end of decade, Eboys and Egirls emerged on Chinese social media app TikTok, where Gen Z has flocked to participate in hashtagged challenges and silly lipsyncing videos. Though the trend is for the young, it harkens back to subcultures of the past, combining elements of '90s grunge with 2000s skater style, MySpace scene kids flare, and even Hot Topic mall goth gloom.

Among the "E," both genders paint their nails, favoring long-sleeved striped T-shirts worn under black graphic tees, all tucked into jeans styled with plenty of wallet chains. Egirls notably wear distinctive eye makeup too, often adding hearts or other small symbols to their cheeks. On the whole, the look reminds viewers that even among the newest subcultures, elements of the past remain important, with young people mixing and matching them to fit the current zeitgeist, in a feedback loop that's unlikely to ever end. If you're feeling inspired, perhaps it's time to level up your wardrobe?

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The Ten Most Influential Subcultures of the Decade

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The trends of the 2000s were largely defined by its most dominant style tribes. Here are the ones that really led the pack in terms of sheer influence.

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Everything Dazed knows about Subcultures

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Nasir Mazhar spring/summer 15

Throughout history, our 'look' has been part of our language. Fashion has been the key component of our identities; the surface decoration of the human body that possesses the ability to express the ideologies that lie beneath. Those looks have subscribed us to varying cultural tribes. From greasers to grungers, mods to metal heads - subcultures have always been recognisable, and defined, by the clothes they wear. But at first glance in the 21st century, those classifiable groups seem to have desublimated. When we try and identify a relevant subculture of today, it's not quite as easy as looking for a pair of Doc Marten boots or paisley print trousers. Yet cult menswear dressing in the last year seems to have had somewhat of a renaissance, and it makes for particularly excitable viewing.

In his book Plentitude, writer Grant McCracken wrote that "in the 50s, you were either mainstream or James Dean. You had to be one or the other". This however, is no longer the case. Over time, the sorts of people we can choose to be have multiplied dramatically. In today's kaleidoscopic world, we are presented with thousands of options to choose from. Who are our cultural heroes now that have come to symbolise a generation? Are they artists? Musicians? Designers? Politicians? Perhaps they're still the icons of Britain's past. The answer is, they've become all of those things.

A subculture can be defined and identified as when a larger culture has failed to meet the needs of a particular group of people. Of course, it would be futile to suggest that there aren't minority groups whose needs aren't met. Yet, the diversity that is now so inherent in our society has forced a cultural hand. It seems no longer about identifying as part of a group, as much as identifying as a complete individual. As cliché as it sounds, in the mid 00s, it became cool to be un-cool. It's that age-old hipster mentality that we're all too familiar with. No longer are we James Dean or mainstream, but many streams - with it becoming less and less clear what rituals of resistance we might resist. Cultural overload has resulted in a conglomeration of fashion, with every genre of style tribe amalgamated. It's regram, retweet and #TBT culture; borrowing, stealing and merging in a frantic battle of (un)coolness. Just look at the amount of recent collaborations across the arts as a milestone indicator of that.

But we're all getting a bit sick of hipsters aren't we? Beards are being shaved off, socks put back on, and house parties replaced by club nights. Individualism can be, well, a bit boring and lonely sometimes, no? Ergo, subculture is once again emerging in its place, something that as a nation, we seem to have skipped for around a decade. But it's more new wave now and sits in-line with our modern ways of thinking. Look at club nights like Sink the Pink. Our ways of dressing are as likely to bubble up from the streets as they are now to descend from high fashion. Indeed the brands that tow the delicate line are the ones that aren't just making money, but are responsible for defining our current generation.

An obvious example is Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent, which has consistently championed subcultures such as rock, goth, punk and ska - removing them from the realms of the underground and throwing them onto the runways of Paris. It's what writer Richard Hebdige describes as "hiding in the light". The zipper detailing, tight trousers and skinny ties are recognisable signatures of tribes past. Artists, musicians and designers unite - look at the team of boho underdogs that came together to create every facet of his show in Paris last Sunday. Slimane has reversed that previous definition of subculture; choosing instead to present a particular group of people triumphant to a larger cultural group. And that's why those basic separates come with a hefty price tag.

