rabbit - Do normcore people call themselves normcore? Without irony? I am thinking normcore people call themselves normal, and that they're very nice people who value earnestness, and they have no wish to get entangled if at all possible with the doings of the 1% - or even the 10%.

is part of the dilemma that normcore means different things and has different definitions:

1. people who are actually just normal, non-fashiony, sincere folks wearing what they need to wear for their life

2. people who see norm-core as a way of critiquing self-consciousness and showiness, or classism, or whatever

3. people who are trying to be ironic and perhaps condescending, somewhat "making fun" of the people in #1

4. people who have copped onto 'normcore-as-trend' and are thus trend-followng the way someone wearing pastels or loafers might be

I think I agree rachylou. And in my mind the people who might fit this description are still creatives and progressives and intellectuals, who are 'young at heart' if not actually young. In other words, they are 'aware' of fashion at least peripherally, follow media narratives at least on the occasional podcast or blog post, and aware they have choices (within their budget, whatever it is), but yes, definitely don't consider themselves part of the economic elite and its doings, they are just regular folks too.

So maybe to explain and market this 'not participating in social stratification by dress' some trend forecaster came up with the word?

I don't know, but that's the part of me that balks at thinking it's just ironic.

Nice summary! I'd add a fifth category here, which is people who have decided to opt out of a current lifestyle - the way people go off the grid - for purely personal reasons. That's actually what I see the most.

Too funny. My 22 yo DD was home this weekend. She is the most fashionista of my daughters although she has also undergone a sort of hippyish off-the-grid transformation that makes for some interesting conflicts.

I asked her what she thought of normcore (assuming from what I had read that it was usually done "ironically"). She had not heard of it and spent some time googling it. After which her impression was, as torontogirl said, a reaction against standing out and making fashion so all-important.

Later that night she was out with friends (at a disco called the Laundromat, so I think there is still some hipster in her) and they started talking about normcore. So she had to explain to them that she had only just heard about it from me. Conclusion? "Mom, you are cooler than me". Haha. As I adjust my scrunchie and my comfortable shoes... (Does that mean I'm normcore?)

Had to pop in about the anti- Teva comment. Not that there's anything wrong with that.....
But it's the type of thing that at times makes me feel off course. Sort of like I want to have fun with fashion but I don't want to get to where I really want to buy some more Teva's (just got rid of a worn pair that fit my toes and foot shape and hid the bunion, and all that---but feel the fashion pressure that they are so OVER.
I get riled up a bit over footwear e cause so much of it is not shaped like a FOOT. The orthopedists know that.
Clothing styles have a lot more leeway before something could actually change your body shape.
Anyway,there are times I'm ready to remain in the "normal normcore" group or certainly to not take myself or outfits too seriously.

Ladies thanks for putting this all in context for me:) It has taken me time to get my head around "normcore". My emotional response to first reading about it, is the same now that I understand it more. As others have commented, I find it rude and unkind. Ridicule and being condescending towards people in order to make ourselves feel better,or more superior, or more cool, is offensive to me and I am always disappointed when I see this happening with regard to fashion.

Im also amused at how people have to coin new labels. So the person who came up with "Normcore" is being celebrated because they are so clever?? Labels can be helpful but things like this just irk me.

Goodness! I am grumpy today.

never thoughts about the fact that shoes are not foot-shaped! how silly is that??

deborah - absolutely - not only is that particular angle of normcore unkind, its fairly infantile, and really, how cool can you possibly be if you have the TIME for that kind of thing ...

Okay, but the idea that it's ironic came from.....where exactly? Didn't it just start just as an unnamed practice of not partaking (like Una says) that recently got named and then ridiculed?

Also, it's already impacted larger fashion, hence Angie's post on what designers wore at their own shows during fashion week:

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/20.....definition

Just playing devil's advocate here...

Rabbit, a friend of the woman from Man Repellar made it up and she used it and wrote about it and it became big news.

I have to agree whole heartedly with Deborah : it is mean to ridicule someone's look. One is intellectually stratifying/classifying one's self by secretly ridiculing someone else's dressing.

I also find it incredibly arrogant to assume that only the cool, stylish, in the know people will somehow get you. A few years ago someone I know bought some Pabst beer and was drinking it. When I commented that I hadn't seen a Pabst in a while, he said he was being ironic. Anyone who drinks Pabst must have no knowledge of beer or be a "yahoo". Huh? Unless they are being ironic, I guess. I don't drink and I wasn't sure what a yahoo was, but I was utterly insulted.

^ Ah, yes. PBR definitely took on an ironic sense when it was reinvented the last time around. "Hipsters" adopted it, and PBR adopted them right back by only marketing themselves among hipster outlets. So while not all of its customers might be "in" on it, Pabst is definitely in on the irony. But it sounds like your friend is the yahoo, Isabel. And you're right that this is my fear with "normcore", too - that the people who actually dress that way will be insulted (sometimes directly) by those adopting the "trend".

