Yesterday a friend
remarked I wasn’t wearing any patches.
Just on my trousers, however. My
hoodie was still covered in patches related to Adventure Time/squatting,
TMNT/Anarchy and punk/Roger from Doug.
But she’d never seen me without patches covering my slim (if a tad
hairy) legs.
I started wearing patches
back at Uni. Before then, I resisted the
call to cover my clothes in patches because I still liked to stream-lined
simple approach of a band t-shirt. I
think that’s because I came from a scene where patches were the norm for the
punk friendship circle, and at Uni I wanted to stand out more and carve my own identity.
I have three pairs of
trousers with patches on. My black &
white patches only, usually an assortment of punk and ska bands. My folk-punk trousers, consisting only of
bands of that genre from across the world.
My anarchy trousers, with three simple yet effective anarchy-related
images (Red A, spanner in the works and Sabcat). My Seen-In-York trousers, a mixture of local
and touring bands whom I have caught playing gigs in my hometown. My hoodies are also themed, there’s the Devil’s
Brigade hoodie with black & red patches, and the Against Me! Queer hoodie I
can’t wear when I work with kids due to rudeness.
This may seem incredibly obsessive
and compulsive to be so rigorous over patches.
They are, after all, simple bits of cloth. But punk and ska (and metal but…yeah…whatever)
are the only genres of music which really push this aspect for fandom. Mod to an extent, maybe a Strokes or
Libertines patch might find its way into a collection, but mainly punks promote
themselves through patches. Why?
Well, punk has always
strived for a DIY attitude of self-promotion beyond the mainstream means of
communication, and mark of that marketing strategy is to find alternative
models of word-spreading. Zines,
hand-made posters and popping your band on a patch. It also shows a belief. Punks from across the spectrum of
Oi/crust/anarcho/straightedge/boozey all believe in the concept of punk.
I’m currently reading
Taqwacores, a fictional book about a fictional Muslim punk scene which actually
inspired a real life Muslim punk scene.
The author presents the argument through his characters that the belief
in the idea of Islam is similar to the idea of punk. Now, I’m not comparing a 1400 year-old
worldwide religion to three chords, but I think Taqwacores in general is about
how one styles one’s identity.
I have always been
incredibly aware of how I wanted to be seen and recognised. As a teenager, I hated clothes with any logo
on. Later, as I got into Anarchistic principles,
I realised it’s because to boast that logo is, to me, to place a faith and a
belief in that logo. You are emblazoning
a FCUK image across your chest, you must be championing that product. You’re allowing your body to be a marketing tool. You become a product too. What loyalty do you have to brand names?
So it is natural I sport
band t-shirts and patches as a sign that this is what I want to promote. This is what I want you to see. This is what I want to be associated
with. I have loyalty to ONSIND,
Operation Ivy, Rancid, Spook School, The Clash, Jonny Gill etc.
Mischief Brew are one of
my favourite bands. They have a song
called Punx Win which includes the lines:
♪ Creep into town,
And it's
not long
Before i
start to roam.
Seek out
the patches on the punx,
Maybe a
band I know.
I bet you
in five minutes time,
We find
that we know all the same
People,
places, and roads.
And its
not long before I start to feel,
That
somehow I can never leave home.
♫
There have been a few
times I’ve struck up a conversation based on someone else’s patches, or someone
has chatted to me. Someone asked if
there was a Food Not
Bombs chapter in York because of my FNB patch, which allowed them to find
out about the FNB efforts locally.
So sometimes I do like to
think of myself as a waking billboard, plastered with patches, logos and
images. But these are all images and
logo and names which I have actively sought to attach to my clothes, to paint
afresh in some cases. I want to
say: “Hey world! Check out this band!”
I think it is important to
style yourself how you choose. I think
more people should wear patches. It adds
colour and variety, it redesigns and reimagines clothing and just looks fucking
cool.
You can buy my patches
from my Bandcamp in their
various forms. They look great on
t-shirts, hoodies, bags, jackets and socks.
There’s nothing I like
better than a good afternoon spent patch-hunting. Remember kids, patches cost pennies. Pints cost
pounds. Here are some of my favourite Etsy
shops for patch-hunting:
