I found my own dress code years ago! Dressing up like a punk is just as ridiculous and cheesy as any other style nowadays. These days I dress in such a way as to look intentionally uncool. I don't wear anything that looks particularly in style or trendy.
Back in the early 90's I was really into punk and hardcore, was in a band, all of my friends were in bands and we all wore rocker clothes. All in black, spikes, safety pins boots etc. etc. We really were genuine, authentic scumbags, into all sorts of bad stuff. This was like 14 years ago. Walking down the street dressed like a freak used to mean something. It used to mean that you were on the outside of society and wanted everyone on the street that you held their society and values in contempt. We made most of the rocker clothes ourselves, by modifying crap we found in thrift stores. There was no Hot Topic. Being a punk was not "cool". It was revolting to most people, and that was the whole point.
Then we started noticing that all of the lame ass, preppy kids started dressing like punks or goth. Once it became "cool" to wear rocker clothes, a lot of kids stopped wearing them, because the symbology had been corrupted and no longer carried the same meaning. The kids suddenly wearing the "punk rock clothes" were even more disgusting and lame than the preppies and the jocks we hated, because they were so fake. So a lot of us started wearing neutral clothes, like jeans and t-shirts, to avoid being immediately associated with anything. I stopped wearing black altogether years ago. It drives me nuts now when I go to shows and some dude who doesn't know me sneers at me because I'm not "in uniform". It's totally ridiculous for there to be a punk uniform, because being punk is about hating uniforms and uniform people.
There are a few of my friends who still "fly the flag" and have mohawks etc., but they've been that way for years and years, so that's just the way they are. I don't look down on kids that go around all punked out, I actually feel a little sorry for them. I'm sure their motivations are very similar to my own when I was their age, but they are trying to be a part of something that has been gone for a long, long time. Punk has been completely dead for many years, and it's carcass is being raped by MTV and places like Hot Topic. It's disgusting and I feel so old.
