I'm standing in line at a place where they charge $9 for sandwiches somewhere in the hinterlands south of Market Street in San Francisco. Ugh I think, who really pays that for just a sandwich? I slowly look around the tiny place which is jammed with people drinking their drip coffee and munching their organic oatmeal and overpriced sandwiches and it begins to dawn on me they all have some kind of theme that permeates their personas and manifests itself in the trappings of their outer beings and outer wear. And yes, it becomes crystal clear to me--this place is a hangout--for hipsters.
The Urban Dicitonary defines a hipster as young 20-30 somethings who value independent thinking, counter culture, progressive politics, indie rock, witty banter, blah, blah, blah, zzzzz....... As you can probably guess San Francisco in and of itself is a magnet for this type personality and thus after living amongst them all these years I've had time to come to see, know and smell one from mere yards away and feel I can give you guidelines for spotting one should they invade your area. That is if your area should have coffee bars, food trucks, pop-up food stops and brunch restaurants that don't take reservations and make you write down your name and wait 2 hours for eggs--then be on the lookout. Here are a couple caught from behind shots at the above mentioned spot to help get you started.
Now let's dissect them shall we. First off the jeans, they are usually low riding on the hips giving one that saggy I've got no ass look leading done to a straight leg at the bottom. The pants are either too tight or too loose in all the wrong areas--and always wrinkled. As a matter of fact everything they have on is wrinkled giving them that I don't really care cuz' I was out late last night and just rolled out of bed to run out and get some coffee look. This in a nutshell describes their look though in fact they probably thought long and hard to pick out these specific clothes before heading out.
Next is footwear. As you can see both don't have on socks, which is standard. One on the left went with flip flops, something they all have in their wardrobe the other went with some funky black ballet looking shoe thing--another staple. For shirts there is usually only 2 options--black t-shirt or something in flannel and both these boys have that covered. It was a warm day but someone felt like breaking out their jean jacket (wrinkled) because it's, you know, ironic. The dude on the right is going full on hipster today when you add in his overpacked wallet and (way too) many keys on a clip on his belt loop and he's dressed for hipster success.
While I've clipped their heads to maintain their anonymity, what you don't see is the crowning glory of tousled, kind of greasy, unwashed looking, poofy, messy hair. If you ask, they will say they just ran their hand through it but closer inspection will show they probably took 15 minutes to give it that bed head look and more than likely it's got some type of product in it. Their only other option is some kind of (again) ironic trucker hat thingy (damn you Ashton Kutcher!).
In short, a hipster wants to look they didn't really try and that everything is "cool dude" and that they literally just rolled out of bed and threw something on and walked out the door. But let's face it, that's far from the truth because in the immortal words of Dolly Parton, "it takes a lot of work to look this cheap!"
The Urban Dicitonary defines a hipster as young 20-30 somethings who value independent thinking, counter culture, progressive politics, indie rock, witty banter, blah, blah, blah, zzzzz....... As you can probably guess San Francisco in and of itself is a magnet for this type personality and thus after living amongst them all these years I've had time to come to see, know and smell one from mere yards away and feel I can give you guidelines for spotting one should they invade your area. That is if your area should have coffee bars, food trucks, pop-up food stops and brunch restaurants that don't take reservations and make you write down your name and wait 2 hours for eggs--then be on the lookout. Here are a couple caught from behind shots at the above mentioned spot to help get you started.
Now let's dissect them shall we. First off the jeans, they are usually low riding on the hips giving one that saggy I've got no ass look leading done to a straight leg at the bottom. The pants are either too tight or too loose in all the wrong areas--and always wrinkled. As a matter of fact everything they have on is wrinkled giving them that I don't really care cuz' I was out late last night and just rolled out of bed to run out and get some coffee look. This in a nutshell describes their look though in fact they probably thought long and hard to pick out these specific clothes before heading out.
Next is footwear. As you can see both don't have on socks, which is standard. One on the left went with flip flops, something they all have in their wardrobe the other went with some funky black ballet looking shoe thing--another staple. For shirts there is usually only 2 options--black t-shirt or something in flannel and both these boys have that covered. It was a warm day but someone felt like breaking out their jean jacket (wrinkled) because it's, you know, ironic. The dude on the right is going full on hipster today when you add in his overpacked wallet and (way too) many keys on a clip on his belt loop and he's dressed for hipster success.
While I've clipped their heads to maintain their anonymity, what you don't see is the crowning glory of tousled, kind of greasy, unwashed looking, poofy, messy hair. If you ask, they will say they just ran their hand through it but closer inspection will show they probably took 15 minutes to give it that bed head look and more than likely it's got some type of product in it. Their only other option is some kind of (again) ironic trucker hat thingy (damn you Ashton Kutcher!).
In short, a hipster wants to look they didn't really try and that everything is "cool dude" and that they literally just rolled out of bed and threw something on and walked out the door. But let's face it, that's far from the truth because in the immortal words of Dolly Parton, "it takes a lot of work to look this cheap!"
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