Hipsters. (East) London, UK. (51 images)

View: 100 | All

Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled, urban middle class adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock. Other interests would include independent film, magazines such as Vice and Clash, websites like Pitchfork.
Christian Lorentzen argues that "hipsterism fetishizes the authentic elements of all of the fringe movements of the post-war era: beat, hippie, punk, even grunge. It draws on the cultural stores of every ethnicity and regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity."
Julia Plevin continues "the definition of 'hipster' remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle. The whole point of hipsters is that they avoid labels and being labelled. However, they all dress the same and act the same and conform in their non-conformity to an iconic carefully created sloppy vintage look."
UK media coined the term 'Shoreditch twat' immortalised by the fictional Nathan Barley and serialised on TV. "A 20-something dressed in over-priced torn clothing and numerous 80s retro fashion items. Ridiculous haircuts also de-rigueur. Commonly found in Shoreditch/Hoxton area, usually a new media, fashion student, photographer-type person making bad art in an overpriced warehouse apartment while living on seemingly limitless parental funds. They have an ability to talk about pseudo-intellectual artistic trend with no relevance to the real world, completely up their own backsides and a failure to comprehend of being the laughing stock of the local (ethnic) population."
Since 2007, there has been no better showcase for so-called "hipster fag" music in Britain than the 1234 and Field Day Festival. 1234, located in Shoreditch Park, has a "line-up that has always been unbearably ahead of the curve". Field Day runs in Victoria Park where for one day every year East-London vintage wear hoarding hipsters can shake it on down with their brothers and sisters.
(Web sources: Wikipedia, The Guardian, Urban Dictionary)
« less

View: 100 | All