I Predict A Riot! September 30 2013

Once a punk always a punk? I can clearly remember the summer of ’77, Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen booming out in Silver Jubilee year. …a bunch of us at a party dressed in black denim, plastic bags (ooh we thought we were sooo Debbie Harry), Dayglo plastic specs and belting out the Stranglers’ Peaches. An exciting time to be a teenager – we so thought we would change the world with our rebellious attitude and our anti-establishment passions…

Fast forward – oh far too many years to mention – and Punk is still around, in fact it seems to be having a resurgence currently, mostly thanks to the New York Met Museum’s exhibition – Punk: Chaos to Couture. But Punk’s longevity is best captured in the quote from David Byrne: “Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style”; and that attitude has stayed with us.

It’s the attitude of the women of the time that I found and still find so inspiring. Patti Smith, Siouxie Sioux, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett and Poly Styrene all served as key inspiration for my new collection of handbags “Riot.” With bags named after these eponymous women of rock I’ve used leather, tartan, tweed and hardwear to create a collection inspired by some of the most stylist and influential women of rock.

A guy walks up to me and asks ‘What’s Punk?’ So I kick over a garbage can and say ‘That’s punk!’ So he kicks over a garbage can and says ‘That’s punk?’ and I say ‘No, that’s trendy!’”
— Billie Joe Armstrong