I really like the 4 categories TG listed above (plus Una's #5). I don't think the sudden spread of the idea of normcore is either as simple as a bunch of hipsters making fun of normal (as in most prevalent) dressing styles OR that it is some sort of all knowing ironic wink by Hipsters everywhere. People are not so simple or always fully aware of what they are doing really. So, among other things, part of it is a reaction to the over commercialization of today's culture and part of it, like any trend, is the human tendency to jump on a bandwagon. Especially if all the bandwagon requires is accessible, comfortable and inexpensive accessories!

I've been resisting getting sucked into this discussion, yet here I am.

I have a question. So. Steve Jobs. The epitome of original "normcore". He wouldn't have been dressing ironically at all, right? He had lots of very interesting things to occupy his mind, and fashion wasn't one of them. He wasn't the only one. Torontogirl mentioned about scientists being naturally normcore (one the whole; there are always exceptions) and I can back that up. Scientists tend to be curious and intelligent. Lots of them have fervent interests in other things. The worlds of fashion and of science (or computer science) don't overlap much.

What Rabbit said makes sense to me: "I think at its heart, maybe all that young people dressing normcore are saying with their clothes is that as individuals and a society we have bigger fish to fry than worrying about what we're wearing". The normcore movement that's happening with young, fashionable people might not always be ironic. For some, it might just be practical.

So my question. Is it fair to say that those who were normcore before normcore was a thing can just carry on being normcore and it's not ironic? And everyone who's into fashion who's dressing normcore is being ironic (and kind of mean in an I'm-superior-to-you kind of way)?

(Torontogirl, this is related to the list you made above).

Here's my take on it -- correct me if I'm wrong: it's not normcore if you've been doing it all along in a sincere, non-fashiony way, like Steve Jobs' uniform or Obama's dad jeans, or my friend who wears gear and hiking boots daily because she's sporty and doesn't care a bit about fashion. It's "normcore" if you actually know the term and are choosing these styles in an ironic statement. Right?

I have a John Deere baseball cap that I wear with zero irony because JD is near and dear (no pun intended) to my heart -- my dad worked there for 40 years. Someone looking at me on an ultra-casual day wearing that cap may not know that though... I found it annoying when the hipster trucker cap trend came around, maybe because it felt disengenuous and maybe a little disrespectful? Maybe it's a little weird for a city girl like me to feel that way.

Janet, your explanation goes right along the lines I was thinking. So an outside person could refer to Steve Jobs or Jerry Seinfeld as "original normcore", but they wouldn't call themselves that or identify with the movement.

Maybe I should do a Google picture search, but I don't understand how you can dress normal and convey irony...

This is such an incredibly interesting discussion, and thanks everyone for your wisdom and insights and keeping the chat going.

To Aziraphale's point, having given it a bit more thought and also based on my DH's take as well as L'Abeille's and I think Una's points, I think you could still be purposefully normcore and have good intentions, one of which could be a conscious critique of classism by rejecting things that might be perceived as putting you 'above' someone else, and the other could be a genuine desire to drop out of the fashion/brand/status rat-race (not that all fashion is a rat-race, but like anything else, it can feel that way at times). And of course just the trend-following part, with no thought to meaning necessarily.

One comparison I can think of is, a very wealthy person could decide to downsize and live very simply and that does not necessarily mean they are making fun of or being ironic about people who have to live that way because they are financially limited. However, if they walked around 'pretending' to be less-well off for their own entertainment, that would be very insulting and rude. But if it's genuine it might convey admiration and respect.

The tricky thing with this one is that intent is hard to judge based on clothes alone.

? Still puzzling over it ...

Rachylou, maybe irony would be conveyed through behavior. Haircut, eyeglasses, attitude, reality - for example, wearing your "normcore" clothes (let's say Carhartts, polarfleece vest, plaid shirt, no name sneakers) to hang around drinking PRB at the local hip bookstore/tattoo parlour (I have a fairly limited knowledge of what hipster tribes do or what other markers might be so forgive me for my ignorance!).

I am starting to think along the lines of: Would it be offensive as a Halloween costume ("And what are you, little boy?")... All muddled up!

And because I can't edit, adding that I totally agree, TG. I could say that this happened to me when I moved here 20 years ago - I wasn't imitating the locals out of mockery or a sense of irony. I was doing it because they knew how to dress for the climate and survive!

Eh... you know, Una... yes, I think that would do it. (Another venue: the pub-in-a-shack with the hot dog food truck parked outside... in fact, the hot dog food truck might be normcore in and of itself...)

Speaking of Halloween: I am reminded of the gypsy kid's non-gypsy costume. Tevas, 'Feed' bag...

I think that the comfort of nostalgia might be as much a factor as potential 'irony' aside from practical considerations and simply dressing like your friends without giving it much thought.

It's part of the thrill of thrift shopping, the 'I used to have a pair of these when I was 17! I wonder if I can still wear them?' question.

