Normcore is in the eye of the beholder. One popular interpretation of the trend leans on Seinfeld jeans, oversize flannels, and whatever else the average frat guy might have been wearing circa 1995. Another take is more upscale—minimalism-lite, you might say, possibly accessorized with socks and shower slides. Andre Walker has his own take. His second And Re collection, produced in collaboration with Comme des Garçons and sold at Dover Street Market, was a canny distillation of ideas he's been working on for years, in the mode of everyday, throw-it-on dressing. Walker's excellent sweats made the point: The top came with a blouson, adapted dolman sleeve, the pants were cropped and flared and majestic in their schlumpy chic. You could imagine hanging around the neighborhood in them just as easily as you could see dressing them up—a touch—with one of Walker's knit bustiers, a garment he referred to as "the new tee." That easy attitude pervaded the collection, but not at the expense of Walker's left-of-center sensibility. A cotton raincoat, for instance, was perfectly fitted to such normcore lifestyle highlights as going to the post office, and also not normal at all, given its dramatic, draped, parachute back. Ditto the little T-shirt dress based on Walker's signature tie-up construction. As a whole, this collection served to commercialize the Andre Walker vernacular—not in a dumbed-down way, but insofar as it extrapolated his ideas with a view toward day-to-day wearability. If that be normcore, we're all for it.
