Over the last few years, we’ve seen a few weird trends take the Internet – and communities of early adopters –by storm. First there was normcore (the most Googled trend of 2014) which involved wearing as aggressively generic clothes as possible. With hip-hop producer Dev Hynes as it’s poster boy, normcore was, as New York Magazine eloquently described, “fashion for those who realise they’re one in seven billion.” Then followed health goth, a style movement which met at the intersection of monochrome sportswear and fetish culture. Then, in the wake of Prada’s SS16 collection, there was post-modesty – Miuccia Prada’s tongue-in-cheek response to people’s current obsession with flagrant self-promotion on social media. And now? Bonnetcore. 

As its name suggests, bonnetcore involves wearing bonnets – a type of headgear that emerged in the Middle Ages. First identified by Paper magazine, the term was coined by digital artist Molly Soda who posted a picture of herself onto her Instagram account with the hashtag #bonnetcore. A friend of Soda, sex educator and artist Zoë Ligon, later posted a picture with the caption “The future is now – the future is #bonnetcore.” And it’s not just Soda and Ligon who have been adopting this hat. Paper noted stylist Jake Levy has been shot in one for Nicopanda, the label of Dazed’s former creative director Nicola Formichetti. Chanel’s new muse Lily-Rose Depp has posed in one alongside David Moses (of emerging label Moses Gauntlett Cheng) and The Bling Ring actress Zoë Bleu. Artist Arielle Chiara and designer Patric DiCaprio (of outsider fashion brand Vaquere) have been spotted sporting them too.

So what’s the verdict? Does the adoption of the bonnet by fashion’s forward-thinkers indicate that this trend will catch on? Sure, we’re more accustomed to seeing it worn by Bo Peep, the porcelain shepherdess figurine in Toy Story or Nellie Oleson in the Little House on the Prairie but, let’s face it, weirder trends have caught on. Who would have thought, pre-2014, that dressing in the same, ardently ordinary way as an American tourist would be deemed fashionable? All hail, #bonnetcore.

h/t papermag.com