-------------------------

I've been thinking also about the role of 'irony' in dressing. I recognize the sticky trap of inadvertently making fun of a person, rather than finding delight/humor and therefore 'cool factor' in an unexpected item of clothing (the latter is what I've mostly observed around me in hipsterville).

It reminded me that I once bought my husband a tee shirt that was on sale at my grocery store. It was an Old Spice t-shirt, from an ad campaign earlier than the great "Man your man could smell like" campaign with Isaiah Mustafa. Both my husband and my dad wear Old Spice deodorant, so I had a connection with and fondness for the brand. It was a red shirt with the white Old Spice clipper ship on it, and the cursive slogan 'Ladies your ship has come in.'

I laughed so hard when I saw it, and had to have it. Was I making fun of someone who would unironically wear that shirt? Would anyone unironically wear that shirt? My husband was too embarrassed to wear it, although I regifted it to my 20 year old cousin, and he thought it was AWESOME.

But a lot of this "normcore" style is NOT putting classism aside. It is fashion-conscious people buying designer versions of, say, Birkentocks which could be purchased for half the price. Because the original versions of the clothing that average people really wear isn't good enough; it has to be a designer version of it that costs two or three times as much. IMO, that's part of how you can tell it's ironic or done for fashion's sake and not genuine.

You are all the SMARTEST and funniest women I think I have ever had the pleasure of meeting!

When I moved to my ranch-y California town, I did not fit in fashion wise. My fashion sense came from European and East Coast sensibilities and that was definitely not the order of the day here. It was beachy, gym-wear, ughs and cutoff denims. Ed Hardy if you like.

For YEARS I would not compromise my self and my style to fit in this place that I did not choose to live in!

The local norm core at the time here made me squirm. If I wore jewelry or ballet flats, or maybe even the slightest lift of a kitten heel, women would anxiously say to me, "Why are you so dressed up?" "Where are you off to all gussied up?" "You dress so NIIIICE to work in the classroom!"

To me, I was JUDGED by the momjean crowd. They were really asking me, "How do you have so much time to pull yourself together?" (You aren't sacrificing enough). "You are overdressed for classroom work lady, hahahahah". " You dressed like THAT for a weekday?" (vain). "Wow, how long does it take for you to get that Farrah flip?" (vain, again.)

Aside: It's funny how the norm core thing seems to be expanded to your liquor or your beer brand, your mac and cheese even. Velveeta is norm core. Quatro formaggio ala fantastica is not.

Interesting thread.

I'm asking this in all honesty, truly i'm not trying to be sarcastic. But i can't see how anyone could be insulted or offended by just like a person walking by on the street wearing 'normcore', even if the 'normcore-er' was intending to be 'ironic'. First, if the 'normal' person really wasn't into fashion trends i don't know how they would be able to tell. Secondly, if for some reason the 'ironic normcore-er' told the 'normal' person 'oh, i'm wearing the same clothes as you but i'm doing it ironically/to make fun of you' - well, most people would think the joke's on the normcore-er for spending money and life wearing clothing they (i guess, since they're wearing them to make fun of other people who do wear them) don't really like.

as you said torontogirl, "The tricky thing with this one is that intent is hard to judge based on clothes alone." Exactly. And i for one really try not to judge people based on appearances.

karymk: "To me, I was JUDGED by the momjean crowd." oh yeah. I moved out to our rural/suburban town from Berkeley 15 years ago and got the same spiel. A couple of times i even got, 'You're not from around here, are you?'. Good grief.

re: Steve Jobs as a touchstone for non-ironic normcore. As it happens, years ago i worked in a mom and pop sign shop in an industrial park which also housed Pixar (when they were still just doing Listerine commercials).

Steve Jobs may not have cared about clothes, but he cared enough about appearances that he forced the president of Pixar to call my boss and tell him that Steve Jobs did not like the sandwich board sign our shop had designed and placed at the entrance to the parking area (so people could find our shop). Mr. Jobs found it too 'loud' and, believe it or not, 'cartoonish'.

I love my old boss. The sign stayed. But i found this anecdote a little ironic (sorry, couldn't help myself!) in light of this discussion being so much about the possibility of giving offense. In this case, of course, Mr. Jobs' clothing was unexceptional, it was just his behaviour that was rude. steph

I'm sorry, that has to be the best t-shirt ever. I don't know if it's rude to like it, but it's hysterical. It has to have been hysterical at the time too.

Echo, wow, thanks. I had no idea that the company was in on it. So is that still ironic when you are being used to sell the idea for profit and marketing ? Fascinating.

Janet, I LOVE your explanation. That makes total sense. Like the "nerd" glasses a couple of years ago. Of course.

From everything I've read and heard about the late Mr. Jobs (and I know people in the industry who had met him), he was indeed a Biggus Dickus. He was an unbelievably rude, arrogant tit. But of course he cared about appearances! The whole marketing genius with Mac products involves the elegant simplicity of the outer design. It makes total sense to me that he would take issue with a sandwich board because he didn't like it.

I think his clothing uniform was a calculated choice, to, fwiw.