HEAVY METAL FASHION is the style of dress, body modification, make-up, hairstyle, and so on, taken on by many fans of heavy metal, or, as they are often called, metalheads. To those with a trained eye, normally others within the metal subculture, relatively subtle differences in clothing can speak volumes about a person's tastes and, more critically, show whether or not they are a poseur, a judgement that is almost universally dreaded by metalheads.

Origins:

The clothing associated with heavy metal has its roots the Biker, S&M and rocker subcultures. Heavy metal fashion includes elements such as leather jackets; hi-top basketball shoes (more common with old school thrash metallers); motorcycle boots, work boots or combat boots; blue or black jeans, and denim jackets or kutte vests, often adorned with badges, pins and patches.

Other Influences:

The style and clothing of metal has absorbed elements from influences as diverse as the musical influences from which the genre has borrowed: modern metal fashion is a combination of punk, goth (particularly for female metalheads), military fashion and even various historical fashions. It is from this linking of different sub-styles of clothing and music influences that one can sometimes determine a person's specific taste in music simply from overall appearance. However, such signs are not, in the majority of cases hard and fast rulings. This uncertainty is what makes the first key aspect of the metalheads' identity below so important.

The influence of modern military fashion on heavy metal fashion is significant with metalheads been known to wear modern military clothing like field jackets and articles of camouflage and olive drab green uniforms like shirts and/or trousers to wear alongside their black T-shirts and black combat boots. This influence could be due to the impact of the Vietnam War on popular culture in the United States during the 1970's and the 1980s with images of American Vietnam veterans wearing their old combat uniforms in civilian life during this period of time as well as the memories of the conflict were still fresh in the minds of many Americans during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the influences of modern military fashion and the Vietnam War can be seen by the fans and bands of thrash metal with the members of thrash metal bands of the 1980s like Metallica and Megadeth wearing bullet belts around their waists on stage (It is likely that the thrash metal bands got the idea of wearing bullet belts from NWOBHM bands such as Motörhead, who have incorporated the bullet belt as part of their aesthetic since their inception, since the majority of thrash metal bands in the 1980s were influenced by Motörhead and the like).

Band Display:

A key and basic element of metal fashion is the outward display of one's musical taste. This can be accomplished in several ways.

Band Shirts:

The band shirt is widely regarded as something akin to the 'minimum uniform' for a metalhead. T-shirts for metal bands are almost universally black, with only those bands popular enough to have fans beyond the metal community normally bothering to print T-shirts in other colours, though some print white shirts, normally as a statement against conformity. They come in two varieties: the normal T-shirt, and the longsleeve T-shirt, which will often feature designs down the arms as well as on the back and front. These shirts display on their front the name of a band, often accompanied by the band's logo or an album cover, and the back some tour list, lyrics, slogan, or another image.

There is a strong stigma against bands who wear their own T-shirts, which is seen as in bad taste at best, and highly egotistical at worst. It also must be noted that to wear a T-shirt for a band you have not heard is considered extremely bad taste, and to some, wearing a T-shirt for a band while owning none of their albums may be highly distasteful.

Other Shirts:

It is less common, but not at all unknown, for metalheads to wear T-shirts other than band shirts. Brands of alcohol (particularly Jack Daniel's whisky), makes of Motorcycles, and humorous or obscene epithets are the most common. Again, black is the normal colour.

It must of course also be noted that not all metalheads wear T-shirts: some may wear sleeveless shirts, wifebeaters, longsleeve shirts, work shirts, collared shirts or even no shirt, depending on taste and geographical location.

Patches: