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It really intrigues me to hear people talk about how it's important to "look punk" and stuff or how the way you present yourself (aesthetically, clothe-wise) is important or an important part of the countercouture when really - if we analyse it from the begining and its core - it isn't.
Why is that? Well, before I jump into the whole "why punk is anti-fashion to its core", I wanna start by saying that most people don't have the first idea what punk is nor what it looks like, because, to be fair, it doesn't have an uniform. This really brings me back to a discourse that existed within the uk punk scene in the 70s which was "Is there a 'punk uniform'? Are these kids all dressed like this, listening to this music, going to these shows because it's what's in?", and I really think if I were to point fingers, I'd say it's Malcolm McLaren and Vivianne Westwood (yes, high end, runway fashion designer, owner of the brand that bears her name. RIP) and the Sex Pistols; after all, when most people think of punk, the Pistols are the first to come to their minds - not because of their talent in song-making or in performing, nor their short lived success as a band, but because of their in-your-face marketing.
The Pistols were put together by Malcolm McLaren to promote his and Vivienne's shop, SEX, therefore making them a purely commercial band. Now, that doesn't mean they didn't have a past as musicians or that they were/are bad musicians by any means, I'm just telling you pure facts: the Sex Pistols were a commercial band put together and managed by McLaren to be dressed by his girlfriend, Vivienne. Their marketing was damn good and very loud and in-your-face, so much so that they are, wrongly, regarded as the pioneers of punk music.
But the reason why they dressed the way they did, and a lot of other big names in the scene *cough cough* Siouxsie Sioux *cough cough* was because they were little living, breathing mannequins for Vivienne. Their style wasn't original, wasn't genuine, wasn't theirs, it was just provocative and performative for the sake of it. All she wanted was to shock, to disturb (which is fine in art, but in this case was rather distasteful and greatly impactful): ripped clothing, tits out, full bush in a tule skirt, nazi symbols everywhere, you get the idea.
And they full on went with it, therefore making them just as responsible for the whole use of nazi paraphernalia and uniformization of punk style that was supposed to be anti-fashion and original, genuine. Because, to be fair, as much as I simpathise with them as humans, they were just a bunch of junkies who wanted to make it big, regardless of the price or impact on themselves and others.
If you take The Damned as example and analyse each member's style you notice just how diverse and genuine they are. Dave Vanian (vocalist) has always had the vampy, goth-y look, that of course evolved as he got older - whih is only natural -, Rat Scabies (drummer <3) wears usually jeans, work boots or sneakers, a jacket or blazers - nothing flashy and clothes you'd find in any working class boy in 1970s London -, Captain Sensible (bass, then guitar) has always been the flashiest and most loud with his fashion choices, not to push a product, but to express his own weirdness (still don't know where that fluffy set he uses in the cover of Machine Gun Etiquette and someother pictures came from lol), and Brian James (guitar) had always had the simple jean and jacket combo.
The Damned released the first uk punk single: New Rose on 22 of October, 1976, followed by their album Damned Damned Damned. They are otherworldly talented in my opinion and so important for the scene, even if they don't get as much recognition as they should; but the band was formed by for working class fellas from London who decided to make incredible music together, and so they did. At no point was any of their styles or attituded performatives, at no point did they use of any nazi paraphernalia, their name doesn't come from any nazi sexual exploitation wing *cough cough* Joy Division *cough cough*, in fact it comes from two 1960s films "The Damned" (1969) - admitedly, a historical drama set in 1930s nazi germany - and a horror film called "The Village Of The Damned" (1960).
To its core, punk has been formed by working class ladies and fellas who had their own clothes, styles and a lot of anger towards the system that throws and leaves them down where they are. Which brings us to why punk is inherently anti-fashion: because it is and has always been anti-capitalist, it is a leftist countercouture. Fashion is and has always been a way to uniformize physical appearence and and behavior, and to sell you things. If it can make you feel like you're less than because you don't dress in latest fashion, because you wear "out of date" clothes, because you behave in a way that is viewed as strange, unnusual or cringe, then it can make you feel like the only way to be accepted and to be seen as human is to buy the latest trend, regardless of how quick it changes, regarless of wether or not you like it, because it doesn't care about you. Fashion doesn't care about you. Fashion doesn't like you.
Fashion likes the rich, it likes the influencers, it likes the powerful, not you whose biggest acomplishment will be to die without debts. You are poor, after all, and the poor are not fashionable, the poor are not humans. You can only sell the poor in two ways: human traffic and performance. You can sell the poor the same way you can sell the alternative. Which is exactly what happened to punk already in its formative years. So, if you bring me that 70s question "[Were those] kids all dressed like [that], listening to [that] music, going to [those] shows because it's what [was] in?", I'd answer it's impossible to know that for each of the kids that were there in the 70s uk, dressed like that, behaving like that, but it's very clear how by the mid 80s punk was back underground and with a terrible reputation, and now it's buried deeper underground.
Honorable mentions:
The Damned, The Descendents, Buzzcocks and The Jam