But while we might not all be throwing chucks on with Saint Laurent, the real rejuvenation in subcultural dressing has come from brands like Hood By Air, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Nasir Mazhar. These are that new wave, that have brought street and high fashion together, nuanced by cultural topics that have yet to be examined in our clothing. Its authenticity at its best - and that's exactly what's responsible for creating legions of loyal fans that dress head to toe in those brands. It's a uniform, and it harks back to those days of subcultural groups identified by their fashion DNA.

Shayne Oliver's Hood By Air label has grown exponentially since opening in 2006, showing this season as a special guest in Pitti. What Oliver, and his contemporaries have created, is something authentic. Something that taps into an underground mentality, be that the State-side gender bending stance that HBA takes, the un-exposed world of Gosha's St Petersburg's skate park boys or Nasir's London-cum-chola chaps that choose the tracksuit as their tailoring. It would be laziness to call any of those brands "streetwear" - moreover these designers form the cultural uniform of the people on their streets.

So why now? Why are these brands blinking on everyone's fashion radar after a subcultural hiatus, responsible for defining the current generation? It goes back to that statement in the 50s of whether you want to be mainstream or James Dean. In a world that has diversified so much through its acceptance of expression, fast fashion and technology, perhaps we have begun to again crave groups that can define us. The key word here is authenticity. To be part of new, authentic groups that once again unifies like-minded people. After all, isn't being authentic what creates subculture in the first place?

Credits

Text Greg French
Photography Piczo
Photography from catwalk Mitchell Sams

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how fashion is undergoing a subcultural revival

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Nasir Mazhar spring/summer 15 Throughout history, our 'look' has been part of our language. Fashion has been the key component of our identities; the surface decoration of the human body that possesses the ability to express the ideologies that lie beneath. Those looks have subscribed us to varying cultural tribes.

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The 2010s were a watershed moment for diversity in fashion.

Marked by a series of breakthroughs that challenged the status quo and opened doors for minority groups to be represented within all facets of the business, this decade will be remembered as a time of rapid change when fashion was forced to examine its practices. Good design has always served to mirror societal concerns, but never before has the industry been asked to rigorously question itself about these issues. Realities once considered distractions from the stylish fantasy sold by luxury brands became the critical subjects of conversation for consumers and a new generation of leaders who demanded that the truths of race, gender, body size, disability, and inequality be acknowledged.

No segment of the business was left untouched; modeling’s narrow definition of beauty expanded thanks to rise of Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, and a host of new stars who represented realities rather than lofty ideals. Milestone appointments at the luxury houses Balmain and Louis Vuitton allowed black designers Olivier Rousteing and Virgil Abloh to inhabit spaces once closed to people of color. Trans women and men like Andreja Pejić, Teddy Quinlivan, and Nathan Westling shared their stories of self-discovery, rising to prominence for their artistic endeavors while demonstrating that old concepts of style defined by gender were no longer relevant.

These moments have led to the expansion of the fashion community and a renewed understanding of its ability to encourage transformation beyond the sartorial. Still many of them would not have happened if the industry were left to its own devices. Fashion’s move towards inclusion has been mostly reactionary; broader social movements—fourth-wave feminism, #MeToo, and Generation Z’s ingrained activism—have impacted its understanding of what is stylish and whose voices ought to be heard. The establishment’s ability to dictate trends and protect its insular worldview was challenged by the rise of social media and an audience no longer willing to accept a passive role in consumption.

