She is described as Britain's most provocative fashion designer. Pam Hogg is a punk fashion designer and her work features nudity, rags, blood, needles and other bizarre stuff. We look at what makes Pam Hogg the phenomenon she is and why some of the biggest celebrities have been spotted in her stuff.
As the punk subculture emerged in the 70s and 80s, so did punk fashion in its various forms: Celtic Punk, Anarcho-punk, Cowpunk, Garage Punk, Glam Punk, Hardcore, Ska Punk, Skate Punk and also something called Droog: a clothing style inspired by the dystopian crime movie A Clockwork Orange.
She was always about not ‘selling out’ to the mainstream fashion industry. Some of her earlier collections had interesting names such as Psychedelic Jungle, Best Dressed Chicken in Town, Warrior Queen and so on.
Pop legends such as Kylie Minogue, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift have been seen in her designs. Her lycra catsuits are one of the things she is best known for. Other than these, she is famous for her fantastical headdresses, her studded leather jackets and colour blocked suits.
Hogg is in the news currently for her exhibition at a Gallery in Liverpool. It is a collection entitled Dr. Hoggs Divine Disorder in honour of the designer’s chaotic, crash & burn style of working.
If you are wondering (as I was) whether her creations are available for sale, then take a look at the screen grab above. These are the catsuits that she designs. Then there are leggings and t shirts as well. Speaking strictly personally, the t-shirts seemed unremarkable but wearable. The rest is all frankly out there.
My first reaction to ‘creations’ such as the ones above is shock and mild distaste… a sort of ‘I-wouldn’t-be-caught-dead in any of those’ kind of reaction. However, the spontaneous punk rock and fashion phenomena represent a social churn; a movement born out of a desire to be different and nonconformist; to rebel against rigid social norms that said ‘this is OK, but this is not’ and then expected people to follow them. Those that didn't get shunned or were treated as abnormal - subcultures perhaps represent a revolt against these conventions.
Perhaps it is meant to shock some of us who may be described as unadventurous dressers. Perhaps we flatter ourselves; maybe it isn’t about us at all. It caters to an alternative aesthetic; a very different sensibility and lifestyle. We need not view that which is different or unfamiliar as repugnant. I will often look at some of the styles on a catwalk and think to myself who on earth will ever wear that! Maybe no one will wear it (the sheer impracticality of the featured garment for say, going to the bathroom struck me rather forcefully). Maybe someone will love to wear it.
Perhaps this is someone's art – there is really no valid reason for anyone else to say that it is not! Maybe a hundred years from today, Pam Hogg’s designs will speak eloquently about her life and times; the ethos that gave rise to her art? Notice how the heretics of yesteryears are the geniuses of today?
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