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You know how I said hipsters wear things that are purposely unflattering to look like they don't care, but really that's just one big backfire? Yeah: Case. In. Point.
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It's mid-September and it's getting harder to deny the fact that fall is just around the corner. Or maybe it's here already. (When's Daylight Savings, again?) Anyway, fall is a new season and new seasons mean new trends, and while, in general and as a rule, we hate trends, new trends mean that, God willing, we can finally say goodbye to old ones.
While everyone falls victim to the trend every now and again (Yes, even yours truly -- I own some skinny black jeans that I more or less never take off and I may or may not have a pair of purple knock-off Ray Bans, though, to be fair, I tell myself I have them only because, um, hello? They're purple. But I digress.), no one group of people have ever so succumbed, so embraced, so clutched on to trends for dear life with cold, pale, smoke-yellowed fingers as that so-called creative counter-culture: The Hipster.
Am I generalizing? Probably. Am I aware there are exceptions to the rule? Absolutely! Am I going to clarify shortly? Let's hope so.
From what I can tell, the hipster depends, nay, thrives on irony, but the problem is that in doing so, they've a) diluted and deserted any formal definition that irony may or may not have once had and b) they've only served to create a fashion version of The Blob in which once they adopt a "trend" -- usually historical and always ironically, of course -- it feeds on itself, and it grows and grows until frat guys are wearing it and the cast of "The Hills" are designing it, and then someday Rachel Ray will star in a Dunkin Donuts commercial while wrapped in it. Or maybe it's the other way around. (As Meryl Streep can attest, it's all so very, very complicated.) Whatever, moving on, because there's a c).
And so: c), though they initially drench themselves in these sartorial affectations in a (soon-to-be proven misguided) attempt to show how very unconcerned they are with what exactly it is they wear and though it would seem that their entire image hinged upon the sheer disinterest they have in other people's opinions and the exquisitely cultivated and the desperately disdainful, "What, this? I picked it up off the floor and pulled this out of the garbage and stole this from my myopic maternal grandmother!," the very act itself is contradictory. In attempting to embrace something so patently unflattering so as to prove how patently unimportant such flattery is, they are -- in fact -- acknowledging their concern, and therefore, their endorsement.
Too complicated? Don't worry. To put it simply: these trends, these accoutrements, these god-awful outfits are fugly. And yet, they are everywhere. And somehow they just never seem to go away.
And so, without further ado (since there has been so obviously more than enough): I bring to you, seven hipster looks I love to hate. And I do mean hate.
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You know how I said hipsters wear things that are purposely unflattering to look like they don't care, but really that's just one big backfire? Yeah: Case. In. Point.
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So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Think I'm a judgmental brat who has no taste in clothing? Let's have at it! Share your favorite (and least favorite) trends and non-trends in the comments below.
1. The appalachia beard [ last year]
2. the ballet shoe - ruined mainsteam shoe design for 3 years running.
3. My newest late summer fave - ANY American Apparel hot coulored tight [ pink, aquamarine, lime] worn under a black one piece bodysuit [ yes, like a bathing suit] with ....ballet slippers.
No, generally I think hipsters are the ones who imitate the "creative class" though seldom contributing creatively themselves. After all, wearing gigantic glasses, having extravagant facial hair, and buying all your clothes at American Apparel is hardly creative. It's simply following one's friends. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You're simply adopting the same identifying characteristics of your sub-culture, much in the same way that a corporate type might wear khaki pants and a blue shirt.
Betsey Johnson. David Byrne. Damien Hirst. Hedi Slimane. Marc Jacobs. Chip Kidd. Zaha Hadid. JR. Shepard Fairey. Banksy. Chuck Palahniuk. Cormac McCarthy. Joel and Ethan Coen. James Nachtwey. Nan Goldin. Would any of these creative types or any other truly influential creatives you can think of embrace the label "hipster"? Hardly. They're simply individuals. In fact, some of them aren't remotely "hip." The best of them stand out for what makes their work unique, not for how they follow everyone else.
The hipster definition of a creative type is a rather narrow interpretation, which omits some creative giants and includes a sea of wannabes.
Furthermore, there may indeed be a sea of wannabes out there, but there are also many many undiscovered giants as well, giants who may even like American Apparel.
Like I said, subjective.
But I have to agree with the author. Orlando Bloom's is just freaking sad. It reminds me of middle school.
Sincerely,
-Out of Touch and Proud About It
Take on, well, Ukrainian welldiggers of the late eighteenth century. Whatever!! Bloody simpletons. . .
We 'hipsters' are the one's who have been decorating your entire cultural experience since the dawn of mass media. We design your favorite clothes and your favorite websites, we write your favorite music and direct your favorite movies. We are the creative class, a seldom appreciated economic force that will probably be the only thing left when this country was finally outsourced everything else.
Sorry. You're a little too eager to slap this label on yourself. Methinks you may be a poseur.
I still say the whole 'hipster backlash' phenom smells like envy. The stereotyping is pretty ridiculous, the observations clueless, and the passion indicative of self hate.
style is not meaningless by any means. it's an indirect expression of contemporary dispositions. clothes from the eighties... political and economic policy from the eighties. coincidence? when youth become cynical, narcissistic, and easily advertised to, generally there are bigger problems afoot.
I saw the stupid 80s glasses and can't believe it became a trend; same goes for stupid 80s slouch ankle boots. I saw the high-waist 20s, 40s, 60s, and 80s pants (sailor pants, short shorts, jeans, etc). Knowing they come back every 20 years, I'm not surprised or disturbed to see them.
One thing I dislike about being in LA is having to see these looks *everywhere* when they become trends. LA is full of both trend setters and trend adopters...
P.S. I posted a complaint about neon Reeboks on my Flickr account *months* ago!
GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!!
Geeze. It's so boring going in to public because of "trends." Everyone looks the SAME!!!!!!!!!
You "cool" people are so irritating that I've never had much faith in humans because of you.