Wednesday, September 03, 2008

the great hipster debate

I have this ongoing debate in my head about whether or not to feature rich hipster and it girl types on the blog.

because on the one hand, I roll my eyes thinking about these rich girls who smoke fags like it's a new trend, fill up the pages of nylon, and dress like they're poor while they're drinking chanel 2.5's worth of vodka.

and then i think; hell, sometimes these girls are annoying, and pretentious, but surely it's only their clothes that matter from my point of view as a fashion blogger.

i've brought up what i call "the hipster debate" briefly before, and i didn't really delve into it, but it's really been playing on my mind.

really interested to know what you think on this one. i love scanning the internet to see what the "real people are wearing"; it's my main source of style inspiration; but we're in an age where internet obsessions snowball out of control and it doesn't really seem right that it's so often the cocky kids of rock stars who are put on this high pedestal.
or maybe it's the internet that actually makes these girls appear in an unrealistic light? they pop up on sites like skullset and cobrasnake at parties, but maybe it's simply a case of them being captured at the parties they go to, and it isn't a case of them being these cold creatures who do nothing else with their lives.
share?

Edit: If this doesn't absolutely hit the nail on the head, I don't know what does.. Thanks Notes on Napkins! Case closed?

"I love people who have interesting style who play outside the trend rules... I don't like it when girls who just sit around smoking, hanging out not doing anything become it "girls" when really they are just girls with lots of money no ambition and dress well because thats all they have to do. I think girls who have a back story, something to go along with their style are so much better! Think Erin Wasson ,MK & A, fashion bloggers etc. I just think it so much better than a cory kennedy who looks dead in the eyes... we need more fresh faced hip girls that aren't rolling out of bed hungover reeking like alcohol and throwin on philip lim and being "cool" we need more stylish chicks with ambition!"

24 comments:

Lea said...

I sometimes feel a little jealous of all those girls, just because they look pretty and seem to have a fun life... Which is totally stupid. I mean, they surely have great fun but they keep being human, so I guess they have their problems too. The thing is I feel really inspired by the way they dress as far as they look quite effortlessly stylish... I think I'd dress as well if my family was as wealthy though. So I have a kind of paradoxical feeling about all those hipsters. Sometimes I'm like, too admirative, and sometimes I just think that they just have no credit. I finally feel way more inspired by people that look stylish without spending biiillions of dollars :D

discotheque confusion said...

this is exactly my view lula! down to a tee.

i find it annoying that so many of these girls get these amazing opportunities thrown their way; internships at fantastic magazines etc, ad campaigns for interesting brands.

so taking inspiration from them often seems wrong, when a lot of what they're wearing has been paid for by someone else.

but then it all starts to border on the money vs style debate. if somebody has natureal style AND money, then of course they should put it into good use?

ahh, i love fashion debates! ha.

Smaggle said...

Oh gosh I don't know. I never really thought about it that way before. I just get inspiration from what I like and I don't really think about the origin. If someone has both money and style the should bot penalised for that. I agree though about the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Frances Bean getting an intership at Rolling Stone? As if that would have happened if she had different parents...

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

I'm rather internally in the same debate. I loathe these rich kids who get attention for nothing but lifestyle (I think it's jealousy that I want their clothes...I'm a very jealous person sometimes). On the other hand, I too find it inspiring and wonder if I can ever get my hair ratty looking but still touchable...I guess I don't have a very cemented opinion for you.

Teresa said...

I don't know...I mean I'm kinda sick of all those kids in head to toe American Apparel with their ray bans and ironic mustaches gallavanting about with Cory Kennedy as their idol. And Vice Magazine is getting on my nerves given that the editor is some whtie supremacist.

Anonymous said...

it's crazy to think that one of my best girlfriends from high school is in this whirlwind of a life right now.. friends with two girls from CA, who like all the rich hipsters are from, go to school in NYC. My friend, whose family isn't close to being able to keep up with a woredrobe most her friends can easily access, but goes about her ownway to make things she has turn into what's "in".
I've heard gossip about her aa model friend, and her boyfriend breaking up with her to date infamous corey kennedy...and how my friends talk with him one night out made him realize he had madde a big mistake...and how the skullset boys are nothing but cocky assholes who want to get laid..
This semester around, my friend and her posse are almost sick of those rich hipsters who really have nothing going for them but their money... and are hoping that one day they too will be more famous than the elite hipsters..but for all the right reasons. and i'm right there behind them waiting for their next big break.

Anonymous said...

hipsters annoy me also, but i look at them nevertheless. i wouldn't mind if you kept posting on them, but i'm not a cory fan to be honest- she's washed up and just barely an adult already ugg, the chanel 2.55 worth of vodka is so true lol

Anonymous said...

hipsters annoy me also, but i look at them nevertheless. i wouldn't mind if you kept posting on them, but i'm not a cory fan to be honest- she's washed up and just barely an adult already ugg, the chanel 2.55 worth of vodka is so true lol

Eyeliah said...

If they are fashionable and you like the look why not feature it? :-) I don't get the dirty/messy hair look, I spend so much time getting my hair to not look like that.

Faith said...

I suppose this could be one of those "separate life from the art" situations because even though some "hipsters" have enviable opportunities that come about through wealth, their clothes and fashion sense are still things to be admired. Like someone mentioned their lifestyle could be a bit lackluster or obnoxious but that still does not mean that their style should be ignored...
They still have the ability to afford great clothes because of their money but so do some other people with great fashion sense that stay home. It's not really about the money anyway it's about what people do with their clothes. So perhaps people should turn a blind eye to the fame and fortune and just focus on the art, which is their style.

