Playing Grown Ups

Years ago, but it seems like yesterday, I discovered a pink razor in my parents bathroom and decided to shave my legs and arms. As well as that disastrous event, I would occasionally creep over to my Dad's chest of drawers and cause my armpits to violently sting by spraying myself with his Right Guard. It also doesn't seem that long since I covered my entire body, and my faithful doll Paula, in my mother's Lancome red lipstick. I was only doing what (I thought) I was seeing my parents do as part of their daily routines. Now, in a month's time, I have to get my shit together and stop playing at grown ups, because I'm GRADUATING and am about to join them in the ranks of adulthood for real.
That big, giant, scary word is now being flung around in conversation far too casually by people whose lives post-university are arrogantly sorted out or taken care of. But, perhaps more commonly, it is being muttered under short nervous breaths in conjunction with jittery eyes that look to the sky like an awkward man pretending he hasn't noticed a big pair of breasts in front of him. Our English Facebook thread on the topic of where to take our parents for lunch after our gown ceremony (jokes, they'll be paying since we'll all be broke) is entitled 'Graduation - Lol'. Even more taboo is the word JOB. I tend to find that the only people who ask whether you have a job lined up are either my parent's friends and acquaintances or other undergrads who do have a job waiting for them and like to bandy it around for all to see. Everyone else seems content to avoid the topic altogether, or ask what your 'plans' are from June onwards, a far vaguer term which, usually, happily steers the topic of conversation on to Summer holidays and which niche festival you'll be attending. 

I am hurtling towards graduation without my life being in order in any way, shape or form. I keep telling people I'd like to go into 'fashion marketing or editorial', which is true, but I'm not really 'going' anywhere at the moment. I argue consistently that the pressure of knowing and finding exactly what you want to do is almost impossible to cope with at the same time as trying to get a decent degree. I think in many ways university has taught me independence and time management, but it's also made me unable to rise before 9am or to focus my mind on more than one thing at a time, be it an essay or an episode of Girls. That's even when I've done more extra curricular stuff than other students would bother with. The other day over Sunday lunch, when my brother declared he was thinking about drama school, my mother deploringly asked us if at least one child could please be a lawyer, doctor or accountant. Nice, sensible jobs but I'm afraid mother dearest, not suitable for any of your frightfully creative and dysfunctional offspring. 

Whether I have a job or not, come June 3rd when I walk out of my final final, I will probably have to start acting like a grown up sharpish. I think in your final year at university they should offer transitional etiquette classes and not just CV-writing assistance. As I hound fashion companies for internships I will wave goodbye to my student discount (I weep), I will lose my loan (and begin debt) and, at least for a little while, will likely become another waitress who you'd never guess had a 2:1 in English Literature. But I just don't feel grown up and I'm still eating raisins from those miniature SunMaiden cardboard boxes for heaven's sake. The only sign that I am anywhere near ready for adulthood is that I sometimes write in my Filofax and now enjoy receiving scented candles and nice soap as gifts. 

There is some hope; I recently did an online test that told me I had the mental age of thirty-three. However, that I thoroughly enjoyed partaking in this bout of cyber-psychometrics, clearly compiled of utter b*****ks including the question 'were you a teacher's pet', is somewhat childish, wouldn't you say?  

Normcore - The New Edgy?

Apparently not original enough to even Instagram, everyone is going on about 'Normcore' at the moment; the anti-trend lifestyle that's become trendy. I thought that there weren't enough people already talking about it so I'm going to weigh in with my opinions too. I'm following the herd on this one, perhaps making me as Normcore as could be, but let me first try and explain what Normcore is. The New York trend agency K-Hole (whattaname),  coined the term in October 2013 to categorise the new surge in dressing ordinarily and inconspicuously, although clearly its not as inconspicuous as everyone supposed. Picture Steve Jobs, your Dad (mine still dresses exactly as he did ten and twenty years ago), or your old school games mistress and you're just about there. Normcore is a movement towards sameness, away from the individuality and the frivolity of fashion, in an effort to 'fit in'. According to Giles Hattersley in this weekend's Sunday Times, Normcore is "about loving the norm and digging the dull, the idea being that if you're at one with the crowd you'll feel more connected to it."
        But, hang on a minute, that all sounds a bit deliberate to me, especially when you consider the fact that a group of Parsons art studentswere some of Normcore's initiators. Aren't art students supposed to be the indiest kids around?
It makes the point that edgy has now become mainstream, and its increasingly difficult to make your style say something original. Dressing normal is actually making people stand out. In a very confusing and ironic spiral, being Normcore and trying to blend in, is in fact a very deliberate effort to separate oneself from the crowd only in order to become part of a new troupe. The trouble is, even fashion has picked up on and even perpetuated this anti-brands, anti-fashion statement, featuring in multiple pared back editorials featuring the likes of Celine's baggy jumpers, Vuitton tracksuits and band tees. The brands may not be visible, but the price tag certainly still is. Perhaps the beauty of this trend may lie in its invitation to imitation. It is genuinely affordable for the masses, no matter how high end you try and make it.
The thing is, how is anyone supposed to do anything new any more? I semi-applaud the Normcore elite for dressing practically, eating packed lunches and staying under the radar, and saying that they don't care if they look like everyone else. But isn't it also a bit of a piss take? Bringing into the fold the thousands of people who really don't care two hoots about fashion and would rather avoid any sense of judgement on their lives? To me, it's just another micro trend, seen even on the aisles of Chanel's runway supermarket and in Valentino's line of trainers. It laughs at consumerism while fuelling it. Although Normcore may be the absolute shunning of style and implies that its wearer has no sartorial clue in their head, it is also, more obviously than it would perhaps care to admit, a very distinct nod to the nineties. It is adopting the kind of nostalgia and recycling that fashion breeds on. It may have been led by IT workers and scientists, but the fact that fashion has taken it on no longer makes it so oblivious.
Fiona Duncan for the New York Times neatly sums it up by saying that "Normcore is a blank slate and open mind - it's a look designed to play well with others."Only now it has a label, and one that sounds ever so slightly degrading and spiteful because it has been founded by those we pay to tell us what is cool and what isn't. It would appear that nowadays, no one is allowed to escape the norm - be that the hoards of edgy hipsters in East London or the Mums heading down to Waitrose after the school pick up - we must all be slotted into one bracket or another. With all the pressure now to do something, be different, be someone, when can we ever just be me? Come graduation in July, I must try to find my way among the 7 billion people on the planet, and I think as long as I do something that makes me happy, and don't feel too self-conscious while doing it, I'll be alright. Who ever said there was anything wrong with being normal?

My whole family dressing Normcore style back in the Nineties.