The rise of Normcore

Hipster subculture went mainstream.

From skinny jeans, ironic glasses, pictures of space nebulas and a signature disdain for, ironically, the mainstream, hipsters have become cliché.

But what’s often overlooked when discussing the rise of hipsterdom is it can be attributed to newfound complexities of growing up in the information age.

Having access to the Internet and social media opened our eyes to the fact that our likes are dictated for us by the market, celebrities or some other higher cultural entity we were previously oblivious to.

So when the Internet allowed us to connect and see just how similar we were with others everywhere, we created a deep craving for individuality that was filled by a subculture obsessed with individuality at all costs — hipsters.

My freshman year I lived in the Collins Living-Learning Center. It was a campus Mecca for individualists and hipsters alike. But as Collins showed me, when everyone tries to be different, everyone starts becoming the same.

It is here that “Normcore”— the heir apparent to the hipster movement — comes into play.

In February, New York Magazine hit the nail on the head in a piece analyzing the trend titled, “Normcore: Fashion for Those Who Realize They’re One in 7 Billion.” The piece goes on to describe not just the fashion, but the attitude of the new trend.

Where it was once empirical to strive for authenticity and individuality, as our hipster forefathers did circa the turn of the decade, normcore runs on the idea that deliberately embracing sameness is the new cool.

The difference between this and past trends, however, is the desire for sameness stems not from wanting to fit in, but from a cynical self-awareness that genuine individuality is impossible in the digital age.

This sort of exhaustion with trying to be different has even bled into high fashion. In March, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld turned the usual catwalk into a fully stocked, ultra-luxury supermarket where he paraded Chanel’s 2014 fall/winter collection, shopping carts and all.

Thus, the normcore attitude translates into meticulously ordinary fashion — plain T-shirts, non-descriptive fleece, comfortable sneakers, turtlenecks, stonewash jeans and Birkenstocks — that has crossed the threshold from tacky to cool in normcore street style.

Though it might be another instance of fashion turning things we hated into things we now love, the larger implication that is driving the rise of this trend says more about us than the clothes themselves.

Growing up with the Internet will be a defining part of our generation. It has made us more self-aware, understanding of difference and more cognizant of our own place in society.

Normcore, for better or worse, is a reflection of all of that.

edsalas@indiana.edu