Daughters of Dawn said...

I think the funny and great thing is how so many hipsters deny that title and all honestly some of them genuinely think they aren't. Many ideas of hipsters vary so we now identify them with a uniform that can be purchased at A.A. or Urban Outfitters. Which is now becoming shunned amongst fashion conscious people which in result is a "hipster way" Trying to find something oddly new to be worn in a fashionable way that is not so mainstream.

discotheque confusion said...

so many interesting ideas! it's interesting that a lot of people are jealous of these hipsters.

but jealous of their clothes, rather than lifestyles, i hope!

thanks to anonymous for that "inside look." i'm not really surprised to hera that about the skullset guys, to be honest.

i'm starting to think that the way to roll is to take it all with a pinch of salt. i'll post about people's style that I think it worth knowing about. however, the likes of cory and peaches will never grace DC as I just don't think they're very admirable people.

it's very true about UO and AA becoming a "hipster" uniform.

Unknown said...

This is interesting. What would you do if you were born into a rich family with possible celebrity status? Playing devils advocate and not wanting to generalise too much, it really isn't their fault that they were born into these lives which some of us are admittedly jealous and facinated by. I imagine the scruffy looks are in a way rebelling againt what otherwise would be deemed as posh, extravagant and snobby. How can they win?

I have no idea if that made any sense...i'm quite rubbish at explaining myself sometimes.

Miss at la Playa said...

They do that because they don't need to worry about their future, their parents are influent and they can get everything they want.
In a sentence: "daddy, I want a pony"

Luna said...

Thanks alot for picking me! Means alot :)

Anonymous said...

i know what you mean - i feel uncomfortable enjoying their clothes when i don't feel like they deserve the spotlight on them. probably silly, i know... i think for me, part of it is having been quite involved in the similar scene in london's east end for a year or so, i had a real insight into how shallow and empty these people's lives are, revolving entirely around doing the latest new thing and, more importantly, getting photographed doing it. nowadays i still love the music and i love to admire the outrageousness and flamboyancy from afar, but knowing how calculated and deliberate it is leaves me cold. to me, that's not style.

Jaclyn Johnson said...

My view:

I love people who have interesting style who play outside the trend rules... I really don't like it when girls who just sit around smoking, hanging out not doing anything become it "girls" when really they are just girls with lots of money no ambition and dress well bc thats all they have to do. I think girls who have a back story, something to go along with their style are so much better! Think Erin Wasson ,MK & A, fashion bloggers etc. I just think it so much better than a cory kennedy who looks dead in the eyes... we need more fresh faced hip girls that aren't rolling out of bed hungover reeking like alcohol and throwin on philip lim and being "cool" we need more stylish chicks with ambition!

Anonymous said...

I'd rather just concentrate aesthetics...funnily enough though those 'hipster' rich girls' style never really seems all that attractive to me and I do end up liking the people who has other talents besides turning up to openings of envelopes....

Meghan and Lana said...

A good outfit is a good outfit! I don't really care who it's on . . . most of the time. But hipsters are really annoying and usually quite boring!

Anonymous said...

hmmmm... i think it is easy to talk about people who already get a lot of attention, no matter what background they come from, so it's nice to find new gems. but i don't think financial background should matter. a mix of backgrounds is nice. good dressers are good dressers.

and teresa re the vice guy, i don't think so, he just dresses like one, and likes to be annoying.

ellastica said...

my disdain for hipsters isn't so much their dress but more the conflicting message they present through them to the world and their attitude. sort of the whole irony of commercialized punk or trustafarians. mostly middle-class white kids dressed in thrifted clothes, driving around in beater volvos and vws reading nylon while shopping at whole foods (aka whole paycheck). i guess when money isn't an issue it's more enjoyable to dress penniless!?!?
most (tho not all)of the hipsters i've known are very narrow-minded, snobby and think their knowledge of indie music is superior, even tho they started listening to DCFC in college...i read InStyle a couple of years ago and Kirsten Dunst said something along the lines of "DCFC is a great band not very many people have heard of " ?!? Does she live under a rock? they've been around since 1997.
i saw them in 1999. clueless indie posturing a big turn-off. if your'e going to present yourself as hip then know your shit.

matt williams said...

I just think it so much better than a cory kennedy who looks dead in the eyes

LOLROF
Tyra can help Cory Kennedy with her dead eyes problem. I really thought I was the only to notice her dead eyes.

Personlly, I prefer to see anyone but the over photographed Hollywood starlets. I can't take anymore pics of movie stars. Give me modles and hipsters(rich&poor) before the Hollywood actresss any day.

megan said...

I think it's fine to post about these girls if you like what they're wearing or find inspiration in it, but I definetly agree with the quote- we need more ambition and passion!

megan / http://mallratcouture.blogspot.com

Mia said...

I see where all of you are coming from. It's very easy to imagine these women as freeloading, spoiled, and unmotivated. These are all things that are easy to dislike in other people. But whenever I have a thought like this, I chalk it up to my own irrational jealousy or maybe even my insecurity. Because when it comes down to it...I don't know the women in the photos I see. I stumbled upon this blog - not the web utility, I just found it - and I'm in no way an expert. But if it's to be a fashion blog, and you find the style of a woman in a photo to be appealing, then isn't it a small triumph for you to relay the fashion brilliance to your possibly non-hipster/spoiled/unmotivated readers?