The Impact of Core-ification on Fashion

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Mar 07, 2024

For my first collaborative piece, I asked my friend Jack Quick to share with me any topic (about fashion, pop culture, etc) he thought was most interesting and relevant to write about, and he chose core-ification in fashion. I liked the idea a lot because micro-trends, fast fashion, and unsustainable methods of fashion seem to blur all other true aspects of what fashion and style are and mean.

To accurately interpret both of our perspectives, I divided the publication to highlight Jack’s first, then mine.

Read below!

Jack’s Perspective

If you have an interest in fashion and have ever scrolled on TikTok or Instagram, you will have heard the term “core” thrown around. “Eclectic Grandpa Core,” “Bloke Core,” “Cottage Core,” everything has a ‘core’ label attached to it. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, ‘core’ is used to characterize a certain niche of dressing, it’s oftentimes used to be able to pinpoint and put a label on a way of dressing. On the surface, it makes perfect sense, why not have label looks and pieces based on their inherent aesthetic value, in addition to that it makes it easier for people to find something they associate with and fall in love with.

However, I’d argue that the very thing that tries to aid us in understanding fashion as a whole, core-ification is the very thing that pulls us away from the true meaning of what fashion as an art form is all about

Most of the cores that are popular today stem from short-form social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which both tend to rely heavily on trends and pieces that are all the rage one day and then forgotten by the next.

Let's make a hypothetical situation: you’re scrolling through your ‘For You’ page one day, when a certain style of dress catches your eye, the color palette, shape, and composition are perfect. You instantly fall in love with the style, and soon find yourself on a corporate fast fashion website like Zara, or Shein trying to recreate the look. Fast forward a couple of days, and you have your new clothes and you love them, recreating outfits you’ve seen all over the internet that fall into your favorite core. Then what? Time goes by, trends cycle, and you overall become a new person with experiences that shape you. You feel the need to find a new identity, but that would mean getting rid of all the clothes that you spent so much money getting, and starting from scratch.

Plain and simple, core-ification puts you in an almost inescapable box that makes it hard to grow and branch out to find new things you like, because if it doesn't relate to ‘bloke core’ or whatever pre-determined trend you've rooted within yourself, then it doesn't have a place in your wardrobe.

When looking at a famous collection like Raf Simmons’s ‘RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!’ you never hear someone say “Oh that's so Raf core,” that's because great art has no boundaries. Sure, all art draws inspiration from a collection of things, but those things don’t pigeonhole the art into, rather they allow the art to grow healthily. That's why when you look at someone like Raf’s entire catalog, there are a few motifs and color palettes that you see recurrences of, but for the most part, there is a natural growth with different motifs in each collection. The opposite can be said for a core, it locks you into a specific lane allows for minimal growth, and ultimately stunts your style journey.

So what's the solution? Experimentation with trends is by no means a bad thing, moderation is key. Locking yourself into a specific core is a recipe for disaster, instead samples from different aspects of fashion, like how MCs sample different songs to make a rap.

Fashion at the end of the day is an outward expression of what's going on inside your head, and not all thoughts are the same.

Lily’s Perspective

As someone who is always looking for style inspiration on various online media, I firsthand see the way we as consumers are expected to actively keep up with trends just because we see a celebrity wearing something that is deemed ‘revolutionary.’

Going off of memory, TikTok especially has cycled through some excessive trends and “cores,” to name I few I find particularly crazy: “Coastal Cowboy Core,” “Coastal Granddaughter Core,” “Fairy Core,” etc. What I think most people don’t grasp is that teenagers are the main targets of these trends because they are more likely to buy something after immediately seeing it online, but also smart enough to know that these trends will be relevant for a few weeks so they should not buy these said items from anywhere but a fast fashion chain (Zara, Shein, Asos, Forever 21, Fashion Nova). It is a never-ending cycle to drive consumerism rates, that equally has no positive long-term benefit.

An example of this in real-time was TikTok pushing out the “Mafia Wife” aesthetic/core recently which includes fur coats, new nail shapes and colors, and leopard print. Simultaneously, trends similar to this have been sponsored by mass media, all to promote the 25th anniversary of the premiere of The Sopranos. The more research you do, there is an underlying (mass-market consumerist) reason for almost every one of these trends. It’s undeniable how cleverly these trends can match up to current events, product releases, anniversaries, etc.

Not to mention that these cores and trends put people into boxes and try to limit personal style choices, by constantly pushing out new ideas and items for people to buy just so they can be seen as someone who keeps up with trends.

A solution to all of this would take years to produce, but everyone can start to combat this cycle in small ways. The effects of these cores and trends are immense on the environment especially and changes need to be made.

Simple solutions that we all can collectively implement into our lives include

Relying on more staple, basic, and timeless clothing pieces more than trending ones that will quickly grow outdated.
Purchasing items that are part of a trend from a sustainable and/or ethical brand.
Refraining from supporting any fast fashion businesses and shops.

While these trends, aesthetics, and cores can seem fun and a nice switch-up in content on social media, it is important to recognize and understand the impact they have on multiple areas of our lives.