this post will try to decode the most discussed fashion trend of the past years (drumroll please!) … normcore! yeah the bad bad word which seems to have coused an oproar in the fashion community meaning some love and live it and some just simply dislike it. many people before me tried to decode this style but i trie to tell you guys how to transform normcore to stardoll. however i also just really wanted to dive into this trend and try to understand it and reflect my own personal style in terms of how normcore am i?
so when first starting my research i stumbeld upon the name alice goddard. alice is a stylist and co founder of the magazin hot and cold. her looks are simple using clothes that have a somhow "ugly" vibe to them or in her words, "(to take) something—an item, a character or an idea—that I find kind of ugly and gross, and making it good.” goddard manages to create humble looks who at first seam affordless but when you look closely you see that every item used where carfully chosen.
hot and cold magazin
lets go back to the question i asked at the very beginngin of this post. whats next? in a socitey where all limits seams to have lost their meaning young people are faceing the challenge of not nowing where to stand really. this all sounds pretty negativ and melodramatic but i think it's just how many people are feeling. with normcore all trends have come to an end. it's an anti fashion statment or at least it tries to be. you can stop worrying about sticking out of the mass and rather just blend in. rebellion without rebelling in a way. normcore takes 90s nostalgia and modernism to create a look of nothing and that is ok. infact it's kind of brillant.
for all of you who never heard of the word normcore before i will explain it very quickly. normcore is a mix of the two words "normal" and "hardcore" and it seems to be first introduced by a creative collective called k-hole (but i can't say for sure if this is really the case or is sombody else introduced the word) in there digitaly published pamphlet "youth mode: a report on freedom". you can download it on their webside for free, its kind of interesting to read.
INSPIRATION
k-hole collective
MOOD BOARD
COLOR PALETTE
so now you may have a better understanding of the word normcore and can imagine how this "look" presents itself outside of sd. now i want to show you how i recreated it for my medoll. i searched through my medolls wardrope and looked for pieces that i thought would fit my interpretation of the normcore trend. i was very suprised finding a good number of items to use. seems like i had all those great clothes which i seldom or never used and which now after my research for this post are essential to my medolls look.
shirts are essential to this look, you will need them and you should use plain colors or no colors at all and focus on balck and white pieces. you can choose between elgent pieces and sportswear. the black mesh shirt is a good piece if you want to add a little edge to your outfit.
dresses aren't really common among those who like to rock the normcore look but hey you can do what ever you want really. only keep in mind to use sportswear inspired dresses or find dresses that have a easy and simple cut. try to avoid patterns or at least use dresses with graphically and simple prints or patterns.
mom jeans or dad jeans are the go to pants for this look. you may feel kind of umcomfortable using those pants but they really give your look a layed back feeling and underline the i-really-don't-care attiude (of course you do care but nobody need to know that). sweatpants work aswell but i would recomend the ones that fit tight around you legs. you can feel comfortable but you can't feel like some dude in the supermarket on saturday buying pizza and beer to eat and drink on his couch.
when choosing a t-shirt to go with your outfit you can use the same tips i gave regarding the shirts.
white and simple. if you want a little bit of an edge you can use sheer fabrics.
sweaters can be wide and comfortable. again avoid strong colors. grey, black, white, dark blue or beige are the best colors to use for this look.
coats should be long. the best ones to use are coats which are inspired by menswear. trench or wool coats are a good choice. the strike a pose coats from the last collection are very good for this look. i just recently bought them from the bazaar so thats why they don't appear on this post. if you have them defentily use them if you don't the chanel coat, which is shown on the above picture, works too.
i honestly saw very vew normcore people wearing skirts, but i think the ones i choos could work very well, they are very simple yet elegant.
showing your belly is totally fine but when your using crop tops you should use sportswear inspired ones or try to find pieces which look like someone from the 1990s could have worn them.
try to hold back with accessories, this look is simple and to many jewlery or a big hat may could distract to much from the clothes.
of course you have to use sneakers, sadly sd isn't offering a version of the infmous adilette so we have to skip that one. but you can find a sd version of birkenstocks at fallen angel those should definitely be used in your normcore look.
as always it can be that some of the above shown clothes are no longer avalible, but most of the time you can find an alternative. also these items are just an example so you could get an idea of which clothes to use for this kind of look. if you want to now prices and names of these pieces feel free to contact me via my medolls guestbook (i'm just to lazy to write all these things down on here).
i had so much fun creating these looks to show you guys how you could style a normcore inspired look on sd. maybe some of these aren't a 100 percent normcore but i think i cought the essence of the it all. by essence i mean a feel of 90s nostalgia paired with the sportswear hype, which dominated the last few seasons. in the end its all about blending in, but choosing everything very carefully. looking at a normcore outfit you may catch yourself thinking so what she put on some mom jeans and a pair of sneakers. but if you really disect the outfit you understand that even though the premiss of the look is to look effortless, that a lot of efort has gone into it. its a bit like nude make up. you try to look like you aren't wearing any make up and to achieve that you really have to think hard which colors and products to use.
i hope you could find some inspiration in this post. maybe you already have some of the items i showed above in your medolls closet and now you have a new way to style them. or you knew all about normcore all along and this was a nice way for you to see what i'm thinking of it. i just hope you had fun reading and feeling ready to embrace the normcore way of life.
so long