Normcore Magazine

Subcultures

April 2019

MA Graphic Design

Enrica Barberis

NORM CORE

Normcore Zine

rules 10 | definition 16 | background 21

intoduction 5 | elements 8-9 |

Born in jest several years ago from the conflation of ‘normal’ and ‘hardcore’, the word ‘normcore’ refers to the obsession of appearing normal in order to express one’s specialness. An exercise in irony which today, through Instagrammers and ad campaigns, makes fun of hyperconnoted attitudes, trend forecasters, and the latest gurus and fashion mavens… The invention of the term, used to describe people who “find liberation in not being special in any way”, comes from the ‘post-ironic’ provocation of a group of creatives called K-Hole. The introduction of the neologism was sarcastic, deriving from the crasis of ‘normal’ and ‘hardcore’, and was launched on the occasion of a performance in October 2013 at the Serpentine Gallery during the Frieze Art Fair in New York. Indeed, the word ‘normcore’ has taken hold in the last few years and is now used to define, for example, the style of Shia LaBeouf on highsnobiety.com; personal style on sites like Bustle (“I wore dad shoes for a week & they were so much cooler than I thought they’d be”, is the title of a recent article), or the retro style of the Balenciaga campaigns shot by Robbie Augspurger. It is even used in reference to landscape in a lecture by Ken Smith at Penn University on architecture and landscape (“Normcore: Conflation: Normal/Hardcore”). Fiona Duncan writes on thecut.com, “Sometime last summer I realized that, from behind, I could no longer tell if my fellow Soho pedestrians were art kids or middle-aged, middle-American tourists. Clad in stonewash jeans, fleece, and comfortable sneakers, both types looked like they might’ve just stepped off an R-train after shopping in Times Square (extract from Normcore: The New Trend, Vogue.com, June 2018).

Some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal

Normcore is a term that first appeared in 2009

Normcore wearers are people who do not wish to distinguish themselves from others by their clothing. This is not to mean that they are unfashionable people who wear whatever comes to hand, but that they consciously choose clothes that are practical and undistinguished.

Functionality above all else. Trainers, skate shoes, washed denim, low key sportswear, workwear, turtlenecks, baseball caps and if possible some sort of reusable water container.

Approved brands include Carhartt, Patagonia, Northface and Birkenstocks. Basically, all those things your Mum wears that you swore you never would.

Vintage, obviously. This look should appear lived-in.

No overt logos, no glitz, nothing expensive (looking). Normcore is about fitting in rather than standing out. Clothes that meet the "normcore" description are mainly sold by large fashion and retail chains such as The Gap, Uniqlo Superdry, Jigsaw, and Esprit.

Nostalgia plays a key role, try and remember what you were wearing on a school trip in the mid to late nineties and buy grown-up versions of all of it. (from The Ultimate Guide to Normcore Fashion, beyondretro.com article)

white shirt and black trousers

photo credit Man Repeller

photo credit Ludwig Hurtado

"I don't want to be a human billboard — I don't care about communicating status through my clothes. "

dictionary definition

normcore (noun)

The act of deconstructing fashion by purposely dressing blank or dull.

What once started as a post-ironic antifashion, "purposely uncool" trend, normcore is characterized by unpretentious, normallooking clothing.

Anything that looks like it might be featured in a Calvin Klein from 1998, or anything you'd wear around the house on laundry day.

Normcore is a subculture based on conscious, artificial adoption of things that are in ultra-conformist.

"embracing sameness deliberately as a new way of being cool, rather than striving for 'difference' or 'authenticity' " ‘Normcore’, which is based on the principle of fitting in rather than standing out,’ first rose as a riposte to the elaborate and exuberant trends that came before it. The trend alighted in its purest and simplest form as an anti-trend, and ironically; has been a trend – or rather – a tendency, ever since.

The hipsters, musicians, niche fashion editors and many other subcultures embrace normcore as a way of appearing mainstream and wearing normal clothing like a costume, just so it looks like average. These sets of people tend to have ironic personalities and need to exude a certain kind of laissez-faire attitude.

Putting the trendy factor aside, let’s take a closer look at the people who do and have always dressed “normally” in an attempt to steer clear of ever-changing trends long before this style

was coined. These people spend minimum time getting dressed since they deem the concept of 'fashion-as-expression' too self-indulgent.

