Stripey, black and red all over: Why Menace is style icon
The red and black stripes have become a symbol of youthful rebellion so it’s little wonder the followers of outlier tribes punk and grunge borrowed Dennis The Menace’s look.
Now the magical origins of his jumper has been revealed in The Epic Yarn of Awesomeness, a comic strip published to celebrate the comic
character’s 70th birthday.
Dennis reveals that his sweater once belonged to his great, great, onehundred-more greats grandfather and was knitted by the ancestor’s Gran, a friendly witch. Using spider wool infused with red and black magic potions, she knitted the jumper with her wands to create an awesomely powerful – if slightly itchy – garment. The red and black
stripes have since been adopted by music icons such as Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain who, in turn, inspired a fashion collection by Marc Jacobs.
Fashion historian Lynne Coleman tells the story of how Cobain came to own a Dennisinspired sweater in her new book How Scotland Dressed The World.
She says: “In the summer of 1992 Nirvana played at The King’s Hall in Belfast. That night a local lad called Chris Black went to the gig wearing a Dennis the Menace jumper. Courtney Love clocked it and began bartering to buy it, wanting to gift it to Kurt. Reluctantly, Chris parted with the sweater for £35.
“From there the musician was pictured in Dennis the Menace’s pullover a plethora of times. The symbology of Cobain cocooned inside Dennis’s attire is not lost on me. What that character represents, a lost little boy adored by the world but impacts his loved ones on a daily basis with naughty selfindulgent behaviour, is a poetic microcosm.
“By the time winter rolled round that year a young Marc Jacobs sent a collection down the runway showing bias cut tartan skirts teamed with cute cartoon T-shirts finished with
loose shirts and knitted beanies that looked like Scotlandthe-chic. Fashion writers condemned it, stating he’d raided Seattle’s thrift stores. However Jacobs had tapped into the zeitgeist of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, thus catapulting the subculture to the forefront of style.”