Normcore - trend or antitrend of modern fashion

It is naive to suppose that the emergence of the normcore predicted an economic crisis in our country, especially since this contradictory trend was formed not in the Russian outback, but in the center of prosperous Manhattan. But on the eve of the new year in our realities, he was very welcome - universal, budget and stylish. What will the new generation denying fashion in difficult times, and what are retailers ready to offer them?

The word "normcore" is formed from the merger of the English words normal (normal, normal) and hardcore (intense, relentless) and owes its appearance to the creative group K-Hole. Working in various marketing agencies, five friends took up writing monumental (by modern standards of clip thinking) work, in which they tried to represent their generation - its interests, thoughts, aspirations. So the Youth Mode report appeared: A Report on Freedom, and on its pages - a photo of Cara Delving in a crop top with a skateboard in her hands, the front rows of fashion shows with young bloggers in their clothes and a hint of chic and glamor ... “Once upon a time born in the community and were forced to look for their personality. Today, people are born alone and, growing up, are forced to seek their place in society. Many follow the path of creating groups, communities, trying to get into the mainstream. Others choose the normcore as an opportunity to preserve individuality in society. It's about adaptability, not exclusivity. While the majority dreams of freedom to become someone, the follower of the normcore dreams of freedom to be anyone. ” This is how the authors of the opus about the young generation described the new phenomenon. The story might not have had its continuation if it had not been for an article appeared after 5 months about a new direction in the authoritative publication of New York Magazine. In it, journalist Firna Duncan described a representative of the new trend as a tourist straying in Manhattan, wearing shorts, a fleece anarak, white socks and sweatpants. The designers of the K-Hole group could not remain silent and leave such an erroneous description of the style unanswered. A discussion flared up, which attracted the attention of thousands of fans of style and fashion. And already in March Vogue.com writes about the normcore, and two weeks later they talk about it in Britain!

The further I got in ...

In fact, K-Hole did not invent anything new, but only assigned a proper name to the phenomenon of time. The term normcore in the Urban Ducray dictionary appeared a few years earlier. And the famous fashion critic Katie Horin has long called for adding utilitarianism to the fashion. In her opinion, the time when comfort must be sacrificed for the sake of beauty has passed. For the majority of the world's population, clothing is just clothing, and comfort is easier to sell than instilling taste and chasing chic. People have learned to save and enjoy simple things, treat themselves with a share of irony, and not be afraid to seem tasteless.

By the way, the tabloids immediately found an icon of a new style ... Steve Jobs. If you hammer in the search engine "normcore" photos of the "apple" genius pop up in the forefront. Really,

his style is a pure normork example: a black turtleneck, a classic Levi's 501 model and white sneakers.

But, you must admit, it is not so often that an idea formulated by a small and little-known art group grows into a global meme. And this is exactly what happened to the normcore.

The first to try to adapt the normcore to the catwalk was the Céline brand, which launched models on fur catwalks on the catwalks. And then quotes of a new style, or rather anti-style, began to appear on the catwalks, show after show. In the last fall-winter season, Christoph Lehmer showed simple-cut woolen suits in the Hermès collection, and the Jil Sander design team brought traditional minimalism to the highest level, presenting faceless sets of jackets, trousers and coats. And behind them was the sensational Chanel show: Karl Lagerfeld turned the catwalk into a huge supermarket, where models, dressed in holey leggings and huge oversized coats, wandered around with grocery baskets. The designer clearly demonstrated that fashionable goods, like foodstuffs, have their own shelf life - one season. Jeremy Scott developed this theme and clutches in the form of boxes with french fries.

It's time and honor to know

From the point of view of fashion, normcore is anonymity, facelessness and unrecognizability of things. It’s hard to understand whether a sweater from Jil Sander is dear to you or a democratic one from Cos. This style assumes the presence of internal confidence in your style, or rather, confidence that you can do anything, since you are outside the scope of conventions. Normcore is a fashion for those who have already figured out with taste, appreciate a personal comfort zone, but deny conventions and labels. The motto of the supporters of the new direction: you are responsible for yourself, follow your own desires. Your choice of today contradicts tomorrow's choice, but that does not make you a hypocrite. High consumption does not give a chance of self-realization. Hence, asceticism and an addiction to faceless minimalism bordering on bad taste and bad manners.

