Doctor Martens

Patent leather docs

I remember about 20 years ago....the only people that wore Dr Martens were skinheads. The only people who knew what they were were skinheads. Now most alt fash people (at least) know what they are, and many people have bought a pair....or have at least considered

Sydney in 1985. Spending $70 on a pair of boots was unheard of. But we did. Our parents couldn'
t believe it. And that was just the ordinary 8 hole ones. You could only buy them in one or two disposal stores in the city, who imported them and sold them to Skinheads. Then Rude boys got in on it, then a few mods, and then they seem to generally get out into the alt community. Punks I think started switching over from GPs eventually.


Standard Cherry reds

The concept of a group of rough and ready Skinheads or punks wearing $90 imported English footear, at the time when $90 was a lot of money, was pretty contradictory. Dr Martens were the rough and ready, working class, boot. In the UK they were anyway, they were an affordable, attainable, workboot. In Australia they were expensive, but they were the cool thing to wear, so we did..and we liked them.

Originally Dr Martens came in 8 and 10 holes, and usually were black or Cherry red. People wore white or red shoelaces in them. Some said this meant something about racism or something, but I think most people weren't too fussed. I (I was a rude boy) had one pair of 10 hole boots, black with white laces. Some "normal" friends thought they were wrestling boots.
We would wear doc shoes to work, and people would assume we were wearing our shoes leftover from school.

I wore these for years. Hmmmm *rubs chin* Actually, may be I will get some new ones for work....damn, writing this blog can be expensive!


Slowly by the 90's they became general alternative footwear. My mate was going travelling through Europe - I was suprised to see him wearing a pair of the new ones, without the traditional sole, but with a big chunky hiking sole...some kind of Doc-hiking boot hybrid thing.
Heresy.



The variation of docs got wider. Doc shoes. Doc sandals. Doc shoes with polished steel caps on the outside. Union Jack Docs. PurpleFelt docs. Patent leather docs. Green docs.
Some people would paint them or do their own mods on them.

Purrple leapard skin felt


Docs have air wear soles. So they have little compartments of air in the soles. The standard of docs seem to vary, some people had had them for years. Sometimes the leather would crack. Sometimes they would wear down too quickly.

I remember I used to think Docs were the big clumpy boot. Until I saw New Rocks.

I paint in an old pair of mine now, when I do my home renovations. Must be getting old :-)

The very stylish Dave Vanian

Dave Vanian has been in the music world limelight since 1976.
Vanian is a bit of living subcultural fashion. Being one of the original goth lead singers to get a profile, he provided a leading influence on goth subcultural fashion. What he wore, really influenced what a lot of goths wore in the 1980's, and still wear to this day (especially the more traditional styled goths).

Anyways, some pics of Dave Vanian through the years, in his own inimitable style.

The original vampire esque look (late 1970's - early 80's).

The hair, the white streak. Classic Damned and classic Dave Vanian (mid 1980's, the era of teased hair!)

Lately (2005)

Dave Vanian, along with Siouxsie Sioux and Robert Smith, would probably be the triumvirate mainly responsible for influencing goth fashion, particularly in its early days.

Video of him singing Eloise.... so much white!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31L4P7G5j8&feature=fvsr

Mr Vanian, a toast to thee!

Boots with metal

I recently did a post on the original boots with Metal detail... New Rocks.

I noticed recently a slight trend with incorporating metal in boots - Lady Ga Ga featured some Alexander McQueen boots featuring metal decoration. Very nice. The amount of alternative fashion the Lady does portray in her clips is damn impressive!


These two are collaborations between Terry De Havilland and Melbourne Jewellery esigner William Griffiths. I've written about William a few times here (he is one of my fav jewellers), his jewellery is very cutting edge, and he takes the edgier side of life and is want to give it life through his jewellery.
Here he has added some of his work to DeHavillands latest line of footwear.... including a play on the word stilleto (stilleto can mean the high heel of stilleto shoes, or is the name given to a type of knife).
Anyways...very nice work by both of them here.

For more of De Havillands shoes, see here:
Article from Vogue UK - http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/090522-terry-de-havilland-launches-his-cou/gallery.aspx
And for William Griffiths Metal Couture range - here's his newish website (he has a store in Melbourne, but is stocked in various shops)
http://www.metalcouture.com/

Lady Ga Ga - more Metal Couture

Lady Ga Ga says she has been bankrupt 4 times... because she spends too much on fashion.
Who knows if thats the truth? I love her visuals and she has cottoned on to Metal Couture, employing it in her film clips.
She is also a frequent user of Manual Albarran pieces... he does some very intersting work.
I'm still researching who makes her stuff, hard to track down.


