Gorpcore: Style for Nature Lovers or Microtrend?

Words by Nell Fithen

With our Perceiving Nature exhibition just around the corner, I found myself thinking about who the event appeals to, and was left with the important question: what is Gorpcore? I’ve used the term many times and always thought it sounded odd, and yet it was only in researching this piece that I found out (thanks to Vogue), that the term stands for ‘Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts’. Trail mix! I think this name perfectly describes this movement as what it is: something taking root in the act of walking. Stylistically, it is identifiable through Orange, Yellow, Green, neutral and monochrome hiking clothing, GOR-TEX, wraparound metallic sunglasses, balaclavas, and walking boots, all in a setting of incredible and striking mountain landscapes.

I’ve always found ‘-core’ to be an interesting suffix, having facilitated microtrends like no other piece of fashion jargon in recent history. The term seems a natural extension of subculture in an online world, continuing from terms like preppy, punk, goth, Sloan ranger; these terms are broad with many subcultures within them, and comparatively the suffix ‘-core’ is not broad, it is specific.

Fashion has always played a part in environmental discourse: the use of whale bones in corsets, the debate about fur and animal leather, and more recently debates about fast fashion, biproduct waste, and fabric pollution. Making it clear that clothing has always been involved in environmentalism. We should ask ourselves if Gorpcore - and its embrace of the act of perceiving nature - is a bi-product of 21st century eco-politics?

In a generation of green-thinkers, it makes perfect sense for street style and urban aesthetics to find a home in wild spaces. Gorpcore, at its best, promotes rejection of a life chronically online, of urban adulthood in office jobs, and encourages the experience of going on an adventure in nature with your friends. With this in mind we should take a proper look at this cultural micro-movement. Gorpcore encourages young people from urban areas to actively seek out fulfilling experiences in the outdoors; even if these walks originate from aesthetic desires rather than desire for experiences of the natural world. One could argue that making walking, hiking and camping trendy will ultimately help a lot of young people to realise that these experiences are enjoyable, and that nature is worthwhile. It encourages those that come into contact with it to seek out green spaces and to practice environmentally conscious hiking, to engage in a community of likeminded people, and to find friends who do the same. So we can clearly see that Gorpcore, at least as a cultural movement, has a lot of positives.

But we also need to think about its downsides. A lot of Gorpcore is abstracted from this original lifestyle element. Salomons, Arc’teryx, Columbia, The North Face, Oakley, Osprey. Some of these brands, central to the Gorpcore fashion movements, have used their newfound popularity as an excuse to significantly overcharge for well-designed hiking gear. This has resulted in a lot of Gorpcore participation being about wealth and style rather than about the movement’s roots. The consumption of Gorpcore styles pushes up the prices of gear for hikers. We have to ask ourselves, is this ultimately just another fast fashion fad that encourages people who already have access to perfectly good hiking gear to consume for the sake of aesthetics? Are Gorpcore items just non-recyclable synthetics with a shelf life? Salomon are actually doing less than Nike in terms of sustainability, making vague corporate commitments with little attempt to actually source with any sort of environmental consciousness. The same can be said about Arc’teryx and North Face: vague commitments with little to no action.

And how much will a raincoat or a pair of hiking shoes set you back? An Arc’teryx coat will hit your bank account with a blow somewhere between £280 to £900, while Salomons are comparatively better aligned with the average pair of hiking shoes or boots at £160. With these figures in mind we have to question whether or not this gear is actually practical, or if the wearer would ultimately be afraid to fully commit to a hike for fear of scuffing some expensive trainers or getting a thousand pound raincoat damp.

Bella Hadid, wearing Gorpcore.

‘Gorpcore,’ @bogus.m, Pintrest.

Just like any subculture, Gorpcore has its positives and negatives; if you focus only on the lifestyle elements of the trend, you’ll find yourself in a world that enticingly prioritises the experience of the natural world over all other elements of modern society bar human connection. If you focus on just the aesthetics, you’ll find innovative new designs and inventive styling and photography, but you might also find just another fast fashion fad.