In an age where a refusal to represent or acknowledge certain groups can result in viral outrage, brands have adapted in order to maintain relevance. Cynics will cite the bottom line as the sole impetus behind this push, but regardless of how we got here, the shift has resulted in innovation and a growing sense of communal responsibility. The recent launch of corporate initiatives to increase inclusion—Chanel’s hiring of a diversity officer earlier this month, Gucci’s internal diversity initiative to increase hiring of multicultural candidates and create scholarships for minority students, etc.—acknowledges the structural problems that need to be resolved in order to make the last 10 years of breakthroughs more than a stopgap.

As the decade comes to a close, it’s easy to accept the changes it has brought about as the new normal, but a series of firsts only matters if it leads to continued evolution. The true impact of these turning points will come when they cease to be radical. When a black creative director at a major French house, a trans woman on a magazine cover, or a disabled person on a runway isn’t a rare occurrence or something played for shock value, only then will true equality be in reach. Still a look back at the milestones that led to the current climate illustrates exactly how far things have come.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, December 2016

The Michelle Obama Effect, 2010

Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, but Michelle Obama’s impact on the fashion industry helped to define the decade that followed. The former first lady championed American design talent throughout her time in the White House, introducing a new audience to names like Maria Cornejo, Narciso Rodriguez, and Jason Wu while also supporting accessible brands like J.Crew. An arbiter of style in Washington and beyond (as a wardrobe of Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, and Givenchy on her recent book tour has proved), Michelle Obama’s presence in the fashion world became a part of her image and American history.

Photographed by Cass Bird, Vogue, July 2017

Liu Wen Signs With Estée Lauder, 2010

Beauty contracts are the mark of a model’s global success, but until recently minority stars were rarely given the opportunity to front cosmetics campaigns. Chinese runway queen Liu Wen’s appointment as the first Asian face of Estée Lauder opened doors to a more inclusive beauty space.

Photo: Getty Images

Olivier Rousteing’s Appointment at Balmain, 2011

On the heels of Christophe Decarnin’s exit from Balmain, 25-year-old Olivier Rousteing became the French house’s creative director, a move that caused a stir at the time. Unique due to his race and relative youth, Rousteing’s appointment broke boundaries. Outspoken about fashion’s fraught relationship with race and the need for greater inclusion, Rousteing has filled Balmain imagery with his unapologetically sexy clothes and a global army of beauties. Arguably Rousteing paved the way for breakthroughs like Virgil Abloh’s appointment as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear seven years later.

Photographed by Mikael Jansson, Vogue, September 2018

Andreja Pejić, Lea T, and Modeling’s Gender Revolution, 2013

Trans people have always been an integral part of the fashion community, but rarely have they been allowed to live their truth. Vintage stars like April Ashley, Caroline Cossey, and Tracey Norman rose to prominence for their talent but experienced career difficulties the moment their gender became public knowledge. Unlike their predecessors, the current generation has been able to express themselves while retaining their presence in the public eye. Groundbreaking models like Andreja Pejić and Riccardo Tisci muse Lea T. came on the scene at the start of the decade and sparked a conversation about gender and beauty that moved from fashion circles to newspapers and even The Oprah Winfrey Show. Both have shared their story via documentaries or op-eds, becoming vocal activists for the LGBTQ+ community and ushering in a period where their fashion peers could be as outspoken.

Photo: Getty Images

Bethann Hardison Forms the Diversity Coalition, 2013

When Bethann Hardison—activist, former model, and agency founder—noticed the homogenous nature of fashion’s runways, she called on her peers to do better. In an open letter to the fashion councils of New York, London, Milan, and Paris, Hardison held brands that didn’t use models of color accountable—a move that eventually led to casting changes across the board.

Photographed by Greg Harris, Vogue, November 2017

Chromat’s First Runway Show, 2014

The casts at Becca McCharen-Tran’s Chromat shows are about more than which model is popular at the moment. McCharen-Tran fills her runway with people of all sizes, shapes, genders, and abilities, dressing them in her brand’s vibrant designs for a celebration of the body. It’s an idea that shouldn’t seem radical, yet season after season it does.

