NEW YORK — Punk — that howl of rage and despair from London’s mean streets that dressed up fantastically as it grew into a sociological phenomenon — has finally found its place uptown.

Forty years on, punk will be the subject of a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit, details of which were announced on Monday.

Against a backdrop of torn and safety-pinned outfits, including lewd T-shirts from Vivienne Westwood with Malcolm McLaren, and upscale styles from Zandra Rhodes and Gianni Versace, the display traced the raw to the refined.

“I think it’s great — the embrace of the range and breadth of culture, as in art,” said Thomas P. Campbell, the Met’s director, while Andrew Bolton, curator of the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” show that opens May 9, talked about the “promise, purpose and prospect” of a street style that grew from a culture of “no future.”