Basic Bitch

Vogue may have renounced normcore as the latest trend to come and go, but just like sportswear and (unfortunately) Birkenstocks, it seems to be sticking around for the season. Just look at any fashion or street style blog and you'll see that the stylish crowd have traded in their crazy patterns and ostentatious embellishments for basics - Hanes t-shirts, jeans, converse and god forbid, even plaid. So what happened? For those uninitiated, normcore began as a reaction to the overindulgent sartorial choices that fought for the attention of photographers at each and every Fashion Week, emphasizing 'individuality' with such exaggerated outfits that seemed more parody than authentic street style. Normcore was a return to sameness, accepting that there was a certain coolness and nonchalance to blending in with the 7 million others on the planet. Despite its subdued nature, Normcore has arguably been one of the most influential fashion movements of 2014, creating a schism between the extravagant Anna Dello Russo types with thigh high gold gladiator boots and fruit shaped headgear (see: cherry and watermelon fascinators), and the effortlessly chic Emmanuelle Alt types wearing jeans, blazers and neutral tones. In this harried exam season, I have to confess that my current style is leaning heavily towards the latter category. It takes much so much extra effort to actually look presentable in the midst of all nighters and hand-seizure inducing essay writing, when all I want to do is live in my hoodie until it smells and develop a general resemblance to the homeless. I have to thank normcore for giving me an easy way out, the excuse to throw on a t-shirt and jeans and call it fashion. However, in my usual style, I can't wear basics without giving them an eccentric twist. And thus I present the anti-basic-basic, coined by one of my favorite bloggers Margaret Zhang.  It's wearing a t-shirt dress, with the added extra of a digital print. It's juxtaposing basic sandals (the closest I will ever get to Birks) with simple yet weird accessories like these owlish sunglasses and this blatantly obvious clutch stolen from my friend Nick. It's about dressing basic, without becoming a basic bitch. Not that anyone will see and appreciate my sartorial efforts, because I'll be sequestering myself for the next two weeks in my local Starbucks, drowning myself in Sylvia Plath, psychology case studies, calculus and green tea lattes. Yes, the green tea latte is totally the stereotypical 'white girl drink', but I guess I have to succumb to being basic occasionally.

MM6 PRINT TSHIRT DRESS HOUSE OF HOLLAND MONOBROW SUNGLASSES H&M SANDALS 'BLACK' CLUTCH