Is it #DecoraCore or #MallCore? We don’t really know (we’re late millenials, hello) but we know that Wang Lin Kai is wearing Versace ala Gen Z style.
Apparently to the Gen Z-ers, it’s no longer cool to appropriate what the boomers or millenials are wearing. Our dad caps, 501s or flannel shirts are not longer cool (but #manjewellery still is though, there is… a God) because it’s hard to affix a “core” to it. And that, our social media-addled friends, is how these group of kids want to dress today.
Before we talk about how Wang Lin Kai is swerving in true Gen Z style (he’s wearing Versace, obviously and he’s 22), we have to anthropologise this particular community. These inclusive tribes unite under a hashtag and are quite faithful to it. If they’re “vampires or wizards” (yup, still a thing) under the #DarkAcadamia hashtag, they have a penchant for Fyodor Dostoevsky and black clothing. If they aspire to #CottageCore (once again, still a thing), they look like stylish calefares from The Lords of the Things. If you’re hilariously addicted to the app and have nothing to do at 2 a.m. in the morning, you can plunder the deeper depths of the app. Apparently, there’s such a thing as #Birate: a portmanteau of…. bisexual pirates.
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But back to Wang Lin Kai in Versace. After some considerable research (basically, talking to the few Gen Z friends I have about his style), what I originally thought was #MallCore was actually just #DecoraCore. If you’ve had the pleasure of reading Kera Mag — basically, the Japanese invented streestyle magazines — you’d recognise some of the tropes in what Wang Lin Kai is wearing.
The robe-like coat (the Japanese really do love their Baroque prints), cute-sy like jewellery (VSCO-girl…?) that looks like Summer camp remnants and nail art. Decora is basically a shortened version of decoration which can then be broken down into two more subsets. Pop Kei has the girls and guys wearing multiple hair clips, bracelets, tulle skirts, stockings, leg warmers and pins while Fairy Kei means that if you’ve walked out of the house looking like an anime character, you’ve done it right.
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What is the appeal of doing this very, very, very specific subset of style though? Could it be that because you’re showing yourself on the digital sphere, you’d enjoy some kind of affirmation no matter how outlandish you are? Or could it be, that sometimes, we enjoy experimenting and transforming ourselves? Or could we just be rejecting commercialised and gentrified versions of fashion?
Heck, we wouldn’t know but if there’s one thing the Gen Z-ers are doing right, it’s inclusion. And that, is a pretty solid fashion idea.
Once you’re done with this story about Wang Lin Kai in Versace, click here to catch up with our June/July 2021 issue.
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