We live in a time of cores. Cowboycore! Gorpcore! Cottagecore! And, of course, normcore. Some of these terms have been around for a decade or so, while others started bubbling up in the pandemic era to help make sense of the very difficult-to-define styles that seemed to rise and fall by the hour. I’m as guilty as anyone of coming up with fun little names to jokingly define a half-trend. But I wasn’t expecting to be part of one myself—until I received a notification on Instagram telling me that a photo of me had appeared on an account called…@Gnomecore. And just like that, I learned that I’m a Gnomecore guy.
I wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly. I could see that I was alongside guys like Spike Lee, David Hockney, Mordechai Rubinstein, James Baldwin, Matty Matheson—a great group, to be sure. And I could tell that that my photo—wearing my little beret, neckerchief and yellow L.L. Bean x Todd Snyder shirt jacket—seemed to have something in common with the other photos, which featured lots of beanies and round eyeglasses and nubbly fabrics.
But I still wasn't sure what Gnomecore was, exactly. So I decided to go to the source. “I think it’s the way you carry yourself, the lines of your face, friendly and open, a good dude, you can tell a gnome when you see one,” the person behind the account told me over DM. (They wish to remain nameless, but are happy to be identified with the mushroom emoji.)
There are, I learned, a few simple gnomecore guidelines. Beanies are a big deal, especially when perched on the top of the head. GQ’s recent cover shoot with Christian Bale is, surprisingly, a major inspiration. (The account takes its avatar from the shoot.) Other muses, the account holder told me, are the “big, bearded and typically French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters of the 19th and 20th Century, starting really with Monet being the originator and then Matisse picking up the torch and taking the look into the 20th century with his little cap, neckerchief and flowing chocolate-brown momo.” There are even specific tones and colors associated with the idea: “the deep rich jewel colours of late Autumn mixed in with earthy browns and mushroom grey/beige khakis,” the mushroom emoji explained. “Earthy and magical.”
There are offshoots: #TechGnomecore includes Technicolor puffer jackets, while #metrognome keeps things monochrome and well-tailored. And there are even Gnomecore-approved brands: the Belgian knitwear brand Howlin’, the “wonderfully weird eco-friendly world” of U.K. brand MFG from Brighton, Japanese brands like Beams +, Haversack, Sillage, Strato in Osaka, and the recently opened Mogi shop owned by the legendary designer Terry Ellis all fit the bill. “Each has their own unique voice but many lean heavily into Scottish knitwear and worldwide folk-art,” mushroom emoji explained.
Ultimately ‘Shroom emoji distilled #gnomecore down to this: “just a good heart, a friendly face and beanie worn to a point.” Or, put another way: “Ultimately I think people are sick of a world of trolls and gremlins and what’s the opposite of trolls and gremlins?"
It felt funny to be roped into a core: I didn’t think of myself as a gnome, nor did I necessarily group myself with the other gnomes the account celebrates. I simply really enjoy what I wear. I work from home; my co-workers are a dog and two cats, and they don’t care about what I have on as long as I keep the meal time on schedule. But without coworkers to impress or a dress code to deal with, it would be easy enough to just put on whatever, and there’s no fun in that. So I really try to enjoy what I’m wearing while I work. The two photos I’m featured in on the Gnomecore account show me in berets—a type of hat I truly have fun wearing, but don’t wear all the time.
But I also realize that I’m literally having fun. I’m being playful with how I’m dressing, and I'm taking cues from different places. One day that's a picture of a French guy in the first half of the 20th century in a beret looking cool, sipping a coffee outside a cafe; another it's the late director Peter Bogdanovich’s penchant for tying a bandana around his neck. But it’s also likely I've been influenced by my Gnomecore peers. I’m never trying to copy anybody, but influence sneaks up on you sometimes. And these days, with the avalanche of fit pics, articles, TikTok videos, Instagram accounts dedicated to niche styles, and brands eager to capture our attention, there's just so much to be influenced by. These silly little style micro-categories spring up as a way to better understand how f people who aren’t necessarily connected have a similar vibe. Will we start seeing designers talk up their “Gnomecore-inspired” collections next year? I hope not. Because that would be silly, for one, and also because it would take the fun out of the strange, organic things our algorithms can occasionally create.
So after years of trying to avoid being part of a core, I’m here to say that I’m fine with Gnomecore. It feels good to be here. Like some weird, stylish, hairy, post-hygge family of weirdos. I’m just going to go ahead and own it even if I didn’t sign up.
