Balenciaga emphasized its dad influence by sending models toting children down its spring runway.
The phrase, “You look like somebody’s dad,” was once considered an insult to anyone who cared about his clothes. This was for a good reason: To be fashionable often means being both uncomfortable and impractical, and the typical dad wardrobe is all about ease and utility.
Dads also generally have better things to worry about than the width of their trousers or whether mock-necks are still “in.” They’re busy earning salaries, making school lunches and doing their best to raise well-rounded, productive members of society. As such, dads have a reputation for wearing their obliviousness to fashion on their ill-fitting sleeves. Thanks to the emergence of the dadcore trend, however, the worlds of fashion and fatherdom have officially collided. Dressing like dear old Papa, down to the comfy shoes, straight-legged jeans and golf caps, is very in vogue.
It’s hard to say where dadcore began, but some point to the Ozweego 1 sneaker designed for Adidas by Raf Simons in 2013 as a pivotal moment. Chunky-soled and covered in oddly placed patches of pink, brown, yellow and emerald green, it was equal parts ugly and functional – a dog whistle to dads if ever there was one. Three years later, Kanye West appeared in front of 20,000 fashion zealots at Madison Square Garden to launch his Yeezy Season 3 collection dressed in baggy, mismatched sweats and a cap with a curved brim. There are many fashion designers who are dads, of course, but West is the first to actually dress like one.
Marni shirt, $850 at Holt Renfrew (holtrenfrew.com).
For summer 2018, Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia presented a men’s-wear collection of wide, strangely fitting blazers, billowy shirts and rumpled khakis inspired, he said, by dads he saw in the park. Shuffling down the runway with an assortment of small children in tow, his models brought that inspiration to life, minus the dad bods and thinning hair.
For those who pay close attention to fashion’s swinging pendulum, dadcore is both novel and familiar. “It’s a reaction to what fashion was five, six, eight years ago,” says Simon Rasmussen, creative director of Office, a New York-based fashion magazine. “It was super pretty – unrealistically pretty. A dad just puts on a jacket and weird colour combinations and stonewashed denim that’s not fashion at all… that’s the counter-reaction.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time fashion has rebelled against its own ideals. Forty years ago the punk aesthetic arose in protest of the glittery excesses of the disco era. Substitute thick-soled trainers and wide-leg chinos for combat boots and safety-pinned jeans (plus the comforting nostalgia of wearing your dad’s oversized clothes) and you’ve got at least part of the explanation of dadcore’s appeal.
Calvin Klein 205W39NYC cap, $200 through ssense.com.
Just as punk trended thanks to the popularity of bands like the Ramones and the Clash, dadcore has its own celebrity ambassadors, albeit often unintentional ones. In addition to West, Barack Obama is often cited for his very down-to-earth look, but not all dadcore influencers are actually dads.
“I feel like the face of dad style is Leonardo DiCaprio,” says Toronto-based stylist Marcus Tripp, citing the actor’s fondness for oversized cargo shorts, baseball caps and multi-pack T-shirts. “He doesn’t care! And when he decided to let it go, that made it okay for everyone else.” Shia LaBeouf has also earned a reputation for being something of a dadcore dandy, thanks to his penchant for Patagonia fleeces, Crocs and old T-shirts tucked into his trousers. According to LaBeouf, West recently raided his wardrobe for inspiration.
While dadcore may have launched from the runways of Balenciaga and Raf Simons (with other It brands like Vetements and Off-White offering their own takes on the look), it has proven an unexpected boon for OG dad-style brands like New Balance, whose classic 990 sneaker has seen a resurgence in popularity. “The 990 is our king of dad style,” says David Korell, head merchandiser for New Balance Canada. Introduced as a high-end running shoe in 1982, what the 990 has lost in technical advantage over the years, it has gained in fashion cred. “Modern shoes are all sleek and thin, but these are intended not to be,” says Korell, citing Apple founder Steve Jobs – another dadcore icon – among the 990’s loyalists. “Comfort is the foundation, but now it’s become fashion.”
New Balance 990, $260 through newbalance.ca.
Korell estimates sales of dad shoes to non-dads will stay strong for at least a couple more years, an estimate supported by a Balenciaga fall collection full of boot-cut denim, fanny packs and oversized jackets. As with any trend, some will get it, some won’t, and eventually designers will move onto their next muse.
There’s one group, however, who will certainly remain unchanged by the dadcore era: dads themselves. Despite being the most fashionable people in the world right now, dads remain obliviously immune to the whims of fashion as ever.
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