—The collection of eastern youropean boys in oversized patched fishtail trenchcoats and kufiyyas going to a Manic Street Preachers, Sonic Youth or Joy Division cover show and having a nighttime stroll through the cold arteries of recently fractured former satellite republics afterwards?

—Exaclty.

★

At the flea market in Vienna I saw young people from Ukraine or Romania who, because of the cold, simply put layers on top of layers and thus created their own volumes

Raf Simons for Neue ZĂźrcher Zeitung

★

Unfamiliarity is a threat.

but still a threat to wear those now familiar trench coats shortly after the Trench Coat Mafia incident.

Patches

What if I stop making nerdy student anglo angst underground punk reference clothing and start making mysterious heavy industrial agressive underground punk references clothing instead?

—Raf Simons, somewhere, sometime during his sabbatical year before Riot Riot Riot

Richey Edwards and Manic Street Preachers

“You’re not a real punk!” someone had the gall to yell at Richey Edwards.

“What the fuck? I am punk, I’m punk..for real.. see?” (twisted expression)

A truly distinguished specimen.

All other Street Preachers patches are newspaper clippings of Richey’s disappearance and presumed death.

Monte Cazazza

Amalia Ulman, but gory. He became known for killing cats, pointing guns/throwing cement at his fans

Joy Division

Ian Curtis was known for performing in the midst of epileptic seizures.

Mission of Bruma

Despite suffering from tinnitus, Roger Miller continued to play in the band until his hearing was almost completely gone.

David Bowie

Poster for the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which David Bowie played a decadent artist who spirals into drug addiction. Bowie didn’t need to use much of his talent since he was irl having a bad time with cocaine.

Christiane F

Movie about a 13-year-old girl who is obsessed with David Bowie and ends up becoming addicted to heroin and falling into a self-destructive spiral. Much like Bowie himself, the actress was “playing herself” since she and many other actors in the movie were in fact addicted to heroin at the time it was filmed.

Almost all the patches orbit around the theme of teenage rebellion and self-sacrifice for the sake of art.