During its heyday, punk clothing was seen as disposable and anti-fashion, but this week a T-shirt worn by Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols, is to be auctioned, with an expected price of £10,000. The bass player was filmed wearing the T-shirt during the ‘documentary’ about the band entitled The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. It was designed by Malcolm McLaren, who was the group’s manager at the time, and bore a swastika. It features in some of the last photographs taken of Vicious before his death the following year – he succumbed to a heroin overdose at a party thrown to celebrate his release on bail in New York in 1978. He had been charged with murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen who was discovered stabbed to death in the bathroom of their hotel room. He then attempted suicide, assaulted a fellow musician, was arrested and bailed again before dying after he was released the second time.

Punk fashion became synonymous with buying clothing in bulk and personalising garments – often creating clothing that could not be reworn because it could not be washed or was too torn or damaged for sustainable use.

The dealer who is offering the garment on behalf of an anonymous seller says that the piece of clothing ‘sums up everything that punk and the Sex Pistols stood for: rebellion, controversy and provocation’, which may be true, but it’s definitely an unexpected twist in the history of punk rock to find that one thing that sums up the Sex Pistols is ‘good investment’!

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