I remember standing outside the pavillion at Mercedes Benz fashion week in Stockholm and pondering with a friend; “ hobo or high fashion? “ we asked ourselves in bewilderment as we surveilled a lady hovering the surrounding area. We came to the agreement that she classified as someone who actually didn’t have a home, but we’ll always have a smidge of uncertainty in our assessment that day.

A term that has been spreading faster than a royal family scandal is “normcore”. Every day more people decide to join this ever growing trend - this trend that breeds singularity by utilizing normality. What originally started as a social reaction has now become something nothing near ironic. It began with the thought of individuality in mind, and how -- becoming mainstream culture -- someone could be the most unique person in the room.

The question is: where did it come from? Well normcore isn’t exactly new. Being the epitome of hipsters, washed out jeans and Adidas superstars are hardly native to the typical beatnik wardrobe. What essentially came from this, was the sporty trend, people clothed and still clothe themselves in adidas tracksuits -- known as the "signature 12 year old footballer look” -- also dressing up in the most “eurotrash” apparel possible. I reminisce about a time when I found myself wearing a klein blue Adidas tracksuit, paired with an Adidas cap and a pair of Adidas shoes. Did that count as “normcore” ? Back then the term had hardly been established but the movement was present. It wasn’t only present on the streets, but also the runways. What began as an ironic statement on uniqueness had now been taken under the wing of the fashion world and had even reached the runways at Paris fashion week. Spotted on the catwalks were -- Prada teva sandals, Linsdey Degen Croc platforms and even Moschino Mcdonalds "gastro garb". But since it has become such a regular look, does normcore still exist? If it doesn’t feed off the real norm -- socks and sandals worn by tourists, khaki shorts worn by mountain hikers -- but instead -- emanates from high fashion does that mean that the term normcore is no longer practical?

In my opinion normcore is a scheduled trend, a trend that has only been labeled as a movement but in reality is just part of a cycle. We can see clear traces of a teva fetish in Vouge November 1998, where there was a spread on trendy shoes, all of which were teva style sandals. Another example of an arranged movement is the fluctuation of Ed Hardy’s success. Ed Hardy as a clothing brand was most active during the 2000s and has now had an echo within normcore. What that means is that a rhinestoned Ed Hardy tee is not an item of the norm today, it is an item of the norm ten years ago. This means that the only difference with any other trend is that normcore has been labeled with such a staple name that it hasn’t recieved space to alienate into other areas of fashion, it is a trend with such a clear aesthetic that it is cut off from the rest of fashion. Despite this normcore can still feed off todays norms, and that makes this whole movement hard to define.