“What—was—that!”
If you’re anything like us, you simply cannot get Lorde’s new banger ‘What Was That’ out of your head. Her song of the summer (is it too early to declare that?) is building up major hype for her forthcoming album, Virgin, out on June 27th—her first full-length record in four years. Sure, summer 2024 may have been Charli XCX’s Brat Summer, but fans are officially declaring 2025 a Lorde Summer—and a sartorial vibe shift is already afoot.
It all traces back to Lorde’s new music video for the track, which was released back in April. In the new clip, the singer parades around New York city on a bike wearing a very normcore outfit: A crisp white dress shirt, baggy jeans punctuated with a carabiner and keys, and taped-up clunky shoes. At the end of the video, she unbuttons the mensy top to reveal a shiny black patent bra top, as she dances and performs for her crowd of fans assembled in Washington Square Park. We can’t stop thinking about her outfit. It’s rather basic—bland, even. And yet, it feels fresh, and also reflects exactly where fashion is headed.
Take a look at the recent spring 2025 runways. That normcore Lorde look—a simple dress shirt, loose-legged jeans—was all over the high-fashion catwalks. At Balenciaga, a striped polo was paired with baggy jeans (Lorde even wore this exact look recently); At Tommy Hilfiger, an extra-long dress shirt was also paired over slouchy denim, while Casablanca showed a printed bra top with its swishy jeans. If summer 2024 was all about sexy and raunchy dressing (very Brat!), 2025 seems to be much more sober in aesthetic—a deliberately plain and classic mood. It is both rigid (dress shirt), yet undone (baggy jean)—a combination of finance bros meets Lower East Side creatives.
For Lorde, the new look mirrors where she is creatively and artistically. In a recent interview, the singer said she is “in the middle gender-wise,” adding, “I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.” Her ‘What Was That’ outfit reflects this intentionally: It blurs the lines of masculine and feminine, and plays up a more androgynous feel.
Of course, one could also look at the political and culture landscape of the moment to inform such a choice of fashion, too. With many human rights under threat with our current administration—including LGBTQ+ rights and resources for trans youth—a more nondescript and label-free uniform can act as a form of protection, or even a form of rebellion. In other words: Maybe it’s not just about wearing a dress shirt and jeans, but about resisting something bigger—a form of armor.
Lorde Summer may just be kicking off, but we have already seen the nondescript uniform appear on plenty of street style stars during Fashion Month. (The combo is also everywhere in New York City; I saw four iterations of the look on my commute this morning alone.) And when Lorde kicks off her tour in September, we are calling it now: One can expect plenty of Lorde Outfit cameos there, too.
The good news is, the outfit is easy to replicate, should you be a fan of the movement. Get a classic button-up (or steal one from your partner), and throw on your baggiest pair of jeans. Voila! (But don’t forget the carabiner adorned with keys and charms.)
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
