I still take a look at The Sartorialist, blog of a professional street fashion photographer most days, to keep up with what's happening out there, outside of this Oklahoma bubble in which I find myself marooned. Not much fashion goin' on here! Mom jeans, dad jeans, tee shirts, sweat shirts, ball caps, some biker gear here and there, some cute dungarees, with the occasional Stetson for special occasions is best I can hope to encounter out in the wild.
But wait....what's this I read about something called "Normcore"? Wow! Is Oklahoma going to be abreast of - or even ahead of, real hipster fashion now?
A more "in depth" piece - if Normcore has any depths to plumb that is - is from April in the New York Times:
The New Normal
Normcore: Fashion Movement or Massive In-Joke? By Alex Williams
It becomes unclear whether the whole Normcore thing began as some kind of in-joke or ironic wotnot initiated by some bored New York hipsters. Then the internet caught wind of it and spread the word rapidly, possibly in the process getting the wrong end of the fashion-stick. Maybe. Stripped of its hipster links though, Normcore can be seen as A Good Thing. Eschewing fashion "labels" and dictates of billionaire fashion moguls and corporations cannot be bad - wearing what's handy and comfortable: hand-me-downs (or ups), re-cycling old clothes, buying from thrift stores, Goodwill etc. Being anti-consumerist, anti-corporate. If it lasted it could be the beginnings of a political movement!
Could it catch on in a big way though? With the help of the net anything is possible. The hipsters will no doubt peel off soon, if they haven't already, and find something else with which to define themselves as individuals by all looking the same - let 'em get on with it!
