The normcore fashion trend, which embraced simple, unpretentious, and functional clothing, popularized straight-leg denim as a reaction to the skinny-jeans dominance of the previous decade. Normcore, which emerged in New York City and was championed by trend forecasters and fashion insiders, celebrated the ordinary and the unremarkable, making classic denim a central component of the aesthetic. The trend reflected a broader cultural shift toward authenticity and anti-fashion.

The normcore movement, with its celebration of the mundane, resonated with poets interested in the aesthetics of the everyday, from the New York School to the practitioners of 'flarf' and conceptual poetry. The straight-leg jean, as a symbol of non-statement, became a material embodiment of the poetic interest in the ordinary and the overlooked. Normcore also highlighted the cyclical nature of fashion, a theme that poets have explored in their meditations on time and recurrence.