♪1 PUNK ROCK LIFE

Photo Book "Sex & Seditionaries"

PUNK LOVER!

So, an interesting book is being released?

Yoshiyuki ShimazuI don't have the actual copy yet, but it's a photo book called "Sex & Seditionaries."

Oh, punk?

ShimazuIt's a photo book that compiles a unique collection of apparel and accessories designed by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren from around 1972 to 1979. The first edition is a limited run of only 500 copies, each in a numbered box.

500 copies worldwide?

ShimazuIt seems to be around 63,000 yen including tax in Japan. They haven't officially decided how it will be sold or how many copies will be imported to Japan yet.

Sex Pistols' First Album

Are you involved in this, Shimazu-san?

ShimazuThe author, PunkPistol, is a collector and dealer of Vivienne and Malcolm's brands "Let it Rock," "SEX," "Seditionaries," and "Worlds End," and I believe he's also a curator. He consulted with me during the planning stages of the publication. So, some items, including this parachute shirt (photo above) that I bought from him, are featured in the photo book.

That's amazing.

ShimazuThe parachute shirt above belonged to Steve, the guitarist of SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, and is a rare item from 1977 with the double name "SEX" and "Seditionaries." According to information, Malcolm himself wrote the preface for this photo book.

Are you at the heart of punk, Shimazu-san?

ShimazuI was in my second year of high school in '77, when the Sex Pistols' first album "Never Mind the Bollocks" was released. I was in Kumamoto, and information about what was trending in London came from magazines like "Music Life" or catalogs from record stores in Nishi-Shinjuku. Things like, "Apparently, punk is becoming popular." I learned about the brand "Seditionaries" around the same time.

Of course, they didn't sell it in Kumamoto (laughs), but I started wearing it after I moved to Tokyo.

Hippie Culture and Punk Spirit are "Attitudes"

What aspects of punk attracted you?

ShimazuI was in high school and encountered the Beat Generation literature of poets like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and I earnestly started thinking, "What will the future hold?" or "Isn't everything in the world actually a lie?" as a high schooler.

It was around then that I learned about poets and, by reading their poems, understood that hippie culture and the punk spirit are "attitudes," a kind of "form" or "armor."

Having been exposed to such things at a young age, I could feel that punk spirit not only in music but also in art and fashion. It was probably an era where you could question the established norms of society and confront them with "Why?" That's probably why I was drawn to clothes I'd never seen before. It was like having my concepts turned upside down.

This "Perv" T-shirt also has a punk vibe.

ShimazuThis is a "Let It Rock" chicken bone T-shirt, a famous message alongside "sex" and "fack." I own the "fack" one.

What did you wear in real-time?

ShimazuAt the time, "SEX" black bondage pants were sold at Akabane in Harajuku, and I wore those in Tokyo. They cost about 50,000 to 60,000 yen back then. In Japan, Chika Sato and Toshio Nakanishi of PLASTICS often wore "Seditionaries." I remember them frequently wearing "Worlds End" after they became Melon.

So "Worlds End" became a successful brand, right?

Shimazu"Worlds End" started in '80 as a full-fledged apparel brand and even debuted at Paris Fashion Week. When they debuted at Paris Fashion Week in '81, I actually helped out as a fitter.

So you met Vivienne, then?

ShimazuI met both Vivienne and Malcolm for the first time then. I was impressed by their ideas using Keith Haring prints as motifs and the show's staging at the time.