FASHION Magazine

By now you’ve probably heard about #Normcore. If not, you’ve likely been living in some kind of very basic cave. The Internet-at-large became aware of Normcore as a thing a week or so ago, when New York Magazine ran an article on the anti-trend trend. Young, hip New Yorkers were eschewing fashion trends and labels in favour of a pared down, muted look called Normcore, all light wash denim and sneakers at the bar. It was Larry David meets your dad in circa 1994. Or the combination: Jerry Seinfeld. I, a vintage lover with a weakness for 1950s sundresses who just figured out how to make crop tops happen, met the news with some concern: I couldn’t pull off loose T-shirts and straight jeans back when they were the actual norm! Not for the first time, my chubby ‘90s inner child was nervous. Visions of ill-fitting Gap Kids jeans and summers wearing Osh-Kosh T-shirts over Nike bathing suits danced in my head. And those visions were wearing Asics.

But all was not lost. After New York Magazine’s article on the trend exploded, K-HOLE, the New York-based trend forecasting collective behind the term took to Facebook and other forms of social media to express their displeasure. Apparently, New York Magazine (and I along with them) mistook Normcore for another creation of K-HOLE’s: #ActingBasic, which is defined as an “aestheticized version of the mainstream.”

Confused? Me too.

She debuted at the Crillon Ball, has arguably one of the most covetable shoe collections and counts Kanye West and Karl Lagerfeld as fans. Like most successful bloggers, the key to Jane Aldridge’s popularity is her perfectly curated online persona. However, today the Sea of Shoes blogger is stomping her fancy heels all over the Internet after New York magazine’s The Cut blog published an unflattering synopsis of a profile of Aldridge that appeared in Texas Monthly.

As I get ready to hand the reigns over to Rebecca Tay for her coverage of London Fashion Week, let’s take a moment to digest what went down this week in New York. From the top trends developing to some of the best moments, I attempt to break it down in an orderless top 10:

Read up on the week »

Word: Transcendentalism

Meaning: A mid-19th century literary and philosophical movement pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller and so on.

Usage: “Is New England transcendentalism identical with the philosophy of the German thinkers Kant, Fichte, and Jacobi? If not, why does it employ their terminology? Or is transcendentalism a “Saturnalia or excess of faith?” — Harold Bloom in How to Write about Ralph Waldo Emerson

Word: Uniqlones

Meaning: People who dress head-to-toe in the plain, quality, identikit clothes of Japanese mega-chain Uniqlo. I thought I’d invented this neologism and remembered it again while reading a piece on the company in one of London’s weekend style mags (I was lagged and forget which one it was). But, no, it was also the title of a New York Magazine feature last year. Eff you, New York!

Usage: “That ad agency party was a total attack of the Uniqlones.”

Zac Posen is launching a low-priced line called Z Spoke set to launch initially as a Saks exclusive. Posen claims the line has an “urban hipster quality” and is not just “Zac-for-less.” The line starts at $78 for a t-shirt–not quite as “lower-priced” as hipsters would hope. [The Cut]

Project Runway season six contestant and resident crank Irina Shabayeva stole her reasons on “Reasons to Love New York” T-shirt print directly from New York Magazine’s 2008 article of the same name. This after she accused fellow contestant Althea Harper of cribbing one of her designs and after Shabayeva attempted to put someone else’s drawing on one of her final collection pieces. [The Cut]

Lucian Matis has been named the winner of the first FDCC Designer Development Fund award. The fund will be awarded annually in support of Canadian fashion designers who demonstrate potential for growth. A business mentorship with FDCC prez Robin Kay is part of the prize. “We want to extend the potential to build their brand and assist the designers with the necessary tools to help them emerge nationally and internationally in this new economy,” says Kay. [LGFW]

Georgia May Jagger will join Coco Rocha as the two new faces of Rimmel London’s campaign starting in 2010. [The Cut]

This week’s New York Magazine has named Anna Wintour one of the 12 most powerful New Yorkers. This news didn’t come as too shocking, but more confusing is the fact that the Vogue powerhouse is the sole woman to make the list. [The Cut]