Cool Britannia?
Entering the trend cycle off the back of 'Indie sleaze', 'Bloke Core' is the newest niche style craze.
Many moons ago, 'Cool Britannia' took Britain by storm as Britpop was in its heyday, the New Labour government emerged and overall Britain seemed like it was doing reasonably well. Today we're seeing a spin-off resurgence of Cool Britannia, not because anyone's particularly proud of the country we live in (more specifically a lack of faith in who's leading it), but more so as a satirical statement.
In a time where Archive fashion, Raf Simons, Rick Owens and Margiela have become regular buzzwords, naturally, a rebuttal is due.
Bloke Core is essentially supposed to embody the antithesis of what is considered fashionable, swapping high fashion aesthetics for your away day get up. When your Dad throws on a football shirt, a pair of bootcut jeans and some Adidas Gazelle's the likelihood is that he's not on a mission to be featured in a 'London's best street style' article, but more along the lines of 'Jeremy Clarkson does it so it must be socially acceptable'.
Well now, he might accidentally end up in GQ.
How does one become a bloke?
Bloke Core has a few key elements.
1. Adidas. Track tops and Gazelle's are items that are featured in a lot of on-trend outfits. eBay and Charity shops are your best friends in this case.
2. Football strips. Bonus points if you can find a vintage one.
3. Football scarves. If you're worried about being questioned on your undying support for a specific team, you can find scarves that just emulate the style if you look around.
4. If you're going full anti-fashion wear some beaten up bootcut jeans, if not opt for something more on-trend - an accordion skirt or military pants are good options.
(On the left, @rgamt on TikTok)
On the Runway.
Gucci very recently released their collaboration with Adidas. As Bloke Core has a large element of nostalgia to it using silhouettes and styles ranging from the 70s to the 2000s, Gucci's Vintage allure combined with Adidas' staple brand identity encompasses the trend well crossing 'low culture' with 'high culture'.
As the style is in someways a rebuttal to high fashion trends which focus on avant-garde garments (which are inaccessible for many), the luxury fashion sector has naturally found a way to make this work for them.
Adidas has recently collabed not only with Gucci but with artists such as Lotta Volkova, creating an Eastern-European 70s inspired capsule, and designers including the likes of Angel Chen and Wales Bonner, who worked with the brand to explore the origins of dancehall music in early 1980s Jamaica. Reebok, another sportswear brand associated with the pre-noughties, worked with Maison Margiela and Puma with with French-Japanese fashion brand Maison Kitsuné.
LET'S TALK TIKTOK.
You may have noticed that a lot of trends, notably ones that seemed to have developed on social media, aren't called trends anymore. If it's come out of the internet it's more than likely to include the suffix 'core'.
Where this originated from is unclear, users across various forums have detailed ideas including; 'they are usually aesthetics based on a subculture, but not the subculture itself. People seem to get very angry about people claiming to be part of a subculture when really they're just drawing inspiration from the subculture to create fashion/art/whatever. I think it's a great new word/suffix to distinguish between aesthetic vs way of life/subculture' ( User KittyKha0s on aesthetics wiki)
Others have mentioned that it perhaps stems from movements surrounding punk variations like 'hardcore'.
Ultimately, it appears that the 'core' is used to differentiate the people who want to look like they're part of a subculture or certain scene, without necessarily belonging to it. Cottagecore, a movement that got big on Tiktok is a good example of this. The subculture romanticises the simplicity and wholesomeness that agricultural living and life away from cities provides, in terms of fashion it includes prairie-style dresses, lace and an overall feminine aesthetic. For a lot of people, this way of living is unobtainable so they dress in a way associated with the subculture, without actually participating in the lifestyle.
The same principle can be applied to Bloke Core. The chances are that the majority of people dressing like a 'bloke' online, would not be considered one in real life, nor do they participate in the culture associated with it which appears to be mainly stereotypically male, British football culture.
(On the left @brandonhuntley on TikTok)
Dissecting.
In 2017, we similarly witnessed the 'geezer chic' trend emerge. It has been critiqued before within the fashion industry that trends like these, which focus on stereotypically working-class identities, are often commodified in the name of fashion resulting in appropriation. The fashion milieus has a habit of using subcultures as a pick and mix to capitalise off, fashion houses take the bits they like to turn into couture whilst the people they have 'borrowed' from continue to be demonised by the media and society in general.
If Bloke Core was centred on a different sport, such as polo or rugby, the narrative would arguably be completely different due to the connotations of 'high culture' they possess.
Where is the line between a fashion statement and a distasteful caricature?
If you have any Bloke Core fit-pics tag @carbononcampus on Instagram!
By Rosa Macvicar
Credits:
Cover photo by Brimmer Morrison, https://www.tonitruale.com/post/bloke-core