No Wave "Anti-Style"

Granted, there isn't much you can pin down when you're talking about No Wave. It was anti-everything. Still, themes definitely emerge.














Richard Hell and James Chance, for instance, added '50s themes to their intentional carelessness. Along with the tight T-shirts and slim colored jeans familiar today, biker jackets, secondhand slouchy suits, and pointy dress shoes were everywhere. More adult than the Bowery boys, these fellows were rough but sharp, often keeping their shades on no matter the time of day.













Today, No Wave's dark anti-style can be found everywhere, from the dark rock-chic of Endovanera, the sneering decadence of Conference of Birds, and the deconstructed suits and sweaters of Patrik Ervell. Throw in a couple pieces from Shipley & Halmos and a pair of Beta Unit jeans, and you're golden. Even though the members of that short-lived iconoclastic scene might hate to admit it, they're style has become downright iconi