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Man Repeller, a.k.a the style gods, posted an article this time last year about a trend that I never thought would take off. It’s inspired by ‘the aesthetic of middle-aged women on a low key beach vacation’, according to Man Repeller’s Harling Ross and has been coined ‘menocore’. A year on, a scroll through Instagram and you’ll be sure to stumble across a blogger or model donning a menocore ensemble. Walk into any High Street shop and you’ll come across the perfect ingredients to master the look: an array of linen in earthy neutrals, loose knits, crisp white blouses, and formless tunics.
Menocore is what I imagine a late middle-aged woman, sitting on the extended porch of her summer house in the Hamptons, drinking a glass of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to be wearing. Think lots of loose knits, linen, bucket hats, tunics, blouses, flowy silhouettes, chunky sandals and mules all coming together in effortlessly chic, undeniably comfortable fashion. Quintessential menocore dressers (and much of the inspiration for this micro-trend) include Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated and Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give.
Menocore combines the word ‘normcore’; a style of dressing that involves deliberately choosing unremarkably casual clothes (popular circa 2014), with the word ‘menopause’, which means time in a woman’s life when… well, you know what that means. The resulting style is a breath of fresh air; celebrating and taking inspiration from the style of mature women in an industry so often focused on youth.
What makes this trend so great? Firstly, there’s nothing quite as comfortable as a loose-knit palazzo pant or a linen button-down blouse. Secondly, the fact that the style consists of pre-menopausal women in pieces more commonly worn by women substantially their senior means that menocore is unexpected and fresh, as all the best trends are.
Here are ten pieces to complete your summer menocore look:
Rustic Palazzo trousers,€29.95 at Zara
Shirt with mother of pearl buttons was €125 now €75.95 at Uterque.com
High waited pants, €145 at onatlas.es
Rustic crochet hat, €17.95 at Zara
Linen mix jacket, €80 at Topshop
Cube suede mules, 3.1 Philip Lim,€350 at net-a-porter.com
Resin Earrings, €12.99 at Mango
Button Slouch Jumpsuit, €52 at Topshop
Summery Palazzo trousers, €49.95 at Zara
Balloon poplin top by boutique, €80 at Topshop.com
Oval sunglasses, Rayban, €142 at Brown Thomas
Clo box tote in raffia and leather, €547 at net-a-porter.com