What makes something timeless? Time, ideally. What makes it trend? Timing. When “Love Story” premiered, it offered both: a 90s romance and a wardrobe with impeccable posture. The reaction was swift: restraint, it seems, is back on the group agenda.
It took nine episodes for Carolyn Bessette to re-become a legend, and approximately forty-eight hours for her to become a shopping category. “Love Story : John F. Kennedy & Carolyn Bessette”, Ryan Murphy’s newest series, was supposed to be a romantic reconstruction of late-90s New York: dynastic pressure, paparazzis, tragic, the works! And then it became a mood board for the new “core”: welcome to CBK summer.
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Before the fifth episode aired, the same cycle that repeats every other week reappeared. Once upon a time, you could lose your tribe over a pair of shoes. Now, you can lose your personality. Somewhere between normcore and quiet luxury, fashion stopped arguing and started agreeing.
Are we in the Age of Un-Edge?
Open Instagram. It’s now a support group for beige with a JFK subplot. The blazers are relaxed, the jeans are straight, the sneakers are tasteful in a way that suggests they read The Economist, and the loafers are leather. Content has discovered the new holy trinity: approachable, timeless, and “elevated”. Elevated to where? Maybe, a very polite rooftop bar where nobody spills anything, least of all an opinion?
It’s not even that trends don’t exist. They just multiply way too fast. Cottagecore begat Barbiecore begat blokecore begat balletcore. By the time you’ve learned how to pronounce one, it’s been replaced with another that requires a completely new tank top. We used to have movements. Now we have mood boards. And we call it individuality.
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The Bessette resurgence is just the latest example. Last month it was something else. Next month it’ll be another woman with immaculate posture and a compelling backstory. What a familiar pattern: watch, extract, aestheticize, purchase. No, it’s not “so you” when you’re wearing the exact silk skirt currently sold out in three time zones.
Distinction, now retail
Is pleasant profitable? Of course. Is pleasant memorable? Rarely. And brands? They’ve become fluent in this language of pleasant sameness. Why build mythology when you can build margin? Everything is beautifully shot, beautifully cut, beautifully forgettable. If fashion once promised transformation, now it pinky promises not to embarrass you. We’ve confused “wearable” with “memorable”.
What is there to do? Don’t update. Wear last year’s coat without irony. Repeat outfits like it’s a chorus, not a crime. Buy something because you see yourself living in it, not because it photographs well. All this to say, we don’t need another core. We need a spine.
