Aint no mountain

Remember a few years back when some bright spark had the idea to add the word “core” as a suffix to every trend? norm-core, ballet-core, Barbie-core? My favourite was gorp-core, a trend that was actually just a re-brand of a pre existing trend of wearing functional outdoor clothing as everyday wear. 

The word Gorp in this context is an acronym of good old raisins & peanuts (aka trail mix, apparently eaten by hikers who also wear functional clothing) but when I was a teenager the word Gorp referred to a geek, someone who didn’t exude cool, so the trend made immediate sense and ergo appealed to me to me because geek as a grown-up translates to cool, and so my love for clothing more suited to mountaineering than walks in the park began. The essentials for this aesthetic include fleeces, ideally with a hood and those little holes in the sleeves for your thumb, waterproof jackets, the more ridiculously oversized the better, they must leave room underneath for a hoodie and perhaps a jacket liner (aka a quilted jacket) and of course a beanie. 

Gorp-core may have initially stolen this trend from fell walkers but this doesn’t mean you dress like you’re off on a hike, this isn’t cos-play, its taking the best elements and leaving the rest where it belongs (in Ellis Brigham where the actual fell walkers shop) Case in point : Gore-tex / Shell pants aren’t necessary, I gave them a whirl in the form of a cargo pant and its a step too far, stick to track pants in cotton jersey.

One of my favourite elements of the trend is the trainers, its opened up a new raft of footwear brands to me, while New Balance still feature heavily, Hoka, Karhu & Salomon do awesome multi coloured interesting looking trainers, beware when shopping online you may have to filter by trail, running or walking shoes, the purists are trying to prevent the likes of me making their functional clothing my own by bamboozling me and categorising them by their official use, but its not like they have spikes or metal grips and is it my fault they look great with a wide tailored trousers?

How can you not love a trend that simultaneously looks good and keeps you warm? Head to Passenger & Free People for fleeces and Carharrt for the best quilted jacket liners and bag yourself a bright beanie 

Getting in your 10,000 steps in on a fell walk - optional.