On the “-Core” Mechanisms of Street Fashion

Anna Kamneva

doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10561

Authors

Anna Kamneva University of Paderborn
PhD candidate and research assistant at the department of Art, Music and Textiles at the University of Paderborn, Germany. Dissertation project: Vestimentary Coordination and Synchronization (working title). She studied Fashion, Textiles & Design (BA) and Media Studies (BA, MA) in Paderborn and was an associate with the research training group “Automatisms. Cultural Techniques of Complexity Reduction” (2016-17); since 2014 editor-in-chef of Weft, an e-journal on fashion, art and textile studies, published by professor Iris Kolhoff-Kahl (www.weft-magazine.de).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10561

Keywords:

Street Style, Fashion and Media, Fashion and Postmodernity, Social Synchronization, Network

Abstract

This paper introduces a model of vestimentary coordination and synchronization, derived from interdisciplinary research within the tension field of fashion and media studies, dealing with the phenomenon of self-organization in social and cultural systems and exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics of persistence and innovation in the field of democratized postmodern vestimentary fashions. Using the example of the ‘-core’ hype cycle (2000’s hipster, turned normcore, turned glamcore, turned GORPcore), I will outline its two complementary mechanisms providing structural patterns for vestimentary coordination, based on space-biased vestimentary interactions, and synchronization, based on time-biased vestimentary practices: spatialization with a tendency to uniformity-oriented network building and temporalization with a tendency to singularity-oriented swarming. I will argue that the model can serve as analytical tool for describing trend development in a digital culture, characterized by pluralization, differentiation, acceleration and algorithmicity.

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On the “-Core” Mechanisms of Street Fashion

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