China: Through the Looking Glass, 2015

Each theme selected by the Costume Institute for its annual exhibition serves to reflect the current state of fashion, but few have been as timely as 2015’s China: Through the Looking Glass. Centered on Western fashion’s complicated relationship with Eastern culture, it arrived at a time when the prominence of Chinese market had reached new heights. A respectful examination of the connections, parallels, and moments of blatant cultural appropriation that have occurred as fashion attempts to draw inspiration from China’s rich heritage, it was a welcome historical hot take.

Photo: Getty Images

Ashley Graham’s Sports Illustrated cover, 2016

Ashley Graham began her modeling career in 2001, but her true breakthrough moment began with 2016’s cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The first plus-size model to ever pose for the publication’s front page, Graham kick-started a conversation about bodies in fashion that carried over into the mainstream and helped propel her toward household-name status.

K-Beauty Crosses Into the American Mainstream, 2016

The soft power of Korea’s cultural influence extends into everything from pop music to clothing, but it’s the beauty market that’s been truly rocked by the global dominance of Korean cosmetics and skin care. Innovative ingredients including snail mucin, bee venom, and 24-karat gold have grown cult followings for brands like Innisfree, Banila Co., and Dr. Jart+.

Photo: Getty Images

Dapper Dan’s Resurgence, 2017

After a look in Gucci’s Cruise 2017 collection drew the ire of the internet for its similarity to a classic design from Harlem fashion icon Daniel “Dapper Dan” Day, the luxury house turned an embarrassing misstep into an opportunity for collaboration. Best known for his reinterpretations of logo’d luxurywear in the 1980s, Day went on to create a capsule collection for the brand and a special studio devoted to customized pieces.

Photo: Getty Images

Edward Enninful Becomes Editor in Chief at British Vogue, 2017

A career as a groundbreaking stylist whose striking editorials for i-D and Italian Vogue set the standard during the early ’00s led to Edward Enninful being named the first black male editor in chief of British Vogue in April 2017. Immediately dedicating himself to creating a more diverse vision for the magazine’s content and staff, Enninful brought in longtime collaborators like Naomi Campbell and director Steve McQueen as contributing editors.

Photo: Getty Images

Halima Aden’s Modeling Debut, 2017

As the first hijab-wearing model to walk international runways, Halima Aden serves as a role model for millions of girls and a powerful representative for Muslim women in fashion. Since appearing at shows like Yeezy, Alberta Ferretti, and Max Mara during her debut season, Aden has continued to break boundaries, becoming the first model to wear a hijab within the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, serving as an ambassador for UNICEF, and designing her own collection of modest accessories.

Photo: Courtesy of Deveaux

The Over-40 Set Hits the Runway, 2017

Several of the most impactful runway moments in recent memory involved talent over 40. The catwalk has long been considered the domain of new faces, but designers and casting directors have realized the impact—and virality—they could achieve by utilizing older models. At Versace’s Spring 2018 collection, Donatella brought back Gianni’s supermodel muses—Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, and Carla Bruni—to great fanfare. Seventy-two-year-old Jan de Villeneuve brought grace to Simone Rocha’s Fall 2017 collection, while Maye Musk garnered a beauty contract at 69 the same year. The movement has even expanded into menswear, with Junya Watanabe’s Fall 2019 show composed entirely of older men.

Photo: Getty Images

11 Honoré Offers High Fashion in Extended Sizes, 2017

When luxury e-tailer 11 Honoré launched in 2017, its mission was simple: Bring the best of runway fashion to plus sizes. The site began with a handful of labels and now features more than 80 high-end designers, ranging from Altuzarra to Zac Posen. In February the brand kick-started New York Fashion Week with an event that illustrated the importance of its undertaking, underlining how rare it is to see a show with more than one or two models beyond a sample size. Laverne Cox’s twirling cameo was fire.

