Is Jake Gyllenhaal a Neo-Normcore Nerd? Meet the new post-pandemic style tribes

It’s been a long 24 months for this party-loving semi-nympho. When once, in the pre-pandemic age, he would turn up to shindigs hoping he might score in his too-tight pulling T-shirt, before quickly turning to Tinder if the correct conquest didn’t present itself posthaste, now Mr Libidinously Liberated cuts straight to the chase, turning up to club nights, bondage soires (“Torture Garden” is so 2020, FYI, right now it’s all about “Feel It”) and dinner parties alike wearing leather, leather, and ever less leather.

What action he lost in the locked-down months, Mr Lib Lib is looking to gain smoke now that the world is open again, and that means Rick Owens’ “take-the-plunge” gloves, Gucci’s equestrian leather body harnesses, and a wide array of slinky under-garments-disguised-as-clothes from the king of nu-sex clobber Ludovic de Saint Sernin, form the mainstays of his going out wardrobe. For daytime, it’s all about a leather trouser or two, his favorite brands being Moschino and DSquared2, quelle surprise, while his style icon is Faith Era-George Michael, more leather less denim.

3 | The Neo-Normcore Nerd

The Normcore Nerd 1.0 was formed in the primordial style ooze of 2013, when Seinfeld was the inspiration and straighter than straight-leg blue jeans, non-ironic bumbags, and schlumpy dad trainers were the sartorial weapons of choice. Fast forward just under a decade and the Normcore Nerd is back, only this time his look is less pre-pension age Miami-ite, more comfortably worn-in Dad who knows his way around a Supreme drop schedule.

It’s an appropriate shift, given that the Neo-Normcore Nerd is older and wiser than he was in the early aughts and, having ridden the subsequent waves of gorpcore, workwear, and nu-vintage, is primed and ready to settle into his final evolved forms. Key pieces in his wardrobe include North Face Nuptse jackets (obvs), worn-in Ivy league essentials from Kapital and Blue Blue Japan, vintage-style trainers from Nike (he’s more of a Pegasus than he is a Cortez man) and, at the weekends, tie-dye two-pieces from The Elder Statesman (if you can’t spend money on cashmere in your 50s, what can you spend money on?).