You've seen them.
They're in your favorite coffee shop, stirring their vegan soy latte, pushing their chunky wide frame glasses up on their nose while they explain that they spent their Saturday night watching experimental French films. They pass you at the book store, blue hair ablaze, ironic T-shirt in place, as they weave their way to the comic book section. They're next to you at the barber, making it clear that they want to leave the top long enough to pull into a bun, as they scratch their beard.
An interesting thing about Hipsters is that, despite their ever-increasing presence in society, it seems that no one wants to admit that they are one. This could be because hipsterdom is often associated with extreme shallowness. In fact, many feel hipsters are nothing but a vapid youth subculture that points towards a dark future. Among this rank is Douglas Haddow, a writer for a magazine called Adbusters. In his article "Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization," Haddow argues that hipsterdom is “…a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning.” He argues that the trends hipsters wear are not only copied from past youth movements, but rendered meaningless. He points out that instead of poor youth mocking the fashion of the elite, as in past youth movements, today, young privileged people are taking “symbols and icons of working or revolutionary classes” and causing them to be “appropriated by hipsterdom and drained of meaning.” It may be true that the popular fashion of today’s youth is not shrouded in political implications, as it was in the age of the hippies and the punks, but I believe that does not mean that the youth of today doesn’t stand for anything. All that has changed is that clothing and style is no longer one of the few options the youth of today has to make their voice heard.
In Sarah Barmak’s article "Hipsters and the Death of Cool," Barmak argues that just because young people no longer feel the need to make grand statements with their style, doesn’t mean they’re apathetic. On the contrary she argues, “…those under 30 still seem, strangely enough, to care about stuff.” So why did this bizarre style of wide frame glasses, ripped jeans, combat boots and ironic snap backs evolve if it doesn’t mean anything? Based on my experience, it is for one reason alone: people like it. Unlike past eras of style, the current style of todays youth is difficult to define because it is so varied. It pulls from different time periods, cultures and even crosses gender borders. There is only one rule anymore: wear what you feel good in. So, no wonder the “hipster” style looks so bizarre to outside onlookers—there are no rules. People no longer feel like they need to literally wear their views and identity on their sleeve. This is because, “The way people communicate deep involvement-in social change, in discourse, in subculture-has gone from being a below ground, analogue language of worn, spray painted or stitched symbols to the daylight of blogs, message boards and other digital mouth pieces.” Summarily, young people are suddenly being heard in the world more than ever, so the need to force their voices into all aspects of life, including style, has faded. Now, style has become a simple, more meaningless entity. Hipsters dress how they feel comfortable, either because it makes them feel like an accepted part of a group, or simply because they like it. Fashion has become just that, fashion. Plain and simple and devoid of subliminal meaning.
So, what exactly is it that the youth of today stands for, since they don’t so obviously display it on their clothes? The answer: too many things to count. The world has been made a smaller place by technology. ,Suddenly a person can see footage and read descriptive reports of an event on the other side of the world within moments of it occurring. This leaves the youth of today with something previous generations simply didn’t have: a choice of issues. Haddow claims “The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements.” This may be true, but how many of the hippies of the '60s were actually passionate about the issues and how many just enjoyed being a part of a dynamic group? How many fought for an issue simply because everyone else was doing it? Today, young men and women are exposed to more information than ever before, making it so that fewer people are jumping on the bandwagon of an ideal or a movement simply for the sake of being a part of a group, and more people are fighting for real issues that actually matter to them personally. Due to this diversity it would be impossible to create one clothing style to match the diversity of the individuals in todays youth, so a style was born to match this diversity. A style where nearly anything goes, because as Barmak describes, today’s youth's feeling toward style, “the kids just don’t seem to care.”
Hipsterdom is an indefinable phenomenon because it doesn’t mean anything deep or political. It is simply a fun fashion trend drawing from past trends and allowing kids to come into their own without fear of being seen as unconventional, in fact, unconventionality is encouraged. Young people no longer have a need to define themselves through their style because for the first time, they have options. The Internet and the rising focus on education allows young voices to be heard more than ever before, rendering politically doused style as a means of communication obsolete. Even if this weren’t true, it would still be difficult for one cohesive style to emerge because, once again, for the first time, kids are being inundated by knowledge of the world, allowing them to be more selective and honest about their causes and passions. All of these factors together create a multifaceted generation of people who aren’t afraid to be who they are, and frankly, I’d take that over an acid washed jean jacket covered in peace signs any day.
