Fashion
Introducing the Latest Fashion Trend: Gorpcore
Dear God make it stop.
Fashion trends are sometimes fun, sometimes weird, and often annoying. Gorpcore falls into the annoying category. Gorpcore combines a love of the outdoors with never actually doing anything outdoors. The word Gorp is outdoorsy speak for trail mix. It stands for “good ol’ raisins and peanuts.”
See the hiker in the photo? Not gorpcore. That’s an actual hiker who knows what he’s doing. Gorpcore is for rich people who drive Range Rovers in the city, wear Uggs with shorts, and think camping is staying at a 5-star hotel with access to a man-made waterfall.
Gorpcore is so on trend that CNN dedicated an entire article to it. Stylists weighed in on what gorpcore is, and listed their favorite pieces. For people who’ve never been hiking or camping to wear to look like they love to go hiking or camping.
According to stylist and creative director, Todd Johnson, “Gorpcore is essentially wearing traditionally functional and utilitarian outdoor wear outside of their intended use.” Like wearing hiking boots to the mall, or heavy-duty cargo pants to grab a half-caff no foam goat’s milk latte.
Brooklyn-based stylist Megan Wilson explains:
I feel like gorpcore is the more relaxed, colorful and less severe relative of techwear while also being the more practical and outdoorsy version of normcore.
What the hell is normcore? Hang on, I’ll Google it.
Oh FFS. From High Snobiety:
Normcore is about authenticity. It’s a rejection of extravagance. It’s about subverting any notion of edginess. It’s about dressing like Jerry Seinfeld. It was a fashion trend but was also derided enough to become a meme.
Back to gorpcore. Remember how stylists gave CNN their recommendations for the best pieces to wear to pull off the gorpcore trend? Here are a few of those suggestions.
This is the Beta AR Women’s Jacket. It’s for sale at ARC’TERYX for $600. Described by the company as a “Light, packable, highly versatile GORE-TEX PRO shell with hybrid construction. Beta Series: All round mountain apparel,” the Beta AR Women’s Jacket comes in six colors. The reviews state this is a great jacket for hiking, skiing, and bushwhacking, but the collar runs a little high. The Beta AR Jacket for both men and women is made in Vietnam.
From North Face x Gucci, we have a men’s down jacket.
This jacket comes in two colors and costs a modest $2,700. The fabric and lining are 100% polyamide, the fill is goose down, and the jacket is also made in Vietnam.
Here is a raincoat.
The Vetements Iconic Logo Raincoat comes in black, has inside and outside pockets, a drawstring hood, and a button-up closure. Right now, it’s on sale at Zappos, marked down from $990 to $594. The raincoat is made in Poland.
A collaboration between Montcler and JW Anderson brings us the Penygarder Denim Down Jacket.
Sadly, the blue is sold out, but the antique pink is still available in sizes 0, 1, and 2. The Penygarder short denim down jacket is made from “soft hand denim” and sheepskin in Romania and will cost you $2,760.
There are many other gorpcore options featured in the CNN piece, including a $400 pair of pants, which you can find here.
In 2017, Nordstrom decided to sell fake mud jeans for $425. The “Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans” were described as “heavily distressed medium-blue denim pants for men” that (and I swear this is real) “embody rugged, Americana workwear that’s seen some hard-working action with a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you’re not afraid to get down and dirty.”
For $425, you could look like you’re blue-collar without having to actually be blue-collar.
And now, thanks to gorpcore, you can spend thousands of dollars to look like you are an avid hiker or camper or snowshoer, or skier, without ever having to leave the big city.
Or you could layer up with a long-sleeve tee, a sweater, an Orvis fleece pullover, some flannel-lined jeans, merino wool socks, mittens, maybe a scarf, and a good pair of boots, and GO HIKING. Go snowshoeing. Rent a cabin in the middle of the woods, chop your own firewood, play cribbage, stare up at the stars at night, and marvel at nature during the day.
Which sounds like more fun? Spending an insane amount of money to look like you do outdoorsy stuff, or doing outdoorsy stuff? Trust me, it’s the latter. And doing outdoorsy stuff is a lot cheaper than a $2,760 denim jacket or a $600 raincoat.