I would love to know who made this for her. My friend wants me to make one of these..the metal corset I could do, but the spinning wheels are a bit beyond me.


This is a Manual Albarran face jewellery piece. Easily recognisable, I'm guessing its made of brass. His work is very distinctive, and he tends to make work for male models, where a lot of the other metal Couturists make work for females.

Emo Hair

Emo Hair.

Weeeeell...a little post about Emos and their hair. They have plenty. Have you ever seen a bald emo? NO! The guys have the most obvious. Hair is generally dies black, semi long, and hangs over one eye. It looks a bit like an anime character. Tre dark and mysterious. (Hey, with eyeliner, I think looks pretty good. And there is ALWAYS eyeliner). To me, it looks very rawk, mainly because Emo hair is very influenced by their fav band looks.

Sometimes its teased up as well. A bit Brian Molko-esque


Over both eyes... See. I told you there is always eyeliner.


Other variations are with colour.

Emo gals...

Like the guys over the one eye anime character look but long and with colour. And more eyeliner.

Blonde...not sure if this is completely emo esque or not. Hard to say....

This one....tre cool. Geometric with ribbon.


Emo - was it the subculture of the 2000's? Will it be around in 10 years?

Emo clothing

Is Emo dead?

Emo was massive about 2 years ago, where young goths loitering about public places were replaced with young Emos loitering about public places.
About a week ago, I heard some students on the train saying that Emo has dies, and changed its name to "Scene" (no idea?)
Despite all this, two days later I saw an Emo couple, also on the train, looking suitable dressed.

http://www.emoboyfriend.com/img/catpics/emo-boys.jpg


Following the success of bands like My Chemical Romance, AFI, Fall out boy and many other eyeliner wearing types, the EMO clothing and subculture was spawned and adopted by thousands of young things in the UK, US and Australia.

At a cursory glance, Emo subcultural fashion looks a bit like Goth. A lot of black, long straightened hair, eyeline. Its also quite androgynis, which Goth has become over the years. In my opinion, Emo guys look most like Goth guys - there has been signicant influence on each other, in hair styles at least.

Emo initially got its fashion inspiration from the Emo bands and what they were wearing.
Long skinny jeans and T shirts, often black. T shirts may have Emo band names on them.

Studded belts and black wristbands are common.
Converse sneakers, skate shoes are worn, and white or coloured, in contrast to black clothes.

As mentioned, hair is often straighted, and the guys have the "Little Nicky" straight hear, with bangs, often over one eye.

Anyways, I think Emo subculture has hit its peak and may be on its way out. It certainly has some cool fashion associated with it, and I know at least one person who will be sad to see cute Emo boys disapear from the subcultural landscape! :-)

New Rocks.

New Rocks.

I first saw New Rocks in (I think) about 2000. I was in England, in Camden, with the then girlfriend. We saw some cyber gothy people off in the distance. They were wearing these big boots. I was in awe of them...they were tall!!!!! They didn't have anything like new rocks in Australia, and the whole Cybergothy thing was pretty new to the UK, and completely an unfamiliar concept to us.

Anyways, these Cybergoth gals and their big boots wandered off, and we kept shopping in Camden, and came across a shop that sold them. We could look at them close up....they were amazing. We thought they were like a peice of weird art, and I remember saying that they could equally belong on display or on your feet.

We were back in Australia, and the same girlfriend bought me a pair, to make up for a rather major faux pau on her part. Presumably I can keep wearing them forever..the heels are four inches high, so they will never wear off. The boots are solid construction, like armour (and I'm an armourer, so I'm qualified to say that!). I loved them, they were amazing. And they still are.
Only thing is they aren't as unusual as they were when I first bought them.
Then again, what is?

New Rocks, Muy Sympatico.

Eventually New Rock started making girls boots, and corsets and various other things, but as far as I'm concerned, the original big chunky boot is the true New Rock boot. They very much remind me of when the Doctor Martin boot appeared, made a similiar sort of impact, big, weird footwear, except the New Rock Boot was a hellish weird looking thing, and not associated with violence like Docs were. In fact, unusually, for a big chunky, aggressive looking boot, they were very often worn by females.

They are a subcultural fashion icon. In 20 years time, I think we'll probably look back on them and remember of the early 2000's. May be we will laugh..... who knows.