Menswear has long made icons out of outsiders. From beatniks to goths, it’s subcultures – those underground coteries outside the confines of everything mainstream – that have given so many current wardrobe staples their style cachet.

Music, language and rituals all help define a subculture but it’s a gang’s visual signifiers that give it away – the tipped shirt collar or bowl haircut, the studded leather biker jacket or the black nail polish, those style cues that instantly lay bare interests and affiliations.

Not only that, but subcultures have often looked to their appearance as one of their main means of rebellion – which is perhaps why subcultures are such ripe sources of inspiration for menswear designers, even long after the underground pioneers have reached for the slippers and elastic waistbands.

Here are the ones that made their stamp on our style:

Punk

Dead set on stripping away the musical (and other) excesses of 1960s and 1970s rock, punk was about making music as raw and unvarnished as possible. Which goes some way in explaining why punks dressed the way they did.

Piercings. Tattoos. Safety-pinned badges. Studded leather biker jackets. Ripped jeans. As boldly anti-authoritarian as ‘1970s-era punks’ key pieces were, most of them (thanks to fashion’s ravenous appetite for appropriation) still sit perfectly well in your modern-day casual wardrobe. Today, you’re just as likely to see a pair of distressed jeans in high street shop windows as on someone with a Mohican moshing at a Ramones tribute gig.

Channel some of punk’s attitude by picking up some skinny bust-up denim in black or grey. Straight edge lifestyle, optional.

Modern Inspired By Looks

Key Piece: Distressed Denim

Hip-Hop

1980s B-Boys and early hip-hop artists probably had no idea what a profound effect they’d have on fashion when they first started spitting bars in adidas Superstars and tracksuits. But the ground they broke then arguably set the stage for our current obsession for all things sports luxe and athleisure.