Normcore

Normcore is a unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious, average-looking clothing. "Normcore" is a portmanteau of the words "normal" and "hardcore". The word first appeared in webcomic Templar, Arizona before 2009[1] and was later employed by K-Hole, a trend forecasting group,[2][3][4][5] in an October 2013 report called "Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom".[6][7]

As used by K-Hole, "normcore" referred to an attitude, not a particular code of dress. It was intended to mean "finding liberation in being nothing special."[8] However, a piece in New York magazine that began popularizing the term in February 2014[6] conflated it with "Acting Basic", another K-Hole concept which involved dressing neutrally to avoid standing out. It was this sense of "normcore" which gained popular usage.[8] The characters featured on the television series Seinfeld are frequently cited as exemplifying the aesthetics and ethos of normcore fashion.[9][10]

The word was named runner-up for neologism of the year by the Oxford University Press in 2014.[6]

Normcore fashion

Normcore wearers are people who do not wish to distinguish themselves from others by their clothing.[11] This is not to mean that they are unfashionable people who wear whatever comes to hand, but that they consciously choose clothes that are undistinguished – except, frequently, for a highly visible label to impart prestige. The "normcore" trend has been interpreted as a reaction to fashion oversaturation resulting from ever faster-changing fashion trends.[12]

Normcore clothes include everyday items of casual wear such as t-shirts, hoodies, short-sleeved shirts, jeans and chino pants, but not items such as neckties or blouses. These clothes are worn by men and women alike, making normcore a unisex style.[12]

Clothes that meet the "normcore" description are mainly sold by large fashion and retail chains such as The Gap,[13] Jack & Jones, Superdry, Jigsaw and Esprit. They are generally cheaply produced in East Asian countries. Many other retailers such as Marc O'Polo, Woolrich, Desigual, Closed and Scotch & Soda produce normcore-like clothes combined with individual design ideas.[12]

Exponents

New York Magazine argued that Pope Francis was a great example of the fashion trend, with the pope specifically noting about his fashion choices that "It’s normal. We must be normal … We must get used to being normal. It’s the normality of life.”[14]

References

  1. ↑ Friedman, Nancy (March 2\3, 2014). "Word of the Week: normcore", Fritinancy. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ Williams, Alex (April 2, 2014). "The New Normal", New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ Duncan, Fiona (February 26, 2014). "Normcore: Fashion for Those Who Realize They’re One in 7 Billion", New York. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  4. ↑ Cochrane, Lauren (February 27, 2014). "Normcore: The Next Big Fashion Movement?", The Guardian. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  5. ↑ Frank, Thomas (April 27, 2014). "Hipsters, They're Just Like Us! "Normcore," Sarah Palin, and the GOP's Big Red State Lie", Salon. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Benson, Richard (17 December 2014). "Normcore: how a spoof marketing term grew into a fashion phenomenon". Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Tschorn, Adam (May 18, 2014). "Normcore Is (or Is It?) a Fashion Trend (or Non-Trend or Anti-Trend)", Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Gorton, Thomas. "Everyone's getting normcore wrong, say its inventors". Dazed. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  9. ↑ Normcore: Seinfeld Look Turns Bland into Fashion
  10. ↑ "The Real Meaning Of Normcore, The Fashion Trend That Went Oddly Viral". The Huffington Post.
  11. ↑ Ferrier, Morwenna (June 21, 2014). "The End of the Hipster: How Flat Caps and Beards Stopped Being So Cool". The Guardian. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 van Rooijen, Jeroen (May 30, 2014). "Trendthema "Normcore": Die Mittelpracht". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  13. ↑ Franzen, Carl. "Watch David Fincher's normcore ads for The Gap". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  14. ↑ "New York Magazine". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2015.

See also

External links

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