In Japan, on March 3rd, it’s a festival for girls. There’s all sorts of complicated history and traditions linked with Hinamatsuri, including an elaborate tiered display of dolls.
Tradition can be a fine thing, but we’ve discovered some excellent punk rock dolls on a quirky website run by a spirited punk fan: http://punkrockdolls.com/
D’mitra Smith recycles, she gives money to youth charities, and she encourages people to make their own punk dolls. Here’s the ethos:
“Do It Yourself is the name of the game. There are no two dolls exactly alike. Why not? Because a doll that copies another doll is a POSER, and we don’t need that. It’s part of what’s wrong with the world–that cool things are copied and mass produced, co-opted and diluted by mainstream society without any knowledge or respect for their origins, people lose their sense of creativity, and you have a bunch of automatons walking around wearing the same stuff because they saw it in a magazine–even if it looks WACK. Like goofy celebrities wearing Ramones t shirts that have never listened to the band.
I will use anything I find that I think will enhance the finished doll, and this includes everything from fabric to tape, hair products, studs, belt buckles, safety pins, you name it. When I was a teenage punk, I couldn’t afford fancy designer clothing, nor did I want to. I went right to the thrift stores and altered clothing like plaid men’s pants and house dresses to look cool. My first idea of punk fashion was a pair of my brother’s shorts cinched up with a belt, $10 army boots from the surplus store, a man’s tank top with safety pins closing up the arm holes, and my dad’s Post Office jacket. We endured threats and verbal assault, got picked on by cops, had bottles thrown at us from cars, were sexually harassed by men, and kicked out of stores. We tricked our hair out with peroxide and food coloring, pierced our ears after numbing them with ice cubes, and gave ourselves tattooes with sewing needles and black ink. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.”
