Grunge Fashion Is Back, But This Time We're Calling It Normcore

Normcore. Have you heard about this latest extreme trend? It’s all about being, well, totally normal, actually. Neutral, nondescript, trademark-free, even bland – this understated anti-trend is now the new trend to know. How ironic.

Normcore
Normcore

Normcore. Have you heard about this latest extreme trend? It’s all about being, well, totally normal, actually. Neutral, nondescript, trademark-free, even bland – this understated anti-trend is now the new trend to know. How ironic.

New York Magazine dubbed it ‘Normcore’. The aim is to dress like the perfect pedestrian – you could look easily to your dad’s grey jumper/DIY-damaged jeans combo for style inspo. After years of trying to impress as individuals, looking just like everybody else is now not just acceptable, it’s actually cool.

Take a look in your wardrobe – plain white t-shirt, tick! Ripped n’ raw denim, tick! Team with the marker of hardcore Normcore dressing, a pair of Birkenstock or Adidas flip-flops that you previously referred to as garden slippers (which, btw, now fall into the super-stylish footwear category ‘sliders’) and you’ll find yourself bang on trend with truly minimal effort. But are the principles of normcore really that new?

After a decade of Dynasty-glam hair, big jewels and OTT 80s shoulder pads, 90s grunge was a backlash. While punk made anti-fashion statements, grunge was about not bothering to make a statement at all. Likewise with post-noughties Normcore, we’ve navigated years of WAGs, synth beauty, hyper-fast fashion and flash labels - so maybe we just can’t be bothered anymore? For dedicated fash fans, we know, this is a difficult one.

Normcore

Normcore
(Image credit: Rex)

And so the great fashion debate spirals on – it’s cool to look mainstream, until everyone’s doing it, because then everyone would look cool. And that’s definitely not cool – is it?