normcore

Etymology

and a man dressed in normcore (sense 1) clothes.]] From norm(al) (“according to norms or rules or to a regular pattern”) + -core (suffix denoting genres of music and subcultures (often specialized and underground)), coined by the cartoonist Ryan Estrada in a guest comic strip for the webcomic Templar, Arizona on 17 September 2008: see the quotation.

noun

1. (fashion">fashion) A unisex fashion">fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing.
   That means he's normcore. Dangerously regular. Dresses only in T-shirts an' jeans, uses slang appropriated from other sub cultures, but only 3 years after it's first use, an' only after it's been used in a sitcom.] [17 September 2008, Ryan Estrada, “Ryan Estrada Day: Templar, Arizona”, in Templar, Arizona, archived from the original on 2015-09-05
   Clémence would say that his style was normcore before normcore became a thing. She had to admit that she still found him attractive. 2014, Harper Lin, chapter 3, in Croissant Murder (A Patisserie Mystery with Recipes; book 5), Kingston, Ont.: Harper Lin Books
   Normcore is gray sweatpants pretending to be trousers. Normcore is a seen-better-days faun-colored golf knit. Normcore is an unlogo'd sneaker. Normcore is the opposite of wearing a pair of white patent-leather bejeweled Versace assless chaps. Normcore is oblivious to Givenchy shaved-beaver man purses. Normcore knows nothing of fluorescent-studded Louboutin sneakers. 7 April 2014, Simon Doonan, “Beware of Normcore”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-12
   Another part of her gift is that she's damn funny. Even if she'd come from the heart of normcore, her tale would be worth telling and well told. But she was raised in Crazytown, and the more foreign her territory, the more delightful—and somehow more relatable—her tale becomes. 2015 August, Joss Whedon, “Foreword”, in Felicia Day, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, page x
2. (by extension, attributively) Any style that is mainstream or unremarkable.
   "That's normcore painting, and that's what people are buying and trading now," [Deborah] Kass said, along with some slightly more colorful critique she opted to keep off the record. 9 December 2015, Alexandria Symonds, “Art as social critique — with a little help from The Rolling Stones and Katy Perry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-21