This May, punk comes to the Costume Institute. What the original punks would've thought of a museum enshrining their rebellion the music historians will have to divine, but suffice it to say, 2013 may well be the year punk returns to fashion. If so, Marc Jacobs and his team got a running start. Johnny Thunders, erstwhile New York Doll and bandleader of The Heartbreakers, was the stated inspiration. His particular shred of traditional sartorial garb led the way for the collection, which drew on his Western rockabilly moments as much as on the Edwardian styles of the earlier Teddy Boys. He's a fitting genius for Jacobs, whose mainline men's collection has always kept a foot in both Italian-made tailoring tradition (not for nothing do visiting editors see his collection at Staff's showroom) and New York punk (just think of the line-standard fine cashmere "pilled" sweaters, say). Here, punk's influence was diffused rather than cranked. There were smart suits in bright colors and prints, fur-collared coats, and Western shirts, and more glamorous items, too: a midnight blue velvet tuxedo, and even fur stoles—eerily similar, you'd have to admit, to the Prada women's versions Jacobs often swaddled himself in a few years ago.