Normcore is:

• Situation
• Adaptation
• Genuine indifference
• Empathy prevails over tolerance
• Good knowledge

Recent research at Harvard Business School confirms this: sellers of expensive boutiques today perceive a customer in sports trousers with lasso much more loyal than dressed in fur. Those bright, flashy markers of traditional luxury, obliged to mark the elite, fashionable, worthy, are gone. Markers remained, but at the level of that same inner confidence emanating from the lampas-cross-linking individual of the new time.

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However, not all fashion adherents are confident in the vitality and relevance of the normcore. For example, Vogue fashion director and creative director of Topshop, Kate Felan, believes that the fascination with impersonal images creates boredom in fashion. “Trying to look normal, young people spend no less time shopping and choosing clothes. As a result, they leave the mall with a pair of sneakers and jeans, which are unlikely to greatly change their personality and self-perception. ”

Some designers engage in open battle with the normcore. So, after showing his spring-summer 2015 collection to APC, Jean Tuitu confidently declared: “This is not a normcore. This is minimalism. We want to free jeans from the Normkore ghetto. ”

The Future Will show

Today, normcore is everywhere - at fashion shows, on city streets, in boutiques and supermarkets. Fashion analysts believe that the idea, of course, is not new and, having reviewed the shows of 10-15 years ago, you will find a lot of what is now marked with a popular term. Not fashion is changing, its perception is changing. And it is no secret that the boundaries between high and street fashion are almost invisible. Normcore is absolute democracy in fashion: things should be functional, comfortable, and everything else should be conventions, labels, and a clean matter of taste. Hence the boom for sneakers, shoes without heels and birken rods.

Shoes in the history of creating a bow in the normcore style plays almost the main role. The facelessness of the wiped denim and the smooth seamlessness of the knitwear are diluted with vintage models of iconic sports sneakers or even if not generous in decor, but ready to boast of unusual design shoes. Asymmetric lacing, a thick tractor sole, coarse belts ... even within the framework of the normcore there is room for the designer’s fantasies to take a walk without injuring the delicate mental organization of the normator. Under the style, and therefore in the category of popular molds, loafers, sneakers, booties fall. Similar models will be in demand for more than one season. This can be judged by the summer and winter collections of the current year. The versatility of such shoes makes it especially relevant in the current economic realities.

In the annual list of Google's most frequent search fashion queries in 2014, the "normcore" leads. The company suggests that users typed this word in search of an accurate description of the style, since most still do not have the slightest idea about this style. Indeed, last year they tried to use this term to denote everything from boiled jeans and Adidas Stan Smiths sneakers to faceless dresses in the advertising company Gap. Judging by the three leaders, it is unlikely that anything will change in fashion in the near future - all three terms denote style directions that are similar in spirit.

Top -10 popular fashion queries

1. Normcore
2. Healthy Gothic (Healt got - a style that combines futurism, sporty aesthetics, technology and, of course, comfort)
3. Althleisure (clothes that are equally appropriate in the gym and on a date. Styling for a sports style with glamor elements)
4. Accessories
5. Top crop (crop top)
6. Design Collaborations
7. Treads
8. Full skirts
9. Pantaloons (flared trousers)
10. Mühli

Choose a top:

• Plain white t-shirt or t-shirt
• Men's shirt or blouse without decor - white or color, but not too bright

Choose the top:

• Warm comfortable sweater
• Padded leather jacket
• Classic trench coat
• Svitshot
• Overseas blazer or coat

Choose pants:

• Jeans with high waist
• Slacks of soothing tones

Choose shoes:

• Lofers
• Retro models of sneakers or sneakers
• Ballet shoes
• Flat Boots