As someone who shops at Ross, can't even spell or really pronounce Louboutin (Louieboutahn? Lewibootan?), and when trying to look like this, often looks like this, the latest trend du jour—normcore—theoretically sounds right up my alley. Dubbed "stylized blandness" by New York Magazine, it entails rocking items such as stonewashed jeans, flannel and sneakers. Aka, what every non-fashionable person wears on a regular basis.
This trend is interesting in that it so blatantly blurs the line between fashion-forward and fashion-backward. If you saw two people walking down the street in normcore ware, one doing it to embrace a trendy style, the other because that's what they've been wearing since they were 12, could you tell the difference between the two?
This makes explicit the fact that people's style superiority comes not from the style itself, but from their "insider" knowledge of what's cool. Which is annoying for two reasons: it's smug to assume you look "better" wearing the same thing as another simply because you're palpably self-aware about what you're doing. And secondly, it's kind of insulting to assume a casual look is "different" and "edgy" because it doesn't adhere to your high-heeled, short-skirt norms of beauty. Maybe the very idea of what's conventionally beautiful should be challenged, did you ever think of that?
A casual look, for many, is simply comfortable. It's not about proving anything to others, but about wearing what feels right. So please normcore fashionistas: leave the stonewashed jeans and sneakers to us style-resistant slackers. We don't want to be confused with you in the street, and I bet you don't want to be confused with us either.
Image: Brooke Fishwick/Wikimedia Commons
