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Next in Normcore: Underwear

Long live the training bra and white cotton panty.

Shopping
Next in Normcore: Underwear
Remember those panties you relegated to the back of the underwear drawer in, like, 1998?

You know the ones—they’re most likely full-bottomed in various shades of “oatmeal”, and come equipped with elastic waistbands that hit at the ultra-flattering crest of the hip, inducing muffin-tops, panty lines and perpetual singledom.

Until now.

With Acne’s permission (see the #underwearmemos campaign, in which models slow-mo prance in their skivvies in front of various Fun Dip-shade backdrops), we’re officially free to re-embrace normcore undies. Also known as time-of-the-month specials. Knickers. Granny panties. Man Repellers. You get the gist.

With seams as subtle as an iPhone wedged into your back pocket and a comfort level unrivalled since prepubescent Fruit of the Loom, these undergarments are the basic bitches of the fashion world: Mock them all you want, but there’s bound to come a day when all you want is to sip a pumpkin spice latte and take a goddamn Buzzfeed quiz.
In all seriousness, the Acne campaign is the latest ode to au-naturel sexiness that eschews complicated lingerie in favor of pure, 100% cotton. We’re talking training bras. Hanes tanks. Undies with room to spare. And we welcome them with open, cotton-clad arms.

It’s by no means the first incarnation of normcore fashion (see: Birkenstocks, mom jeans, CHANEL’s supermarket-themed catwalk and every family photo album of the past half-century). In case you’ve been living under Amal Alamuddin Clooney’s rock, the term entered our lexicons a few months back to describe all things dangerously regular and oh-so-seen before (and yet now considered stylish?). Yeah, we were a bit confused, too.
But the non-trend trend keeps on giving in the comfort and ease-of-dress department, giving us the go-ahead to ditch our trophy shoes for Nike Airs, leather-clad legs for all denim everything, and now, Agent Provocateur thongs for cotton briefs—and no, not the low-cut, lace-lined, Miranda Kerr-filled Victoria’s Secret kind.

So leave the push-ups and negligees to Dita and sport these solidly regular undies with pride.*

*Except under leggings.

—Chelsey Burnside
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