The Accidental Founders of Normcore Reveal Where the Term Really Came From

The group behind Normcore reveals how they came up with the trend, and the motivating factors behind it in this interview.

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Complex Original

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Normcore was one of the most buzzed about fashion trends in 2014, coming this close to being one of the words added to the Dictionary. The trend-forecasting group, K-Hole, responsible for the term recently revealed the real motivation behind normcore during their interview with Style.com

K-Hole co-founder Greg Fong describes the trend as "a response to a search for individuation​." Normcore was part of a larger report compiled by the group, titled "Youth Mode," which you can actually read in full here. In the report, K-Hole argues that we live in a world "where everyone tries to differentiate as much as possible and the amount of information people have to manage to do that is colossal​." The response to that, Fong says, is "to be general and blank and reject defining yourself." Thus, normcore was born. 

Fong adds that the group realized this had backfired on them pretty quickly. "We realized that rejecting being different is still trying to be different. When you’re saying, 'Fuck it, I don’t want to have the seam on the armpit of my T-shirt be gold thread and that’s why I paid $400,' the rejection is still part of the same system." 

However, the ethos of normcore has always been about "adaptability," Fong says. "The individual is always in flux. Like, you can shop at Whole Foods and buy things GMO-free, but you still at your core might crave Kraft mac and cheese."

While normcore was fun while it lasted, Fong predicts the next big fashion trend will be motivated by people "getting really burned out on the amount of information they have to manage."

[via Style.com]

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