Ever since the 1920’s the style 20 years before usually recycles decade after decade. The “recycled” new fad is the 80’s fashion. Which consist of leg warmers, big hair, outrageous custom jewelry, spenders, leggings, etc. Now we see a lot of boys sporting tight jeans with chains, vans, ice cream sneakers while busting moves on their skateboards.
Personally, I thought that was a hipster. The problem is the term “hipster” is such a vague phrase. I had to investigate hipsters so I went to some of their hangouts. I took a visit to “Beacon’s Closet”, which is a clothing store located in Williamsburg that caters to any style.
From most people, I found out that a hipster is a extremely self conscious person when it comes to fashion and people’s perspective of them completely. In Williamsburg, which is the most popular hipster neighborhood and hangout, the customers of “Beacon’s Closet” refers to the word “hipster” as a insult. Some described it as a negative term.
When I questioned some of the customers about their definition of a hipster, they had different perspectives.
“ A hipster is someone that thinks too much about what they’re wearing.” stated by Kate Moross, a young London woman maybe in her mid 20’s.
“ A hipster is somebody that goes along with that they’re comfortable with.” said by Jeff Brandel, a young teen who considered himself a hipster because he sets his own trends.
I actually spoke with some of the employees at Beacon’s Closet and they gave me some good incite on hipsters and the store. I spoke with Christana Kui and she believes that a hipster is very socially aware on current events. I was astonished by her comment because she was actually one of the interviewees who took this story as a joke. Nonetheless, her advice was still helpful.
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“I can tell you one thing about hipsters, none of them likes to be called one.” said one of the Beacon Closet’s customers.
It was amazing that quite a few of the shoppers in Beacon’s Closet referred to the “hipster lifestyle” as a joke and mostly none of them considered themselves a hipster. My opinion of a hipster is simply a person who dresses weird, but if it was that simple, everyone associated with Beacon’s Closet would be a hipster.
I had an very interesting interview with Frank151’s administrator and partner of Still Life (a hat line, www. stilllifenyc.com), Jesse Nicely. Frank151 is a street cultural, free spirited magazine and I thought that Jesse would be great for this story. Inside “Frank’s Chop Shop” (which is owned a barbershop adjacent to the Frank151 office) Jesse introduced himself to me and we started talking. His main opinion of hipsters were they are not cool.
It was fascinating to hear his opinions of how hipsters are lame. “It’s kind of an insult, it’s like maybe you’re too hip, too trendy or trying too hard.”
I did agree with Jesse but I knew it had to be people who sided with the hipster lifestyle. I came across an article in The New York Times about a store in East Harlem and the thing that caught my eye about it was the caption “a popular hangout for hipsters.”
I reached out to Bahr Brown who created The Vigilantee Tee Shirt Company and owns “Everything Must Go”, in East Harlem. At “Everything Must Go”, Bahr carries a number of lines such as “BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB” aka BBC, Pharell Williams’ extravagant, and new clothing line and “CLAW” and some unfamiliar skateboard lines. The first impression I had of Everything Must Go when I first got there was that this is warm and loving place.
Brown provides a hangout and skateboard shop for local community kids. During my visit there, I spoke with some customers and some of Brown’s entourage.
“I’m a hipster.” stated by Brown.
“I consider myself a hipster because I follow the trends.”
Most of the customers at Everything Must Go wore ice cream sneakers, vans, tight jeans with colorful sweaters. From Brown’s point of view “Being a hipster is a lifestyle.” The feedback I got from the East Harlmers, was that “hipsters were cool and free spirited.”
Brown and his entourage refers to the term hipster as a cool term and they actually considered themselves hipsters. This is a very self explanatory topic because everyone has their own opinion.
A couple of years ago, the trend of “saggin” pants was in. Guys would wear baggy jeans that hung all the way down to the buttocks. Now the trend is tight jeans. Some still wear theirs saggin but they are definitely tight. While guys sport their tight Levi’s accessorized with chains, girls are wearing skinny jeans, colorful shirts, colorful sneakers and massive accessories. Whether you are white, black, Indian or Asian everyone is sporting the “hipster look”.
Hipsters are found in mainly Soho and Williamsburg. They are identified by colorful clothes, tight jeans, crazy hair styles such as : mohawks, spikes, etc. Some would say the “hipster look” belonged to whites but now there are more black “hipsters” than white ones.
“Urban people get fresh cause they wanna impress people.” stated by Dominique Santiago, an hispanic girl who considers herself an hipster. I think all the Black “hipsters” are following the trend and it is so hypocritical for someone to categorize their own people especially when you are following the trend too. I personally do think that blacks are just following the trend, but they are not the only ones.
Their are a bunch of people white or black carrying around skateboards when they really don’t skate and they have no common interest for it, but they are following the trend.
“Personally everyone that is wearing new ice creams, new bapes and you skate, you haven’t been skating for more than three (3) or four (4) months. stated by Michael Mejeh”. Skaters wear dirty clothes because they are planning to get dirty and get scarred. Skating is a culture and these “fake hipsters” are totally disregarding that. Although it may sound offensive to innocent people who are just following the trend, it convinces me.
“If you’re trying to be a hipster, that’s it, you’re trying, it’s either you are or you’re not.” said by a young man named Precise. Hipsters are described as many things. John Morrison feels that a hipster creates their “own personal creation”.
Many people spoke about ‘fake hipsters” and if their are fakers, wouldn’t everyone who is just following the trend be a faker. Just because the trend is popular now, that doesn’t mean that people weren’t into the trend before it became popular such as a Ieisha Ashwood who states “I’m still gonna be dressing the same way I been {when the trend fades out}”.
Some thought that the trend is lame, some thought that it was cool and some people had neutral perspectives. One guy, Gerard Joras who doesn’t consider himself a hipster says that “Everyone has their own style. Everyone’s always into something the next person is into.” Every year and every season something new is in, but I guess the “hipster trend” is by far, the most popular recycling of a style.
I just thought it would be important to find out about everyone’s intake on fashion and how it has an effect on today’s society. During this journey, I found out a lot about “hipsters” and fashion. Although I would never know the true meaning of a hipster, because all I heard was peoples’ opinions, which were all different, I did hear something very common from everyone “Hipsters follow the trend.”
Dacia has been with Harlem Live since July of 2008. Dacia has taken the role of leader of her team and acted the part as she leads her team successfully winning three presentation challenges. 
