The latest trend to colonize our algorithms is losercore, a hard-to-define aesthetic that celebrates and reclaims the uncool, that was unpacked in a recent Nymphet Alumni episode. It’s a mishmash of the loser in all its iterations, from the antisocial goth kid to the curly-haired band nerd, all soundtracked by Teenage Dirt Bag.
But netizens with an internet connection aren’t the first to lionize the loser. A major win for the socially challenged came at the hands of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci, where the former creative director served up oversized glasses and unruly frizz, ‘80s suits, and intentionally naff plaids, with casting that embraced ugly hotness over conventional beauty—all to mass acclaim and soaring sales numbers. Before that Prada’s FW15 show was giving reclaimed ‘80s loser, while Demna Gvasalia’s muse Eliza Douglas has been embracing losercore—by way of glasses and greasy hair—for decades.
Today, however, losercore is often adopted by people who are actually pretty cool and have at least some sense of style. Modern male celebrities embracing the aesthetic include Justin Bieber in his unkempt blonde locks, star face stickers and sandals and socks era, Central Cee in his glasses and Starface acne patches (the logo of which was ‘adorkables’), and Timothy Chalamet, especially in that cringe "skrr skrr" video with Pete Davidson for SNL.
The 2020s ‘losercore’ aesthetic isn’t built around the modern loser, but a nostalgic ode to the cinematic nerds of our childhood, like Michael Cera in Juno and Superbad, the Revenge of the Nerds cast, and underdog OG Napoleon Dynamite, and basically all the movie nerds pre-makeover.
So if the people intentionally adopting losercore aren't losers, who are? In an internet era, it’s probably the 4chan-scrolling incels. Unlike the losers of the ‘90s, their loserdom leads to more real-life harm via online-fostered misogyny, so it’s no wonder Gen Z is harking back to a time when loserdom was a forgivable, wholesome form of victimhood (fictionally at least).
We’re also seeing the mass reclamation of mental health conditions that make people act out the confines of what's normal or ‘cool’ (and which fans are now armchair diagnosing these characters with), so it makes sense that we would embrace the aesthetic too. Today, dressing ‘basic’ is also considered pretty much the most loser-ey you can be, so dressing like an awkward nerd from the ‘80s might actually be…the path to cool? Especially if you’re in Gucci.
Images via Getty©
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