Why!!!! Hipsters!!! Why!!!!!

[Shangas]

Everyone should to a certain extent, never care what anyone else ever thinks, of them, or anything else. If we all thought alike, we'd be stuck in the Stone Age.

 

[wireless man]

I have a pair of actual hickory-stripe workers' overalls I wear to work on my car...

while not very lady like for the 20s-40s era, i think its awesome you do that. its always good to hear of folks fixing their own stuff.

 

[ButteMT61]

Me, I couldn't care less what the Japanese themselves do or wear, since I'm neither Japanese nor do I live in Japan. But I do think the idea of taking "workwear" and turning into some high-end boutique parody of itself for the sake of fashion is the height of ridiculousness, and folks will have to pardon me if I find the idea of somebody spending hundreds of dollars for a pair of dungarees or overalls or a jacket just so they can look "authentic" to be utterly absurd. I have a pair of actual hickory-stripe workers' overalls I wear to work on my car or do greasy chores around the theatre, and I'll sell them to the first bidder right here on the Lounge for $1500. Real stains, real holes, real sweat on them -- even a couple of small bloodstains. Now that's authentic.

I'd be happy to wear my grandpas and great-grandpas gear if it were even close to my size. I look all the time for gear like that in my size. Almost never do I find it, so I'm relegated to reproduction gear to wear what I like. It's expensive. Some of the reasons I get. Low-production rates, highly skilled and hard to find labor, small market. I've ruined some of that gear doing actual work. Painful it is. I'm 52. I've worn stuff like this my whole life - through every trend that's come and gone. Hipsters will move to the next thing once irony becomes "meh". I still enjoy "crappy" American lagers. A cheesesteak made with correct Cheez Whiz. Again, some,of you miss the real prickling point on hipsters - attitude. I live in LA. People wear everything here. I dig that. I don't dig a-holes. My hipster,scientific sampling is mostly proven to be said a-holes. That's my issue.

 

[LizzieMaine]

while not very lady like for the 20s-40s era, i think its awesome you do that. its always good to hear of folks fixing their own stuff.

Heh. Not being ladylike runs in my family -- during the war my aunt was the first female longshoreman in Maine, and worked part-time in a gas station besides.

 

[Tomasso]

while not very lady like for the 20s-40s era .

Wait, are you sayin' Rosie wasn't no lady!?

 

[ButteMT61]

Wait, are you sayin' Rosie wasn't no lady!?

I'd reckon the best sort of lady!

 

[Feraud]

There is often an assumption around here that there is something beyond an interest in old stuff that makes "us" us. I wonder if that might explain the tendency to differentiate us from "them."

If a "hipster" and I are both interested in some item of furniture at a thrift store, say, I would take it as a sign of commonality rather than difference. I'd feel the same way if it were the lady from the garden club.



As it turns out, people a generation or two behind me are into that stuff, too. Or so my vintage-dealer acquaintances tell me. Are they "hipsters"? Depends on who you ask, I suppose.

We seem loathe to admit to have more in common with that counterculture than we realize..

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

We seem loathe to admit to have more in common with that counterculture than we realize..

So far I haven't taken to growing kale on my roof.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have moss growing on my garage roof, does that count?

 

[1961MJS]

I have moss growing on my garage roof, does that count?

Hi Lizzie, I thought I'd be the first.

"It only counts if you eat it."

Later

 

[Feraud]

We city dwellers have little outdoor space. I give credit for utilizing space rather than following the train of typical bloated Americans driving in droves to the local Costco and Target to buy as much processed bulk as possible.

I guess it's not what you do but how you look doing it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

 

[Feraud]

It's the place to be!

 

[jamespowers]

So far I haven't taken to growing kale on my roof.

Or hair like a tumbleweed.

 

[jamespowers]

People like us (those who truly care about vintage) often get lumped in with hipsters, and that bothers me, too. If everyone suddenly dressed the same as I did, I wouldn't change my style. I'd probably be happier, because I wouldn't feel like such an odd duck. Prices for fedoras, and vintage-styled clothes could come down, because they'd be produced in larger bulk, and thereby cheaper, and more readily available. Sounds great to me.

I think that is one of the best points here. If style caught up to us then fine. We aren't going to change.

 

[Fletch]

There is often an assumption around here that there is something beyond an interest in old stuff that makes "us" us. I wonder if that might explain the tendency to differentiate us from "them."

If a "hipster" and I are both interested in some item of furniture at a thrift store, say, I would take it as a sign of commonality rather than difference. I'd feel the same way if it were the lady from the garden club.

I hope you're right about commonality. Ideally, taste is something independent of our social and personal circumstances - purely what one likes.

But in reality, it often plays out as deterministic - what you like is what your "type" likes. Hipsters might like a,b,c,d; gays b,d,e,f; conservatives c,d,e; loners a,d,f,g; and so on. Whether this is due to the ways we find out about things - usually from some community - or due to some intrinsic appeal to our type is another question.

Then too, you can often cross-map interests over each other. Indy fans might like straight razors but not phonographs; vintage dress-wearers might not be into shirtwaists; etc, etc.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been in and out of style at least half a dozen times in the last thirty years or so. Style is irrelevant. Subcultures are irrelevant. Trends are irrelevant. Irony is irrelevant. "Cool" is irrelevant. You will not be truly free until you honestly reject all of those concepts.

 

[Dan Allen]

I have moss growing on my garage roof, does that count?

I inadvertently grew mushrooms in the trunk of an old car so I guess qualifies me.

 

[jamespowers]

I've been in and out of style at least half a dozen times in the last thirty years or so. Style is irrelevant. Subcultures are irrelevant. Trends are irrelevant. Irony is irrelevant. "Cool" is irrelevant. You will not be truly free until you honestly reject all of those concepts.

Exactly. :clap:

 

[MisterCairo]

I guess I'm alone in this one on the forum.

No, not alone...