A fascinating side of Tik Tok that I recently encountered was Bloke Core. If you are on the fashion side of Tik Tok, you have seen the bell boys, the gorp core folks and archive bros, but there is a small movement that makes an accord with British men’s fashion and an indie scumbag look. Not a new format of men’s fashion but I thought it was fascinating. Started by @brandonlhuntly on Tik Tok, bloke core is all about vintage football jerseys, distressed jeans that bag up and stack on your trainer of choice. Based in how football fans in the UK usually dress unintentionally, this takes a slightly edgier take on it. The focal point of the outfit is the vintage jersey, long sleeve or short, it doesn’t matter. You are supposed to look like you just ate some chips and a few pints at the pub with the lads and that is the mentality going into this. A mentality and attitude that states; I just had a Belgian beer, at an Irish pub, and I am going to drive around in Top Gear’s ‘reasonably priced car’ until someone notices. It is the same nonchalance that ‘scumbro’ fashion loves with Pete Davidson and Jonah Hill mixed with the grotesque attributes of Jeremy Clarkson. Wear your designer jeans a little bit lower so that they rest on your Adidas sambas or a pair of loafers then an oversized rugby or football jersey will top it all off.
One of the main attractions to this fashion is how mainstream and easy it already is. Yung Lean aka Jonatan Leandoer is one of my favorite examples of this fashion. Wearing designer pants, a rugby polo, skullcap beanie and a basic pair of sneakers for the whole outfit. I adore the attitude he gives off in all his fits from Ginseng strip music video, to showing off with the rest of the Sadboys and Eytys, but especially when he wears this sort of look. In an appearance for Interview magazine in 2020, Yung lean was styled by Nicole Walker and one of the fits caught my eye regarding a higher level of bloke core. One where a beige suit jacket, pinstripe button up, blue tie, and baggy jeans. Even though Lean is wearing it and is an internationally known rapper, I cannot get out of my mind how it looks like every European dad at the pub after work. He might as well hop on the set of The I.T. Crowd with Richard Ayoade and Chris O’Dowd. There is a frumpy and loose disposition that needs to be achieved when going for bloke core.
I believe that the most essential part of many outfits are the presence and confidence you have for yourself when wearing said clothes, but ‘bloke core’ is almost a performance of male arrogance and non-chalance. Bloke core is what happens to the scumbro look if you simplify it and make it less flashy or elevate the look slightly with a suit jacket and a loose tie. By no means is this a new form of fashion, but rather one that is being redefined in 2022. Reframing a classic euro look to appeal to gen Z.
