I know what you’re thinking, what is normcore and what happens if I get it? Well for starters I didn’t know that it happened to me. But looking back I realize how careless I was, how unaware of the consequences I had become. Establishing my blog before the height of the hipster age allowed for me to play dress-up and be quirky and young before it was “cool”. People would often look at me funny but they didn’t realize there was a whole shit-storm of nerd-glass wielding twenty somethings on the way. I got out alive, but barely.
Normcore is a response to the hipster fashion wave. The sort of antithesis of it. Think about it this way: If Lady Gaga has lost her ability to shock or fascinate people, it may be a reflection on our times at large. Normcore by loose definition is going out of your way to appear like you don’t go out of your way. Your normcore role models? Barack Obama, Seinfeld and Steve Jobs. It’s not looking great. While this is an extreme example it may be onto something, GQ wrote this lolworthy exaggeration on it. If a broken clock is right twice a day, your dad may be more fashionable that you right now.
I reached a point last year where I couldn’t take some of my contemporaries seriously because the outfits were becoming just plain silly. I then put all my fancy coloured brogues away and pulled on black jeans and Converse high-tops for three months straight. I embraced the relaxed freedom in wearing basics, perhaps subconsciously I was saying ‘I’m not with them!’. While true normcorists (the normcorporation as GQ call it) will dig through thrift stores for unbranded sweatpants and well-worn adidas, the point I’m getting at, is perhaps some of us are so over extreme fashion that we’re simplifying it as much as possible. I still love fashion but I’m not about to wear a cape with a neon beanie and studded Louboutins to fashion week.
Ironically, normcore will be the new hipster which threatens the cycle to spin once more… Do you think there is something to this? Weigh in.
Image from here.