A new hipster uniform…

63 comments

1. If you can’t say sumet nice, then zip it!
   Btw I would have been left clutching my pearls had you NOT nominated Mr Kirkwood…our mutual love of his talent runs deep!

2. I was once at a restaurant that had been described by Zagats as being populated by hipsters. Yet I didn’t see any hipsters. Does that mean the hipster was…ME?!?

3. ever since i read the adbusters article about hipsterdom heralding the end of western civilization (http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html), i’ve been thinking long and hard about the H word.. i’m writing my women’s studies final paper on the parallel between the consumer-driven hipster culture and the subsumation of Beat fashion into the mainstream in the 1950s.. i think what it all boils down to is that it’s hard to sustain a counterculture for long, and they’ll always eventually gain the ire and disdain of someone, somewhere..i think that in our day and age, with the hyperexchange of information, it just happened sooner for the hipsters.

4. Honestly, I can’t say that I’m surprised. This was one of the only profitable retail companies this year.

5. I have yet to succumb to purchasing anything from AA, but have my eye on a Flashdance-reminiscent grey marle raglan…
   Don’t think I’d call them the H word, just B for Basics…

6. I like your evolution suggestions, particularly the elaborate headgear! I feel a return to the serious pursuit of crowning adornments is in order for 2009… slowly catching on judging by the amount of fascinators on Etsy.

7. Personally, I LOVE those scarves & wide AA V tops, they’re part of my daily uniform. They’re more than basics,’cause they look cool on their own plus you can combine them in a trillion of ways. And AA really knows how to make ethical fashion sexy. However. From a style hunter’s perspective, AA makes things a tad difficult. No matter what city or style blog you visit, it is VERY hard to avoid the AA /vintage hipster army. In fact, last year in Berlin Mitte, AA even opened up their own vintage boutique, called California Vintage. No doubt, a super super clever move – but yeah, I’m really really longing for the time the AA/futurist modernist crowd is gathering momentum. So thanks for your suggestions:-)

8. I’d subscribe to that uniform! 🙂
   Can it include a return to proper shaped backpacks please? But in luxe fabrics/textures! (Anyone seen anything in a flocked/velour wallpapery pattern?!)

9. Oh gosh, lets just get rid of the phrase “hipster” because it is so loaded – it implies that you are unfunny, sarcastic, and annoying, and I know that just because you wear flannel and skinny jeans does not make you an obnoxious person. I have to say though, the thing I was focused on most throughout this post was the SKINNY SATIN TREWS. I adore them, especially your’s and Queen Michelle’s pairs.

10. hmm this is a really interesting post.
    truthfully, everytime i go into AA i see supposed “hipsters”, but whatever. i like AA’s clothing, and i’m pretty sure i wouldn’t be categorized as a ‘hipster’ 🙂
    btw, great great blog! would you care to link exchange? 😀

11. I hate shopping there but man alive, I am obsessed with their tri-blend tees. OB-SESSED.

12. I’m having a heck of a time finding clark desert boots for women- I’ve been looking for 3 years. Apparently Canadian stores don’t think they are a big hit!

13. i’m all for the silly posts! a sea of ellaborate headgear would make me very happy. it’s also quite funny how AA only have flagship stores in certain places, many people i know haven’t heard of them, and they still managed to win label of the year. i’m actually more dreading the opening of a manchester store as i don’t want to be clubbing in a sea of identical u-neck dresses!

14. yes thats pretty weird… maybe the AA people paid someone for this write up? LOL “hipster” is a label that goes both ways depending on who you’re talking to. in manhattan, hipsters were referred to the williamsburg kids who ALL seemed to be dressed in uniform… admitedlly, while i lived in brooklyn i never felt like one of them since they ARE really too cool for words… great idea breaking down the formula tho!

15. The general definition of “hipster” tends to puzzle me, as it is different in every country. Well maybe not the definition but the uniform. To me a hipster is American, not English, and an American hipster is… erm… I don’t know.
    I wouldn’t really know how to pinpoint a British hipster by uniform either as to me the cool kids tend to dress their own way.
    As for AA being a hipster uniform, whenever I read stuff like this in the papers, I scratch my head too as to me they mostly make good quality basics, and are not exactly a fashion statement. But maybe that’s where my vision of hipsters is wrong, maybe they are not after making fashion statements at all.
    You got me all confuzzled now. hipster or not hipster? aaaaaaah!
    xxx

16. I live in NY,and work in the Fashion industry, and I am quite surprised to find that AA is considered “hip”. I guess I never paid much attention to that brand- just thought it was kind of bland basics. Who knew??

