The other week I found myself waltzing round a pop-up market. The stalls were packed with vintage and moth-eaten garb, exotic teas, original prints and Eastern street food.
The place, itself, was teeming with arty types with glasses, leather satchels, crazy hair, piercings and skinny jeans. In other words it was full of hipsters. "Ugh," I thought to myself before catching glimpse of my reflection in a shop window - my retro shades, 1980s leather jacket, my pastel blue hair loose about my shoulders. Am I one of them? Crap.
The term hipster has been flying about for donkey's years, but as of late it's back in Vogue. So much so that The New York Times felt the need to compile a very handy reference document in an attempt to pin point EXACTLY what a hipster is.
The NY Times lot sought out pieces published in the paper over the last decade that discussed, described or mentioned hipsters to create a sort of portfolio of hipsterdom.
Phrases like "all-night roof parties" (May 19, 2002), "cocktails with artisan bitters" (May 31, 2012) and "80s hairdos" (May 29, 2005) pepper The Times' glossary of hipster hallmarks. AND if those three snippets don't sum up my life, I really don't know what else would (kidding, I'm not cool enough to warrant an invite to a roof-top soiree).
So from one apparent hipster, here's my attempt at a cool kid 101...