And the swastika and and..
I don't care how "punk" or "alternative" it all seems, those are symbols of hate and suffering. No excuses here.
I don't recall BOY actually using the swastika or runes in its range of ready-to-wear punk knock-off.
I would suggest that it was more a case of flipping the finger to the false 'order' represented by the German National Socialists as well as to hard-right groups like the National Front and the British Movement, to name a couple of the tamer ones at large on London's streets at the time. The eagle was certainly of the Nazi design but denazified, not unlike the eagles found on 1957-pattern World War Two military awards approved by the German authorities for wear by WW2 veterans serving in the new armed forces. And by Germany's NATO allies. But in this case, it was more a case of the swastika brusquely obscured by the sons of the victors than obediently removed by a government full of ex-Nazis out to play nice with their new masters. But one has to understand cultural and sub-cultural history to get a handle on all of this. I think the only time I saw a punk provoke a serious reaction over a garment, it involved a Keep Rhodesia White teeshirt, which really was offensive. But the large and very black Rude Boy thumping him obviously didn't get the irony.
The Soviet heraldry that makes it onto catwalks and teeshirts from time to time is just as offensive to anyone who understands how vicious and murderous the USSR regime and their collaborators were. But again, one has to know one's history. Coming back to Nazi-related motifs, I do recall being taken aback by the tee-shirts with legends like "Hitler's European Tour" and the names of the countries invaded by the Germans and, worse, "Belsen was a gas". There again, the uneducated prick who dreamt that one up clearly didn't know that there were no gas chambers at Bergen-Belsen as the actual death camps were fairly hidden away in remote areas in Eastern Europe.
SEX was a more authentic boutique. But when a large punk fell on someone's leg, breaking it, after bouncing off the window, we realised that Viv and Malcolm had fitted armoured glass, which was a bit too 'Establishment' for us. We tried very hard to smash it on several occasions. But we didn't buy ready-distressed gear from anyone anyway. We wore our denim in the hard way. All that said, our lot didn't have much time for street fights because we haunted second-hand record shops looking for Rockabilly music, which was very hard to find back then. Rickabillies tried to be offensive at times. Nazi belts holding up coveted selvage denims were about the limit though. One time, lolling against a wall near the Markham Arms, thumbs in such a belt, I was accosted by a little old dear walking the usual leprous lapdog: "That's a nice belt, dear. My Jack used to wear one just like it. Brought it back from the war! You could do with a haircut, dear, nice-looking young man like you. If I was thirty years younger…"
I never wore the belt again.
