Birth name: Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin
PARENTS: Robert & Betty Wiedlin
BROTHERS/SISTERS: Bob, Meg, Matt and Andy.
EDUCATION: Taft High School- Woodland Hills, CA
Jane was always into fashion. After all - she did have that cute bod.
In 1976 Jane was enrolled at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College located in downtown Los Angeles. She was studying fashion design. As she looked through fashion magazines she got interested in the punk fashion scene going on in England. She was interested in what the store Granny Takes a Trip in London was doing and of course, knew all about and London punk fashion and Vivienne Westwood.
Jane scoured all the local thrift stores and would fashion her own designs from vintage clothing.
From English fashion magazines she saw the latest punk scene going on in London. She was impressed with how cool they looked. She liked the whole rebellious nature of it. She liked the thrift store/ mod rocker look.
At this time she also was a fan of English punk music. She collected the latest in English imports.
One of her favorite bands at the time were the Buzzcocks.
However, to be true, anything from England was cool. Anyone who had even been to England was cool. Of course, the ultimate English punk band was the Sex Pistols.
At this time Jane was working in a factory in downtown Los Angeles as a pattern-maker. She admits the place was basically a sweatshop.
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Jane would frequent thrift stores and piece together her own designs. She'd take them to boutiques in Hollywood to sell. One such place was the ultra rock-chic fashion boutique (London's Granny Takes a Trip #2) on the Sunset Strip. In the previous 10 years this store had gone from hippy to glam to punk.
Here, one day in late 1977, Jane Wiedlin met Pleasant Gehman. This brief encounter would ultimately change Jane's direction (and career choice) in life forever.
Pleasant was one of the first real punk rockers Jane had ever met. Pleasant gave her a flyer for a show at the Masque featuring the Alleycats and the Controllers. She told Jane about the whole punk music scene going on in Hollywood.
In early 1978, Jane tracked down the Masque. She started going there alone. She didn't know anybody, She just thought it was really cool. She immediately fell in love with the scene and the fast energetic music. It quickly became her whole life. Though she still was a fashion setter.
photo:JennyLens
Soon, Jane became a fixture in the L.A. punk music scene. At first she was just in it for the fun and the creativity. Then she wanted to be part of it. She called herself Jane Drano.
The best part about the punk scene was that for the first time women were treated equally. Punk took away gender rolls - at least more so than any music before it.
The violent aspect of the scene both attracted and scared her. She still admits being drawn towards what frightens her.
photo courtesy of: alicebag
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