MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
ing unfashionable clothing. The kind of unpretentious, nondescript casual stuff that your average middle- aged tourist would happily be seen dead in. Plain T- shirts, Gap cargo pants, Mom jeans, hoodies, white jogging shoes and baseball caps bearing corporate logos. In this brave new world of anti- fashion, bland is the new black. Normcore is the hipster snake swallowing its own tail.
A portmanteau word combining ‘ normal’ and ‘ hardcore’, the term Normcore was created by New York- based brand consultancy K- Hole, as part of a trend forecasting exercise. According to K- Hole, “Normcore nds liberation in being nothing special, and realizes that adaptability leads to belonging.”
Whether they were entirely serious when they came up with that is beside the point. Normcore has begun to take on a life of its own. The New York Times and hipster bible Vice have passed judgement, and cool kids in Brooklyn and beyond are beginning to stand out by blending in. But beyond the whimsy of New York’s annoying young trendies, there’s an altogether more troubling story. Since the 1980s Williamsburg’s industrial units became increasingly popular with artists eeing the gentri cation of parts of Manhattan and New Jersey. Cheap rents meant the creative community grew steadily, but by 2005 the local council passed a rezoning plan that sanctioned the redevelopment of Williamsburg’s waterfront areas for upscale residential units. The rapid demolition and redevelopment of great swathes of Williamsburg is documented in Princeton University professor Su Friedrich’s lm It shows how a sizeable number of Williamsburg’s artistic community was driven out, and serves as a warning to other creative communities around the world.
In Germany, creatives and tourists alike ock to trendy neighbourhoods like Kreuzberg in Berlin, or Hamburg’s St Pauli district. They come to sample the counterculture, to be among the punks, artists and immigrants that make up these vibrant communities. But all too often, the developers have got there rst. Thanks to increasing gentri - cation there are precious few squats full of anarchists left in Kreuzberg, prompting some displaced artists and immigrants to nd a solution.
Cuvry- Brache, on a patch of waste ground near Berlin’s River Spree, has been called Europe’s rst favela. The ragtag collection of shacks and teepees was occupied by a curious mix of around 100 hipsters, refugees and immigrants united in de ance of Kreuzberg’s rising rents and land prices. They live under the constant threat of eviction by landlords keen on developing the area, but the protests continue against the constant tide of gentri cation.
In Hamburg they have a different approach. The St Pauli district has long been known for its artsy vibe, independent shops and lively bars. It also has a reputation for non- conformity and radicalism. The Recht Auf Stadt ( a right to the city) movement is a collective of squatters, artists and activists opposed to the gentri cation of Hamburg. When the developers overstep the mark, they take to the streets in protest. Last year there were riots. But in Hamburg that’s nothing new. The Hafenstrasse protests of the 1980s, in reaction to the eviction of squatters, also ended in violence, and helped change the political landscape.
The London borough of Hackney saw its own riots back in 2011, a stone’s throw from the hipsters of Shoreditch. Exorbitant rents and the rising cost of living may have played their part in the unrest. Tensions continue to simmer between the marginalised working class inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the young, moneyed cool crowd. Whatever the solution to Shoreditch’s gentri cation woes, they’re going to have to get creative. Street art? Check. Independent coffee shops? Check. Rising rents? The home of the Melbourne fringe festival ticks all the boxes when it comes to hipster culture. Wax your Salvador Dali moustache and explore the art galleries and tattoo parlours of this suburb.