Last week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced that punk fashion will be the focus of the Costume Institute's spring 2013 exhibition and also the overriding theme of its annual gala on May 6. The high-profile benefit, which will be co-chaired by actress Rooney Mara (of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo fame), Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci, Moda Operandi founder Lauren Santo Domingo, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, will highlight the "Punk: Chaos to Couture" display with a design created by fashion photographer Nick Knight and Raúl Àvila.
From staffers with Mohawks to safety pins in centerpieces, here's how to steal the Met's motif for your next event.
Armitage Gone Dance Company's "Think Punk Gala"
Safety pins don't have to decorate staffers, but can be employed in other parts of an event. At the Armitage Gone Dance company's "Think Punk!" gala in 2009, director Karole Armitage—also known as the "punk ballerina"—fashioned centerpieces at New York's Capitale from wire, reused invites, and giant safety pins.
Photo: Joe Schildhorn/PatrickMcMullan.com
"D&G Does Las Vegas"
The Costume Institute's exhibition will explore how fashion designers incorporated punk's D.I.Y. style into haute couture clothing. That includes the use of safety pins, which D&G used to embellish the slashed T-shirts worn by waitstaff for a party at New York's Henri Bendel store in 2001.
Photo: BizBash
HBO's 'Bored to Death' Season 2 Premiere Party
Spikes, studs, and chains are also associated with the punk movement and in 2010, HBO decorated leather-covered couches and tables with the metal hardware for a slight edgy look.
Photo: BizBash
Diesel Planet Store Promotion
A less subtle nod to punk rock would be to give staffers and street teams mohawks, a move Diesel made in 2009 to promote the opening of its Fifth Avenue store in New York.
Photo: Courtesy of Diesel
'Party Monster' Premiere Party
At the New York premiere party for Party Monster in 2003, stylists gave guests colorful Mohawk hairdos.
Photo: BizBash
Target's Converse One Star MTV Movie Awards After-Party
CBGB in New York was the home of punk rock in the 1970s, and its interior was a messy collage of old rock posters and graffiti. In 2008, Target created a similar—albeit more stylized—look for the stage at its MTV Movie Awards after-party in Los Angeles.
Photo: Line 8 Photography. All rights reserved.
'American Idiot' Opening Night Party
If there's no stage, the scrappy visual idea can be used in the table coverings, which is what the producers did at the opening night party for Broadway musical American Idiot in 2010.
Photo: Keith Sirchio for BizBash
Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Benefit Gala
In 2006, the Met's Costume Institute exhibition "AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion" included elements of punk, which was echoed in the graffiti-like projections that illuminated the museum gala's after-party.
Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
YouthAIDS Gala After-Party
Rather than creating graffiti at the after-party for the 2008 YouthAIDS gala in Washington, the organizers alluded to street art and the event's punk rock theme with spray paint cans in Lucite cases on tables.
Photo: Jonah Koch for BizBash
Drake Hotel Anniversary Party
Part of the Costume Institute's exhibition will focus on iconic punk bands like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Clash. For its one-year anniversary in 2005, Toronto's Drake Hotel had performance artists from Turbo Bonz Dance portray Sex Pistol bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Photo: BizBash
Collaboraction's Beggars' Banquet Benefit
If impersonators of punk-rock icons aren't available, an alternative is to create the illusion they were there. Chicago's Collaboraction Beggars' Banquet in 2007 did just that, echoing punk's anti-establishment attitude with an installation of ripped couches and old pizza boxes.
Photo: Kirstie Shanley
M.A.C. Cosmetics Pro Event
For more modern-day punks, the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black is a cult punk band that's been seen at a number of events, including one hosted by M.A.C. Cosmetics in Los Angeles in 2010.
Photo: Vero Image
