Normcore

About

Normcore is a humorous fashion trend in which artists and others associated with the “hipster” subculture emulate Middle Americans by wearing ordinary clothing with dull or muted colors.

Origin

On October 19th, 2013, the trend forecasting group K-Hole^[1] published a trend report titled “Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom,”^[2] which proposed a new emergent aesthetic titled “#Normcore” encompassing a functional, comfortable fashion style and an attitude that embraces sameness rather than individuality.

Spread

On October 25th, 2013, the pop culture blog Bullett Media^[7] published an interview with several K-Hole collective members, who shared their thoughts on what it means to be “normcore.”

“Obviously self-image has always been a more distant, maneuverable extension of the self, but the Internet gives us total freedom to disengage the two. At the end of the day, we’re still ourselves. The blankness of Normcore deemphasizes self-image to promote a more fluid sense of self. It allows you to experience more things, both on and offline.”

On February 24th, 2014, NY Mag^[3] published an article about the emerging fashion trend, which referred to the style as “mall clothes,” “blank clothes” and a “dad-brand non-style you might have once associated with Jerry Seinfeld.” On February 26th, writer Tavi Gevinson posted a tweet joking that normcore should be a nudist movement.

On February 26th, That same day, Gothamist^[6] published an article highlighting photographs of several tongue-in-cheek examples of normcore fashion (shown below).

On February 27th, GQ^[5] published a list of “10 #Normcore Essentials Every Man Should Have,” including Costco white T-shirts, stonewashed jeans, Patagonia fleece jackets and white tube socks, Teva sandals and New Balance sneakers.

The same day, several other news sites reported on the trend, including Flavorwire,^[8] Styleite,^[9] The Guardian,^[10] Jezebel,^[11] Gawker^[12] and The Daily Dot.^[13] Also on February 27th, the Twitter feed of the clothing retailer Gap posted a tweet that they had been stocking “#normcore” clothing for the past several decades. According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[14] there were over 2,600 tweets containing the hashtag “#normcore” that month.

Search Interest

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External References