Skulls, stars, checkers and zebra print; Avril Lavigne’s clothing line, Abbey Dawn, is a perfect brand to celebrate the current emo/pop punk nostalgia within the underground music scene. One of the most influential and well known artists of the early 2000’s, Avril truly paved the way for females within the pop punk community. Her skater-chic, pop punk princess aesthetic was iconic and even created visibility within the mainstream, as she is the third best selling Canadian female musician of all time.
photo credit: JustFab
When her career first launched in 2002, she was widely known for her tomboyish style. Baggy jeans and tank tops paired with Converse and casual neckties, her image was widely seen as the anti-Britney Spears. She was much more down to earth and kept the quality of her music at the forefront rather than her feminine image. Avril was quoted saying, “I don’t want to sell sex. I feel that’s sort of lame and low. I’ve got so much more to say.” For her second album, she took on more of a gothic persona, trading out the baggy jeans for skinnies and black mesh tutus. Her look became a bit more feminine as she got more involved with the fashion scene and started gaining publicity.
photo credit: Abbey Dawn
Avril Lavigne debuted her clothing line, Abbey Dawn, exclusively at Kohl’s in 2008. She was only 22 years old. The name ‘Abbey Dawn’ is the nickname her dad gave her as a child. She said, “It was a street he saw. And all my friends in high school called me Abbey. I always really liked the name. I didn’t know if maybe I would name my girl Abbey if I had a girl one day, or a song name. So I had a clothing line first, so I named it Abbey Dawn.” Avril also has the name tattooed on her forearm. Abbey Dawn has an “authentic rock n roll attitude” with a “feminine edge.” Lavigne describes the line, saying “It’s rock glam: fun, colorful, and edgy.” Not only did she want to make the brand available to as many girls as possible, but she wanted Abbey Dawn to be affordable enough for anybody, thus the extremely low price points.
photo credit: TokyoFashion.com
In the fall of 2008, a Japanese department store called, LaForet Harajuku, hosted a popup shop for Abbey Dawn, in efforts to draw attention to her brand worldwide and to expand the line into more high-end boutiques. Described as a “juniors lifestyle brand”, the Kohl’s collection included hoodies and jeans with cute skull and emo zebra patterns similar to the artwork on Avril’s album, The Best Damn Thing. The clothing was initially sold in the junior’s section of the store and was later expanded to encompass a girls collection as well.
photo credit: xdeeperthaninside
Originally inspired by Lavigne’s own punk-girly closet, Abbey Dawn hosted its first fashion show during New York Fashion Week in September of 2009. Models took to the runway draped up in mall punk looks featuring a wide range of metallic-print T-shirts, oversized hoodies, striped skater tees, patterned hoodies, tutus, and plaid mini-skirts. Avril’s hit songs “Girlfriend” and “Sk8er Boi” blared across the loudspeakers. The hoodies, pants, and dresses feature cute sparkly enamel skulls and mini-radio graphic zipper pulls. Just two years later, the global pop star and Kohl’s ended their relationship. Avril Lavigne set out to build a global apparel company and continued on with the brand independently. In it’s heyday, the San Diego, CA based company had 33 employees. Her collections that came out post-Kohls era were mostly available in select punk boutiques and online.
photo credit: Getty Images
Avril’s SS13 runway show in New York was the peak of Abbey Dawn. Surprisingly, Kylie Jenner made her mildly controversial runway debut at age 15 when Avril cast her as the top model of the show. She was responsible for the first look, final look, and an additional look in the middle of the show. Pre-lip injections and plastic surgery, it looks like an entirely different person to the Kylie Jenner we are familiar with now. The entire Kardashian clan was in attendance of the runway show. There was a shirt in the collection that read “I Fucking Love You Bitch” inside of a heart, garters with no stockings attached, and lots of Avril Lavigne’s signature looks. Models had lots of hair extensions and bright colors. The garments from the SS13 collection had names like; Hellraiser, Play Me, Ghoul School, and Fuck Off Forever. This season also marked the launch of two fragrances, Black Star and Forbidden Rose.
Shortly after Avril’s highly successful collection, Abbey Dawn started drifting off into irrelevance as she slowed down on the music making and no longer was in the celebrity spotlight. A conspiracy theory surfaced online about her possible disappearance as a Brazilian fanpage presented fake evidence that Lavigne had died and been replaced by a body double named Melissa. While obviously untrue, it was a sign that her fans were becoming skeptical about the future of Avril Lavigne.
photo credit: Getty Images
Fast forward to 2018, Abbey Dawn has re-emerged in the styling community as the mass nostalgia for pop punk and a third wave emo revival has been sweeping the globe. Avril’s mall-punk garments are the quintessential look of emo for females and her use of bold, traditionally kitsch scene/emo/hardcore graphics such as cupcakes, bones, skeletons with hair bows, broken hearts, cheetah print and stars are highly recognizable. The colors of her garments are mostly black and white with pops of neon green, pink, and red, sticking true to the Warped Tour mallcore emo wave of the early 2000’s. While there is still an active e-commerce site, the newer designs are nowhere near as cool as the early ones from 2008-2013. These older, original pieces are rare but can be found at select punk boutiques and on Ebay for reasonable prices as they were originally designed to meet Kohl’s low price points. Next time you feel like a punkstar, consider adding some vintage Abbey Dawn garments to your wardrobe for a punk princess, scene revival type look.