Keep It MOVING

COMMUTER-CORE has become more than a VIRAL TREND, as designers meet the NEEDS of our BACK-to-OFFICE lifestyles

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IT WAS AN INDELIBLE IMAGE to mark the end of the spring collections: On the runway at Miu Miu, the last major show of the season, look after look was paired with a big leather top-handle bag loaded to the brim, even spilling over, with stuff. You could make out the straps of a bra or a tank top or a heel. It was packed so full, it could no longer zip shut. As the runway visuals made their way to social media, they were met with knowing recognition from those once again schlepping to work with laptops, gym clothes, and lunches crammed into totes as return-to-office mandates have ramped up.

The look seemed to cement another "core," one of those trends on hyperdrive that Gen Z loves to breathlessly anoint and then declare over just as quickly. This, people affirmed, mostly on TikTok, was "commuter-core"! It has various permutations, not limited to hauling your life around in an overstuffed bag. There's also the hoodie under the blazer or the sneakers worn with baggy trousers and an even bigger button-down shirt - something that says, "I got dressed up today, but, hey, if I sweat or spill something on myself while in transit, I don't care about turning up to the office a little worse for wear." It's a little costumey and, like all "cores," a kind of fashion fantasy. Commuting, and what one wears along the way, isn't something a lot of younger people have had to do much of. If they started a job in the past four years, they likely did so from home.