THE DEATH OF THE GROWN-UP: The Big Men’s Fashion Trend of 2022? Dressing Like a Tween.
It had been a youthful year for men’s fashion. Cutesy charm necklaces often encircled the necks of Pete Davidson and Justin Bieber, making those shlumpy style icons—and paparazzi favorites—look like they’d been sprung from summer camp. Last November, Washington Wizard Kyle Kuzma pulled up to the locker room in a pink Raf Simons sweater with gigundo sleeves, calling to mind a kid wearing his big brother’s hand-me-downs. And fashion companies minted adult-size clothes with serious Children’s Place overtones. British label JW Anderson’s spring offering was littered with sweaters and other pieces in cutesy strawberry prints, while Urban Outfitters carries a “doodle” hoodie covered in infantilizing smiley faces.
This adult embrace of dressing like a tweenager has a name: “kidcore.” While it’s been simmering for a while (the 2018 explosion of tie-dye was an early indicator), kidcore has soared during the pandemic. You might theorize that men found solace in dressing like their preteen selves: Lyst, a British company that tracks the behavior of more than 150 million online shoppers in 2021, ranked kidcore as one of its top trends of 2021, based largely on the strength of searches for things like charm necklaces and cartoony Crocs. “A lot of people were searching for comfort and familiarity,” said Pierre Lavenir, a cultural specialist at Lyst.
Kidcore is defined by an attitude rather than any specific combination of clothes or accessories. It is about revisiting the way you dressed before anyone told you what was cool—when you really dressed for yourself. When Isaac Rodriguez, 24, wears a particularly expressive outfit, say, an orange-and-red fleece with a green hat and red Nikes, he channels his tweenage mind-set. “Seven-year-old me would be like, ‘Man, wear the heck out of that.’” Mr. Rodriguez, a Los Angeles stylist who until recently was a loan officer, said he has found a sort of joy in “testing the boundaries” of what he can wear. (It should be said that most kidcorers I’ve spotted are not that far removed from actually being kids. I’ve yet to see a 60-something in a charm necklace, but if that’s you, please email me.)
As the late P.J. O’Rourke wrote in 2012:
The kid-who-stayed-40-years-too-long-on-the-playground look doesn’t inspire trust. If dressing up as a third grader is your idea of how to treat yourself, what’s your idea of how to treat me?
And what’s the rest of the world’s idea of how to treat you? When I was growing up, I was told, “The way you dress is the way you’re regarded.” See Dennis the Menace in the funny pages of your local newspaper to discover how you’re regarded.
Another maxim from my youth was, “Don’t dress for the job you have; dress for the job you’d like to get.” Checked the ad listings lately for WANTED: GRADE-SCHOOL-RECESS BULLY?
With the overgrown-brat image, we also shed our adult authority. The only advantage to being a middle-aged man is that when you put on a jacket and tie you’re the Scary Dad. Never mind that no one has had an actually scary dad since 1966. The visceral fear remains. When I set my jaw and stare over the top of my tortoiseshell half-glasses, everyone under 50—from waiter to law-firm partner—thinks, “Grounded for life.” This doesn’t work when you’re wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
And now “kidcore.” The 21st century isn’t turning out as I had hoped, to coin an Instaphrase.
(Classical reference in headline.)