Sinéad Burke’s TED Talk on Disability in Fashion, 2017

Most TED Talks are thought-provoking, but few have the impact of activist Sinéad Burke’s. An advocate for the needs of the disabled, Burke illustrated the importance of design and how it can be used to improve the lives of communities beyond the able-bodied. Burke, who has shared her message everywhere from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the pages of British Vogue, now consults with brands like Burberry on how to make their clothing and flagship stores more accessible.

Photo: Getty Images

Pyer Moss’s Weeksville Collection, 2018

When Kerby Jean-Raymond took his Spring 2019 collection to Weeksville, Brooklyn, he gave New York Fashion Week a history lesson, while providing a glimpse at its stylish future. One of the first communities founded by freemen after the abolition of slavery in New York, Weeksville served as the backdrop for a show concerned with the modern African American experience and a political climate where even routine aspects of black life have become dangerous. It was almost unanimously touted as the most uplifting show of the season.

Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, 2018

Tyler Mitchell Becomes the First African American Photographer to shoot an American Vogue Cover, 2018

Nowhere is a diverse viewpoint more important than behind the camera. While we’ve seen marked improvements with casting and the subjects covered within the pages of glossy magazines, photographers of color still face an uphill battle. When 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell became the first African American photographer to shoot a cover of American Vogue, capturing arguably the world’s biggest star at her most candid, it was a breakthrough moment for creatives of color behind the scenes.

Photo: Getty Images

Rihanna Launches Fenty With LVMH, 2019

After the successful launch of her game-changing cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, Rihanna began work on her most ambitious project to date, a fashion label with LVMH. When it was launched in May, Fenty became the only new brand created by the conglomerate since Christian Lacroix back in 1987 and its first with a woman of color at the helm. A luxury interpretation of Rihanna’s streetwise personal style, the first collection debuted to raves.

Photo: Getty Images

Billy Porter and Other Actors Challenge Red-Carpet Gender Norms, 2019

Hollywood’s red carpets are a showcase for the world’s best fashion, but too often they’ve relied on outdated ideas about gender. When Pose star Billy Porter arrived at the Oscars in a tuxedo gown from Christian Siriano, it was the night’s boldest style statement, one that left him feeling empowered. “It really is astonishing how much of an effect clothes have on your spirit,” Porter told Vogue beforehand. “From this [Oscars] moment, I want people to understand that you don’t have to understand or even agree with other people’s authenticity or truths, but we must all respect each other.”

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The 2010s Were a Turning Point for Diversity in Fashion

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The decade was defined by its push toward greater inclusion and representation in every facet of the industry.

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In March 2019, The Fashion Spot published its seasonal diversity report, which measures diversity of race, gender and size on the Fashion Week catwalks.

The report documented a milestone in racial diversity, with runways across all four cities more inclusive than ever before. In New York, 45.8% of models were non-white. Paris came in second, with 39% models of colour, London in third and Milan - typically the least diverse city - in fourth on 31.8%. So good news in some respects, but on the other hand you have industry veteran Naomi Campbell telling Vogue as recently as April this year that her ads don't run in certain countries because she is black.

The issue of black women's representation within the fashion industry isn't a new topic, but - newsflash - we need to keep talking about it. I was reminded of this again very recently when I was scrolling through my phone and saw a post by New York-based model, Olivia Anakwe. She took to Instagram to write about a common situation she faces as a working model: the way she is treated by non-black hairstylists who are untrained or unable to look after natural, afro hair. This happens time and time again, despite being asked to turn up to shows with her hair in its natural state. Anakwe said: "This message is to spread awareness & hopefully reach anyone in the hair field to expand their range of skills. Black models are still asking for just one hairstylist on every team no matter where your team is from, to care for afro hair."

