All about being a hipster (not that there's anything wrong with that)

[PrinceOfCats]

"i hate cops and bus drivers, but i am from a working class background so i don't have an attitude problem, i'm nice really "

Nah, sorry. Cannabis and being a middle-class hypocrite are integral parts of the whole hipster thing where I live. You'd just be 'someone who dresses trendy'. Another essential test is, do you think society 'owes you' a really good job?

 

[exploited]

i don't want a job, i just want to go to every great city in the world...

so i'll probably end up working in record stores and income support from the government

things cost too much, i don't care about money but i need it to do stuff so any the government wants to give me is fine by me

i can talk pretentious crap all day though!

 

[Lilliana]

good definitions

though there are some good indie rock bands too and I love to talk about philosphic topics (including sartre)
anyway the key point seems to be that these are people who want to develope their own individuality and hence reject mainstream but fall into the trap of alternative mainstream and fail therefore?

 

[purechris]

ugh! I hate the hipsters in my city. Almost all of them come from money. They all buy expensive jeans, but they have to be the latest to make them the coolest in their bunch. They sneer at me and my fashionable friends at our most frequented bar. They are typically at the dive bars, but one nite a week a dj spins old soul and they flock in and stand around like they're too good/too bothered to be there. The bartenders hate them because all they drink is cheap beer.

 

[purechris]

here's another link:
http://hipstersareannoying.blogspot.com/2002_10_20_hipstersareannoying_archive.html

 

[Lena]

come now.. i think some take the hipster thing far too seriously,
not all of them are rich or spoiled,
not all of them wear low wait trousers,
not all of them have messy hairstyles,
not all of them are cannabis smokers or drinkers

the term goes back to the 50s and the beatniks
but hipsters have been around for ages,
its nothing new and can be found in all forms and shapes, really

some of the generalisations i've read here just made me simply go

 

[sweetjane]

Sort of Kensington has lost the funness for me.

PS

pomo!

 

[purechris]

Lena--It's a huge trend/anti-trend amongst 20 somethings here in the states. I think it's probably different where you are. I don't like to categorize people, but if the pump fits....

 

[Acid]

o yea there are tonnes of these type of people around town.
they normally always look scruffy yet you can still tell they are rich

 

[smashinfashion]

sorry guys but i'm with lena on this one. if i was to be classified it would definetely be as a hipster. although i'd like to differentiate between scenesters and hipsters. scenesters look like hipsters from a distance, but up close they are obnoxious, poorly dressed, and far more irritating to me than "normals" (generic people). also, emo is pretty much extinct and it is what has evolved into the present day scenester.

and "scarfie shoes"? what is this?..is it an east coast thing?

 

[heynicepants]

Next question: what are scarfie shoes?

I could only find this:

boxing boots, respect M.E hightop adidas, i used to call em scarfie shoes because certain people wore these long scarves with these shoes, and i didnt really know what the shoes even were...

i havent seen a scarfie in forever.

 

[tangerine]

boxing boots, respect M.E hightop adidas, i used to call em scarfie shoes because certain people wore these long scarves with these shoes, and i didnt really know what the shoes even were...

i havent seen a scarfie in forever.

Thanks. Would these qualify?

 

[heynicepants]

Thanks. Would these qualify?

I wouldn't say so hehehe!

More like this :

 

[tangerine]

Thanks heynicepants.

I love this thread.

As trends go, I like the hipster look. To me it is a classic rock and roll look. I don't really get tired of it. But maybe I just don't see it as much in SF as people do in NY or London, to name a couple of larger cities.

 

[pointup]

negative connotations can be associated with everything ... i guess I like the hipster look as I am always called emo (blast these people who are so more comfortable grouping people together) .. I was under the impressions hipsters died out in the 50s..

 

[lady grey]

why hipster is not 'cool in usa'

as a clothing 'trend' the hipster look is fine, it has much in common with 'vintage' 'rock n roll' and even 'bohemian' or 'arty' dress. I myself wear certain vintage-y items from 60s-70s that are 'scenester-esque.' [1966 tweed sportcoat; 1976 emerson lake & palmer flash-rock tee shirt].

but specifically in usa and microcosmically in nyc, hipsters are identified as [usually] williamsburg and lower east-siders with a horrid 'cooler than thou' attitude based on nothing more than a pseudo-political-cultural stance. and this 'coolness' is usually based on their belief that only they know the cool bands & clothes. its really that superficial & if you engage them in conversations about history, culture, philosophy etc, you will be stunned at how their points of reference begin around 1983 wheh MTV debuted.
So its not cool to be 'a hipster' its 1 of the most hated 20-something dumb fads in nyc & I gather across america. 'hipster' carries a terrible connotation at this point and that is much-agreed upon.

the hipster clothing thing is fine.
it's the attitude & 'anti-' philosophy that is extremely irksome.

 

[As You Like It]

a horrid 'cooler than thou' attitude based on nothing more than a pseudo-political-cultural stance. and this 'coolness' is usually based on their belief that only they know the cool bands & clothes. its really that superficial & if you engage them in conversations about history, culture, philosophy etc, you will be stunned at how their points of reference begin around 1983 wheh MTV debuted.
So its not cool to be 'a hipster' its 1 of the most hated 20-something dumb fads in nyc & I gather across america. 'hipster' carries a terrible connotation at this point and that is much-agreed upon.

the hipster clothing thing is fine.
it's the attitude & 'anti-' philosophy that is extremely irksome.

Hear, hear! It's those snotty, smug, wanna-be-arbiters who toast my biscuits. Then again, I might just be getting too damn old to put up with cliques and Ident-Kit subcultures.

Dressing funky is great, in my opinion (hell, I'm crazy about vintage/contemporary pairings and a modicum of irony-as-an-accessory), but herd mentality is a pain in the ***.

 

[Spacemiu]

anoying pretensious people who think they are very cool, and they arn't

 

[Lena]

in europe , hipsters are cool and they just dont care how others see them, really, they are the young artists, writters and intellectuals , nothing wrong with them in my book, i find bimbos or 'fashionistas' much more annoying , sorry

as for those shoes, neither fit the image of hipsters shoes here..

 

[Spike413]

To me, I think of people who think they're cool, but wouldn't dare admit that. Don't care what people think but subconsciously do otherwise why would they make such an effort to be different. And in my experience, they usually think they're above everyone else because of their "superior" taste in everything.

Of course, this is just the perversion of what a hipster truely is. It's just an effortless kind of cool, it comes without pretense and thought.

Oh, and as Acid said, hipsters are also a kind of trouser that hug the thighs and lay low on the hips.