‘Misshapes, mistakes, misfits': Pulp's signature secondhand style has stood test of time

The Guardian

14 hours ago

Thirty years ago this month Pulp played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and took their reputation to another level. If part of this was due to a storming set taking in their new hit Common People, debuts for their future hits Mis-Shapes and Disco 2000, and the star power of singer Jarvis Cocker, it was also down to their look.
There was Steve Mackay, bass guitarist, in a fitted shirt and kipper tie, Russell Senior on violin in a blue safari shirt, keyboardist Candida Doyle in sequins and – of course – Cocker, in his now signature secondhand 70s tailoring.
Fast forward to 2025 and Pulp have their first album in 24 years, More, and a tour taking in the UK, Europe and the US. It is a moment that will put their music and their style back in the public eye.
While the bucket hats, parkas and round specs of Oasis, the other Britpop band on tour this summer, are likely to dominate what young men are wearing, Pulp's look is an alternative one that celebrates the secondhand.
As Cocker writes in his book Good Pop, Bad Pop, his first jumble-sale buy, a garish 70s shirt, was 'the real beginning of the Pulp aesthetic'. Its pomp can be seen in videos such as for 1993's Babies – with Cocker topless in a flared suit, Mackay in another garish print and Doyle in mod-ish stripes.
The influence of Pulp's look in the 90s was partly about the sugar high of its eclectic, graphic take on nostalgia but also its accessibility.
'[Other bands] had a secondhand look, but Pulp made it a little bit more colourful, not quite kitsch, but on the edge of kitsch,' says Miranda Sawyer, the author of the Britpop history Uncommon People.
Doyle says: 'They obviously looked stylish but you did think, 'OK I can get that stuff'. We were skint for a lot of the first 10 years being in Pulp. I used to find some amazing things [in charity shops].'
Three decades later, and secondhand shopping once again dominates the way young people dress. Peter Bevan, 30, a stylist and contributing editor of the Rakish Gent, says: 'Everyone I know who's my age or younger shops in charity shops, in vintage shops, Depop, Vinted. I don't know many people that buy loads of new things any more.' A survey in 2023 found that 64% of gen Z will look for an item secondhand before buying it new.
While part of this is likely down to cost and environmental concerns, the haphazard nature of secondhand shopping is championed as a way to express yourself through clothing. 'Everyone who looks cool [now] is doing them rather than trying to do something else,' adds Bevan, who says this is why Pulp appeal. 'Although obviously [Pulp] all made very considered choices that work together you can tell that they're [each] dressing for them[selves] as well.'
James Millar, a 22-year-old guitarist in the band the Sukis, regularly shares videos of his Cocker-like looks to the band's 103.4k TikTok followers, and watched Pulp perform in Dublin this week. '[Cocker] is heavily influenced by 70s fashion … but he's not doing 70s cosplay. When I see pictures of him, and what he wears, it just looks like him,' he says.
While Doyle bristles at being classed as a Britpop band – 'we don't associate with [it] because of the union jack,' she says – they will inevitably be compared with Oasis, with both bands touring this summer. Style-wise, Bevan says Pulp come out on top. 'I like the Oasis look but [they were originally about a] counter-culture fashion moment. Now it feels like they're meant to look like they're not trying hard in a fashion way but in reality they are trying really hard to look cool. Pulp all have their own personal sense of style that goes way beyond throwing on a Stone Island windbreaker and a pair of jeans.'
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The fact that success eluded Pulp for a decade helped. 'Me and Jarvis were in our 30s by the time we got big, we'd had a long life of knowing what we liked to wear,' says Doyle.
While other bands might have had stylists as standard, this was avoided in favour of wearing their own clothes, a principle that remains today. 'I still have a very strong sense of what I like and what I really don't like,' says Doyle.
'I make sure I wear something as bright as possible. I've got a new [outfit] that's white, there are some sequins on it, and there are some tassels. It's good with tassels, because when you move, it comes with you.'
She says clothes were even part of what helped form Pulp in the first place. 'We all grew up in Sheffield, and if you dressed a bit strangely, you stood out. So we'd all congregate at the same venues,' she says, adding insight that sounds like a lost lyric from revenge of the nerds anthem, Mis-Shapes: 'There'd be townies and weirdos, squares and students.'
Perhaps the enduring appeal of Pulp's style is once again about the triumph of Mis-Shapes, with its lyrics of 'misshapes, mistakes, misfits', and how expressing your personality through the lucky dip of secondhand clothing is a win. 'Jarvis understands his appeal,' says Sawyer. 'He's accentuating all the things that people have picked on him for. He's saying, 'I'm a tall weed or whatever you wanted to call me. This is who I am and, actually, I look great'.'