This message is to spread awareness & hopefully reach anyone in the hair field to expand their range of skills. Black models are still asking for just one hairstylist on every team no matter where your team is from to care for afro hair. I was asked to get out of an empty chair followed by having hairstylists blatantly turning their backs to me when I would walk up to them, to get my hair done. If I am asked to wear my natural hair to a show, the team should prepare the style just as they practice the look and demo for non-afro hair. I arrived backstage where they planned to do cornrows, but not one person on the team knew how to do them without admitting so. After one lady attempted and pulled my edges relentlessly, I stood up to find a model who could possibly do it. After asking two models and then the lead/only nail stylist, she was then taken away from her job to do my hair. This is not okay. This will never be okay. This needs to change. No matter how small your team is, make sure you have one person that is competent at doing afro texture hair care OR just hire a black hairstylist! Black hairstylists are required to know how to do everyone's hair, why does the same not apply to others? It does not matter if you don't specialize in afro hair, as a continuous learner in your field you should be open to what you have yet to accomplish; take a class. I was ignored, I was forgotten, and I felt that. Unfortunately I'm not alone, black models with afro texture hair continuously face these similar unfair and disheartening circumstances. It's 2019, it's time to do better. || #NaturalHair #ModelsofColor #BlackHairCare #HairCare #Message #Hair #Hairstyling #Backstage #BTS #AfroTexturedHair #Afro #POC #Braids #Message #Spreadtheword #Speak #Awareness #Growth #WorkingTogether #BlackGirlMagic #Melanin

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Earlier this month, seasoned Australian model Ajak Deng spoke on her Instagram stories about feeling alienated and labelled as not good enough by her peers in the fashion industry. In 2016 she announced she was quitting modelling because she could "no longer deal with the fakes and the lies", before announcing her return a week later. Judging by her latest tearful post, those issues have not gone away. Deng said: "You don't know how lonely it is at the top. And not only that, the people that work with you are constantly telling you that you need to be a better person and you're a horrible person on a daily basis. I'm sick and tired." The post was later deleted but after being reposted on a different account, the comments were flooded with support for the model, including a supportive hashtag, # HereforAjak.

In an era where the Fenty Beauty campaign caused a domino effect in the beauty industry emphasising inclusivity, and models like London-born Leomie Anderson are quick to call out issues within the industry, it might feel like we are coming on leaps and bounds - but for many working black models the reality is that not much has changed, and many continue to face discrimination and racism on a daily basis.

Thankfully social media has given black women a platform to articulate their struggles. South London-raised Sophia Tassew is plus-size and black. After being scouted as an ASOS insider, her presence on social media rocketed (she has a 10.5k following on Instagram) and she went on to secure a creative placement with Nike and curate her own exhibition. Although she's been in the modelling industry for less than two years, Tassew realised early on that she wasn't on a level playing field. "The creative directions brands take needs to be better," she says. "Brands need to know how best to shoot and capture black plus-size bodies correctly and not just use them as some sort of prop or to fulfil more tokenistic roles. They tend to use particular black, plus-size models for one shoot or campaign, never to be used again. It's a very short-lived experience."

They tend to use particular black, plus-size models for one shoot or campaign, never to be used again. It's a very short-lived experience.

Discussing the hierarchy in the plus-size world, Tassew says: "I was with a bunch of black plus-size models the other day and we were actually thinking about how we could help behind the scenes and online to reassure any other black women that want to enter the industry. But change has to start from the top. Little things like the makeup artist not being right, the hairstylist not being able to deal with my hair. Many times, I would be on set and they wouldn't have my size, which was ironic as I was hired as a plus-size model. The current climate in the whole influencer/plus-size industry is a little bit problematic for me. Who we shine the light on can be dangerous and I think about it daily."

Tassew spotted a niche in the market for women that looked like her. "I'd walk into a sportswear retailer and feel intimidated by the imagery portrayed to me. I couldn't find things that fit right or women that looked like me. Ordinarily I would have to order my size online if they did have it. There were a lot of hurdles I had to go through even before starting training." So she decided to tackle the issue by creating a collective called Curves In Motion. "When I wanted to train with people, there wasn't a collective I could relate to. I hadn't run a marathon before in my life so the answer was obvious to me at that point: get a good community of plus women who want to train. Usually before training I would put on a baggy tee and leggings and I thought, Others don't have to do that, so why should I?"

