“Some Might Say” blokecore is back!
Words by Lydia Wilcox, Writer
The band's back together! Oasis’s Liam and Noel Gallagher announced in August that they would be returning to the stage for a long awaited reunion tour next summer with tickets selling out within hours. Oasis’s cultural impact can still be felt today, from their undeniable influence on music to their timeless fashion pieces. Liam and Noel Gallagher are the quintessential Britpop icons, however, as an article from Vogue states, the Gallagher brothers “were ‘dressers’ rather than ‘fashionistas’”.
Britpop was a mid-1990s cultural movement that began as a response to grunge, the American dominated alternative rock genre. It is believed that BBC radio DJ, Stuart Maconie, coined the term Britpop, having written in the April 1993 issue of Select magazine, “Enough is enough! Yanks go home! And take your miserable grungewear and your self-obsessed slacker bands with you.” In contrast to American grunge music, Britpop was distinctly British and unapologetically representative of British working-class life.
The Gallagher brothers, who were born into a working-class family and raised in Manchester, drew much of their musical and fashion influence from the Mods, a 1960s subculture led by working-class London youth. Mod fashion was a rebellion against haute-couture, the dominant fashion of the 1960s, which was marketed towards the upper-class and custom designed. Unlike haute couture, Mod fashion was practical, colorful, ready-to-wear, and a celebration of youth. The Gallaghers were inspired, specifically, by the Northern Mod movement which originated in Manchester. As stated in an article from LH Northern Soul, journalist Paolo Hewitt noted that Northern Mod was “the friendly face of Mod, as its roots lie in the North with more focus on friendship with little time for pretension.” Northern Mod fashion essentials included high-waisted baggy pants, specifically, Levi jeans, desert boots, and page boy haircuts, all of which have been sported by the Gallaghers. As Liam Gallagher said during an interview with Pretty Green, the clothing label he founded in 2009, “even the mods they were into f*****g clothes, you know, the lads have always looked cool. If you’re not into clothes then you’re not a lad to me, man.”
The brothers’ aesthetic, which is now being referred to as ‘blokecore’ on TikTok, is trending across social media and amongst celebrities, although, the origins blokecore can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s. The typical blokecore outfit consists of a football jersey and adidas sneakers, the Gallagher brothers are supporters of Manchester City. Liam Gallagher’s favored shoe was the Adidas Spezial sneaker. In 2019, Adidas and Liam collaborated on the original LG SPZL shoe and in 2022 they joined forces again to release the LG2 SPZL. As noted by Glamour, there has been a spike in searches for “parkas (400 percent), 90s clothing (200 percent)”. Vogue reports that the Oasis reunion will have an impact on fashion house trends, “utility jackets were seen at Hermès, retro Harrington styles at Fendi and oversized macs at Prada”. Model, Gigi Hadid, was recently pictured invoking the essence of Liam Gallagher in a bucket hat, baggy jeans, and a pair of round framed sunglasses.
The influence of Oasis was impossible to ignore before the announcement of their reunion tour; could you get through a live music performance at a pub without a rendition of Wonderwall? As blokecore resurges in popularity and parkas and Adidas Spezials continue to fly off of shelves, your next pub night could very well feel like Knebworth 1996.