#fashblogger

[theadornedarray]

[aykweeya]

Normcore For The Masses

Hit the supermarket in a black, slightly faded, worn out, baggy tee, ripped up hand-me-down-mom-jean style Levi's , and glossy white, double strapped Birkenstocks or Adidas after sports slippers, and you might just be at the fashion frontier. Because normcore is a thing. This trend, "normcore" comes after the era where everyone tried a little too hard. It takes us back to the 90's, before shows and outings became challenges as to who could sport the highest heels, or bare the most skin without being caught up in the newest sex-tape scandal. The word normcore itself is a fusion of the words "normal" and "hardcore" which we take to mean being hardcore normal, or so normal it hurts. Before normcore, you had to carry the Louis Vuitton purse with the tan LV logo boldly printed all over the brown, even slightly unattractive thousand dollar leather bag. We weren't trendy enough if our blouses weren't fully sequined, printed, or had extravagant cut outs and embellishments, worn with second-skin jeans. Boys had to wear chino shorts, evenly cuffed, with soft, clean polo shirts and wayfarer sunglasses. And woe betide you if your boat shoes were scuffed at all. Everyone had to stand out. The normcore look, however, is so minimalistic, it looks like it shouldn't even qualify as a trend at all. The normcorer's wardrobe MUST comprise basic, slouchy t-shirts in every color, clunky, thick flatforms and sandals (not at all flattering), joggers, ripped jeans, mom jeans, boyfriend jeans (every cut except a super skinny) a good, thick varsity/bomber jacket, blazer and knit scarf for winter, simple slip ons, at least one denim and one flannel long sleeve shirt to dress it up a little, sneakers (New Balance, Adidas, Nike and Converse should do it), and a simple black slip dress, maybe with a little mesh near the neckline (depending on how far you're willing to take this normcore bit). Fashionistas the world over have called normcore "bland anti-style" "high-end pedestrian" and "hyper-normalized. So why has it taken the world and runways by storm? Because it's easy! As long as you own the normcore essentials (which everyone should, anyway) it's literally effortless. The look requires minimal to no makeup at all, and low maintenance hair, like a tousled bob or rushed ponytail. If you've really got normcore down, you can pull on a beanie or baseball cap to hide your hair when you just can't be bothered (every dog has it's day). You do, however, have to toe the line between street chic, and street sleeper chic...... Fashion houses like Chanel (who created a supermarket runway and sent Cara Delevigne traipsing down it in a holey pink jogging suit under a trench coat and sneakers - extreme normcore) and Moschino ( who have created a whole line mimicking the McDonald's fast food chain branding, even constructing the bags in an ode to the famed Happy Meal) have shown us (or at least me) that normcore really can be for everyone. And I absolutely love it. It makes life easier for those of us who live in sweatpants anyway! This was primarily for my school magazine, but I'd love to get opinions from people here too :)