If there’s one thing about high fashion, it is that brands always find ways to surprise you. The term “gorpcore” first started circling in 2017 when The Cut, New York Magazine’s style site, used it to describe a new trend: people wearing specialized mountain gear in urban settings. So how did that fashion choice come about?

Gorpcore Is the New Normcore

The 2010s saw the introduction of the ever-popular trend dubbed “normcore,” which saw men wearing pragmatic, recontextualized clothing and accessorizing it as lust-worthy fashion. One of the defining figures in making the shift from normcore to gorpcore was, undoubtedly, taciturn singer Frank Ocean who “trekked” his way to a 2019 Paris fashion show sporting a curious outfit. For the occasion, he wore a greenish beanie from Arc’teryx, the 32-year-old North Vancouver outdoor clothing brand, and a clementine-orange jacket by Mammut, the 159-years-old iconic mountain gear Swiss brand.

The beauty of gorpcore fashion is that it honors all-weather brands and their ability to provide quality protection from the elements while offering elegance and style. It’s not about Prada coming up with a Salomon lookalike hiking boot that would falter on the trail or Dior recreating Arc’teryx’s beanies. It’s about keeping it authentic.

Two Types of Gorpcore Brands

As is only right in high fashion, it is often the case that design trumps function. That’s why when it comes to gorpcore-inspired outfits, people can choose brands like Gyakusou, Houdini, Wander, Snow Peak, and F/CE known for balancing high-design gear and quality performance. It’s no surprise these fashion houses are relatively new, whereas mountain gear giants like Marmot, Patagonia, Salomon, and REI, are known for placing function over design. That’s not to say you can’t find both in their items.

What will be the future of gorpcore and normcore? No one can tell yet, but one thing’s for sure: it would seem people are beginning to look for greater comfort in high fashion wear, and recent trends serve to prove that.

Let’s be honest — washing your face can be a pretty tedious task. You have to hover over the sink while hoping that you won’t splash your fresh pajamas and your face at the same time, and that’s before you have to deal with the soap suds that then wash into your mouth, seep into your eyes, and then go up your nostrils. It’s often a traumatic ordeal, which is why you’ll probably be pretty happy to know that everyone is loving hot cloth cleansers at the moment – and you should be too.

The Basics

So, what is a hot cloth cleanser? Well, this is one of those cases where the name really does give it away. Many people believe that the best way to clean your face and remove your makeup properly is by using this method, and many cleansers will come with the cloth included — so you don’t even need to shell out more of your money. That’s because, to embrace the hot cloth cleanser lifestyle, you have to massage the cleanser over your face. Then, instead of splashing water into your face or rubbing the cleanser into a foam, you run the cloth under hot water and then place it over your face for a few seconds. This allows the steam to open up your pores, and it’s then down to you to rub the cloth in circular motions across your face to remove the makeup and any excess dirt in your skin.

The Best Options

There are so many hot cloth cleansers out there, but it’s fair to say that some big names have become the talk of the town over the past few months. For example, Liz Earle has customers falling over their feet to buy her Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser set, and that’s before we mention the Boots Botanics Cleansing Balm and the Eve Lom Cleanser.

So, why not try it out?