GORPCORE: TRAINSPOTTER STYLE
Normcore? Passé. Applecore (the Palo Alto aesthetic of the middleaged Apple exec?) Over. Meet gorpcore. Gorp, as anyone with a Duke of Edinburgh Award will know, stands for “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts” and is more commonly known as “trail mix” – sustenance for outdoorsy types from the Brecon Beacons to Ben Nevis.
Just as normcore was a celebration of the mundane – chinos and navy polo shirt – gorpcore shifts that premise to the functional. The sort of activewear favoured by trainspotters and your dad on that rainy weekend in
The Lakes, circa 1982. Think puffas, cagoules and mountain boots. All you need is a Thermos of lukewarm tea.
Miuccia Prada’s SS17 collection featured flasks jangling from rucksacks, climbers’ cords, flash lights and nylon parkas, one printed with a thermal imaging map – ideal for gauging the temperate weather as you wait for the 2.42pm to Durham. Even the most functional outerwear specialists are turning up the fashion factor. North Face will debut a second collection with avant garde Japanese designer Junya Watanabe, while Moncler – famed for quilted ski jackets – will work with experimental London menswear star Craig Green. So tuck those chunky socks into your cargo trousers and set off (whether in Snowdonia or South Kensington) safe in the knowledge that you’re following the gorpcore trend. In comfort.