Thursday, November 6, 2014

NOOOOORRRRRRMMMCOOOORRRRRRE!


Today at work I’m wearing gray pants and a blue dress shirt. Yesterday I worked from home and I wore Old Navy jeans and a long-sleeve green shirt. This weekend I might go nuts and wear a sweater. You might look at what I’m wearing and conclude that I look like … a person. But it’s much more complicated than that. I have discovered that I’m part of the Normcore movement. It sounds better if you scream it in a guttural voice like a member of a death metal band:

NOOOOORRRRRRMMMCOOOORRRRRRE!

If codifying “wearing regular clothes” into the trend of Normcore is a joke, it’s a funny way to mock style sections and trend articles that have to label everything that happens as part of a movement. But if someone seriously coined the term to define people who dress that way, it’s stupid. It’s also not new. People have always dressed plainly for various reasons: not caring, cost, not liking flashy clothes.

That’s why the idea of Normcore, if it’s serious, baffles me. People don’t dress this way to fit into some kind of subculture, like wearing punk or hippie clothes. It’s just … regular people who have utilitarian purposes for clothing. It’s not a “thing” for people.

I care about how I look (like, not wearing pajama pants in public) but not enough to spend a ton of money. I prefer a simpler look, with simple patterns and some bold colors sometimes. I stay away from visible labels at all costs because if you go overboard on displaying logos, you look very nouveau riche and your clothes will go out of fashion at some point. I just like having clothes that might stay somewhat timeless since I’m cheap and although I’ve lately been expanding my wardrobe, I don’t like shopping, so I keep it to a minimum.

That’s my big fashion philosophy. I don’t dress according to identity politics. I look this way because Kohl’s was having a sale.

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