At five foot three inches tall, Vanessa Ohenlen has defied the odds to become a model and influencer. Despite snide remarks about her height on shoots, she graced her first cover, Beauty Papers, in September 2018 and recently starred in FKA twigs' AVANTgarden zine. She tells me about the troubles she has faced in the industry. "Ordinarily when you have issues you should be able to email your agency and let them know of any problems, but when I would email and I would get a reply three days later, they weren't supportive. I felt as though I wasn't being pushed. All the white women were being put forward for jobs. It was like they wanted diversity and yet it wasn't being backed up." She adds: "I did an editorial with another white model from my agency and when the pictures came out our agencies posted the photos, but mine were hidden. I felt as though I wasn't a priority." The stress has impacted her mental health, she tells me.

Like Anakwe, Ohenlen has had hair issues on set. "When hairstylists do your hair they don't want to put much effort into it," she says. "It's like they just can't be bothered, they put more effort into white models' hair." And it's not just hair. "I've seen stylists give non-black models on set about 50 looks but only give me one look. I just thought, Why am I not good enough to wear the Balenciaga full look?"

People don't want to say anything because they look bitter, like the angry black woman.

Choco Models founder Kereen Hurley can relate. In 2016, the 25-year-old former model started her own agency in the hope of giving black models in the UK more exposure. "I was scouted in 2010 when I was at prom but quickly realised I was good at being a freelance model and hardly any dark-skinned models got signed," she says. "There's very much the mentality that there's only room for one of us at a time, which creates division. I had outgrown modelling but I wanted to have a purpose and create unity." If you're wondering why black models aren't more vocal about this issue, then the narrative of the 'angry black woman' could be holding them back. Hurley explains: "People don't want to say anything because they look bitter, like the angry black woman. I've had light-skinned women say, 'Why are you here?' And I explain and they question me further. But you have to choose your battles wisely."

Discriminatory practices such as the brown paper bag test (whereby those whose skin was darker than a brown paper bag weren't afforded certain privileges) have been floating around for decades. One quick look at Blac Chyna's skin-lightening plug or the response to Spice's controversial skin-lightening experiment highlights the rampant colourism within the black community. How has the issue played a role in these models' careers? Ohenlen says: "I think because I love myself more now, I'm doing better, but it did used to really affect me. I felt as though I was seen as less deserving than white or mixed-race women, especially when they would be hyping up the white model on set and say how great she looks and I would have to pretend to be okay with it." Tassew agrees: "There's no denying colourism is present in the industry and I think the industry doesn't want to move away from that as they want to uphold a certain idea. But it's definitely something we have a duty to call out. If you're going to attach yourself to a movement and community and be body positive, that needs to be intersectional."

So what can be done? "I think that's not only down to us as models, I think it's also down to our allies," says Tassew. "The decision-makers, casting directors, those that decide who features on certain campaigns or who goes on press trips. It's about representation and the model feeling like she's going somewhere. When the work isn't coming in, that can take such a hit on your mental health. You start to blame yourself." Ohenlen suggests: "Speaking about it definitely helps but also holding mini talks and conferences where black models come together would be a good start, so we all feel like we aren't alone. It would be good to know there can be changes made and make more opportunities for black models. I know a lot of black creatives that feel as though there isn't room for us to grow and develop." Hurley agrees: "I'm looking to do more talks and videos so people can get an insight into what goes on, so hopefully this can happen in the future. I feel like lots of models are relieved an agency like Choco Models exists because of what's been happening in the industry."

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Why The Fashion Industry Still Lacks Diversity In 2019

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In March 2019, The Fashion Spot published its seasonal diversity report, which measures diversity of race, gender and size on the Fashion Week catwalks. The report documented a milestone in racial diversity, with runways across all four cities more inclusive than ever before. In New York, 45.8% of models were non-white.