There's also the functional aspect. Steve Jobs – a normcore muse if there ever was one – professed to always wearing the same ensemble as to have one less decision to make a day.

Both the above groups – the authentic and contrived normcores - share the same underlying emotion - the need to look uncomplicated and unpretentious. As an inference, ‘normcore’ trend appeals to people who have – or are striving for - less complex personas. Their personalities have fewer layers to peel. They tend to score low in neuroticism, and hence are likely to be more emotionally stable, self-controlled and less reactive to their moods and emotions, and as a result, less swayed by changes or trends. They are the crudest versions of themselves and have a poker-straight approach towards life. The extravagance of the fashion world might not allure them as much it repels them.

At a dinner party, someone who veers towards normcore would be someone who would much rather discuss the weather outside than discuss the intricate design on the cutlery. This psychology hints that in normcore, one does not pretend to be above and beyond the indignity of belonging to the mainstream culture. It allows one to blend in with unfamiliarity.

Perhaps a key reason normcore appeals to hipsters and other sub-cultures, or people who just dress “normal”; is because it arises out of the exhaustion humans face out of being different from the rest of those around them, and thus find solace in dwelling on “sameness”. They also find the lack of flashy elements and delicate textures – traditional symbols of status – comforting to avoid. In many ways, dressing normcore is much like dressing in childhood. Far less complicated or steeped in nuanced meaning.

But fashion isn’t just fodder for intellectual thought, it’s fodder for the soul. Like they say - "no matter how you feel, dress up and show up". But in context of the trend in question, dress down. When life is giving us lemons, maybe we’ve got to stop adding vodka. Pull that first t-shirt out of your wardrobe and pair it with your baggy sweatpants and toss the pressure to ‘stand out’ right out of the window. Pare down to your most real version, sans all the fanciness. It might help you care less for the details of the chaos life is hurling at you and concentrate more on how bright the sun is shining outside.

fitting in is

standing out

As envisioned by its creators, “normcore” was not a fashion trend, but a broader sociological attitude. The basic idea is that young alternative types had devoted so much energy to trying to define themselves as individuals, through ever-quirkier style flourishes like handlebar mustaches or esoteric pursuits like artisanal pickling, that they had lost the joy of belonging that comes with being part of the group.

Normcore was about dropping the pretense and learning to throw themselves into, without detachment, whatever subcultures or activities they stumbled into, even if they were mainstream.

The website for Dazed and Confused, the British style magazine, attempted to answer the

musical question “What does Normcore sound like?” (Think of Devonté Hynes, Sean Nicholas Savage and Fleetwood Mac.) Car and Driver offered “The 5 Most Normcore Automobiles” (they selected five Toyota Camry models).

Like a mass sociological experiment, the question now is whether repetition, at a certain point, makes reality. Even those who coined the phrase concede that normcore has taken on a life of its own. “If you look through #normcore on Twitter or Instagram, people are definitely posting pictures of that look,” said Gregory Fong, a K-Hole founder. “Whether they believe it’s real or a joke, it’s impossible to say, but it’s there and it’s happening.”

It certainly seems to be. Sort of.

Style watchers at some of New York’s trendier boutiques are getting glimpses. “There’s always a hunger to find the next thing, start a new movement, and you can see a little bit of that in the normcore movement — the light washes and the Jesus sandals coming back,” said Matthew Breen, a founder of Carson Street Clothiers in SoHo. “I think it’s a complete media creation,” he added. “But the second GQ writes about it, then it becomes a trend.”

Francesca Grosso, a manager at Opening Ceremony in SoHo, said she had never heard anyone mention normcore on the sales floor, but still, she said she saw influences on the streets. “It’s girls wearing Timberlands, wearing household brands, putting things together that are normal — mom jeans, boyfriend jeans,” she said. (extract from The New Normal, The New York Times, April 2014)

it is not about what I wear. it is about awhat I do, instead.

norm

m* core

“normcore is a personal style defined by a kind of trendy embrace of the anti-trend�

nomen omen, making a fashion out of not following a fashion, indeed the latest true fashion.

N O R M O

R

C E

Normcore Zine

Subculture Project CSVPA, 2019

Enrica Barberis MA in Visual Communication: Graphic Design