The Untold Secret To BUSSINES In Less Than Ten Minutes

Blame it on the grunge and the gorpcore — Seattle’s apparently a fashion capital right now, according to one national magazine.

Driving the news: Esquire published a long piece late last week on Seattle’s influence on global style, noting that we’ve “laid the groundwork for the current menswear zeitgeist of grunge and gorp.”

• In case you’re confused, gorp refers to trail mix (good ol’ raisins and peanuts). But it’s also shorthand for the outdoorsy way many Seattleites dress. (Think puffer jackets and rain shells).

The Esquire article doesn’t fully explain why the rest of the world has suddenly embraced Seattleites’ tendency to wear hiking boots everywhere.

• But it talks about how Seattle has long not cared about fashion — and indifference is especially cool right now. (I suspect people around the world staying home for months during a pandemic might have played a role in this.)
• Jian DeLeon, men’s fashion and editorial director at Nordstrom, told Esquire that both grunge and gorp are forms of “antifashion,” with a focus on “not looking so materialistic.”
• And right now, Esquire writes, “non-commerciality is trending … the mainstream is anti-mainstream.”

In another node to Seattle’s subculture, local graffiti artists have recently had their work appear on international runways, Esquire notes.

Read the full Esquire piece.