THE JOURNAL
Messrs Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn at a Soccer Six charity football match, Mile End Stadium, London, 12 May 1996. Photograph by PA Images/Alamy
TikTok’s menswear obsessives are embracing the warmer weather and gearing up for the 2022 World Cup by sporting old-school football jerseys and bootcut jeans, tracksuits or Bermuda shorts and adidas Sambas, while The Jam and “Thiago Silva” by UK rappers Dave and Mr AJ Tracey are playing in the background. The internet has proclaimed a new style – “blokecore” – which has been trending for the past few weeks and joins a long list of -core aesthetics, including Gorpcore, normcore, surfcore and kidcore. At the time of writing, #blokecore has reached 7.5 million views on TikTok alone.
Blokecore takes its inspiration from 1970s, 1980s and 1990s football culture. It features vintage football shirts and merch paired with adidas Sambas or Gazelles, and 1990/early 2000s rave-scene uniforms of bucket hats, zip-ups and “trackies”. Just take a look at the Spanish footballer Mr Héctor Bellerín’s off-duty style, Mura Masa and Slowthai’s “Deal Wiv It” music video or Mundial magazine’s old-school football aesthetic.
The main icons behind it all are the Britpop bands Oasis and Blur. Messrs Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn – pictured above at a charity football match, the “Britpop derby”, which celebrates its 26th birthday tomorrow – are the personifications of blokecore. Gallagher waddled on the pitch in full adidas, half his face covered by a Kappa bucket hat and shaggy hair, while Albarn’s Puma kit, high socks and Chelsea FC beanie captured the essence of “bloke”. They’re just two ordinary guys who like football and haven’t given much thought to what they’re wearing.
“Football is having a huge pop culture moment. A$AP Rocky wears a Mr Eric Cantona shirt in his new video, which was released last week, while Mr Diego Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ shirt has just sold for £7m at auction”
Blokecore comes at a time where football is having a huge pop culture moment. A$AP Rocky wears a Mr Eric Cantona Manchester United shirt in his “D.M.B.” video that was released last week. Mr Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” shirt, which he wore in a match against England in the 1986 World Cup, has just sold for a record-breaking £7m at auction. Wales Bonner’s latest collection features 1970s-inspired sportswear and a sneakers collaboration with adidas. Palace and Aimé Leon Dore both have football shirts for SS22 and Brain Dead’s collaboration with the Italian football team AS Roma capitalises on the appeal of a good kickabout.
“It’s an everyman statement. You are almost becoming a character, the bloke in the pub watching the match, a pint of Stella in his hand”
Blokecore is a peculiarly UK-centric phenomenon, but a lot of Americans and Gen Zers worldwide are picking up on it. The British evolution of dadcore and normcore – the somewhat ironic way of dressing like a dad in chinos, polo shirts and New Balance sneakers (see Mr Adam Sandler and Mr Steve Carell’s character in Crazy, Stupid, Love pre-makeover) – blokecore has an anti-fashion and tongue-in-cheek vibe. It’s an everyman statement. You are almost embodying a character, the bloke in the pub watching the match with a pint of Stella in his hand. And just like normcore, blokecore has been adopted by fashion-conscious individuals who are putting a lot of effort in looking like that nonchalant bloke.
Perhaps, after Brexit and the pandemic, blokecore is a way of reclaiming and reimagining what UK culture is, embracing its two-pints-of-lager-and-packet-of-crisps charm. As Ms Justine Frischmann, the lead singer of Elastica and Albarn’s former girlfriend, once said about Britpop, it’s “like a manifesto for the return of Britishness”. We can almost hear the kick-off whistle.