17. My personal feelings about AA are not so concerned with whether or not they’re “hipster” (I doubt many people in my small town know who they are, which makes it hard for them to become oversaturated here), but more with their business practices and their owner. I’m not the type to tell people where to shop, but I would encourage you to read a little bit about the company and then make your decision.

18. You know, I really love reading Polly Vernon’s articles in Observer Women. She’s always so spot on.
    Gotta love the old mod favourite, Clarks desert boots. Been meaning to track down a pair for my man on ebay. xx

19. Wearing AA isn’t stylish or creative. It’s en masse and it’s boring. I don’t really care if I offend anyone by saying that.
    In Melbourne, Australia, it’s considered hip only for the reason that it’s androgynous. Skinny girls who party and take drugs can wear it layered and swap with their boyfriends. It’s not fashionable, it’s just easy.

20. Emily is right!!

21. You have to admit, although the items can run too short and too revealing at times, overall they have basic but very versatile items. I’ve read an article which referred to them as this generation’s Gap. I’m totally with you on the skinny satin pants though!

22. Isn’t it un-hip if it’s a “uniform?”

23. AA markets 80’s clothing back to kids who grew up in the 80’s. colorful, body conscious, inexpensive…all that’s missing is a side ponytail.

24. gee wilikers, i LOVE clarks desert boots. seems no one else until now loves them! the floral ones are really rad.

25. I’ve always had the same vague impression of what a “hipster” I had somewhat decided I would not even try to really quantify it but your definition does make alot of sense

26. I love your new hipster uniform. I would gladly be a hipster if they were wearing those hats/headbands.

27. I have been preparing to write about ‘hipsters’ for a long time. So this is a great post, far as I’m concerned.
    One definition of Hipster that i like is, “Someone who’s already sick of something you haven’t even heard about yet.”
    Have you noticed that whatever a Hipster is, it certainly isn’t one’s self? It’s ALWAYS someone else. It’s the worst insult in pop culture….even worse than Emo!

28. the french ‘bobo’

29. Thanks for commenting on my blog! I think it’s so great that you still support the “little guys” even with the million other things going on in you life!
    Great post! I completely agree with you, I seem to be quite oblivious when it comes to labeling a group of people. That, and also I just don’t like it! Is it realy nessecary to pigeon-hole a “type” of person? Does it really your life easier by branding everything and everyone? I don’t beleive so.
    I love your 2009 predictions, I’d gladly sample every one of those looks! Esp the sheer t-shirt… I need one, badly.
    <3<3<3

30. sigh.
    i don’t fall for AA style really.
    but i can say that i would, if judged, fall into what people call the brooklyn hipster crowd.
    i have finally stopped calling it “the H word” and accepted the fact that i am not the only cool person in this world. haha.
    i think the thing i hate about associating AA with hipsterdome is just the blanket of simple style.
    the thing i love about my wardrobe is that there are hundreds of one of a kind (well, i don’t anyone else in williamsburg wearing them) vintage pieces. i have dressed this way since i was 13 or 14.
    so i stand in front of everyone. a proud (shriek) hipster.
    because no specific brand will define or limit my closet.
    can i get an amen?

31. AMEN!

32. Loving the shoes.

33. I’ve got a pair of satin skinnies due to arrive on my porch tomorrow, lol…
    I’ll have to wear them with my Clark’s like you say. 🙂
    I know what you mean about Hipster becoming a bad word. Looking down on hipsters is just as much a fashion as the hipster movement.
    Re: AA, I bet a similar article was written about The Gap in the 90’s.

34. “Thanks for commenting on my blog! I think it’s so great that you still support the “little guys” even with the million other things going on in you life!”
    totally agree with niceandshiny on that one… i got the shock of my life when i saw your comments on my blog! your time management is AMAZING… i think you could probably even do a motivational speaking tour on it? i am starting to wonder whether you have assistants working for you?? i can hardly keep up with my job let alone anything else!
    on the hipster debate…
    “Their spiritual home is Williamsburg, a recently revived area of Brooklyn, rammed with organic coffee shops, tiny boutiques, galleries and independent bars. They dress exclusively in vintage, hats, designer one-offs produced by their hipster friends – and American Apparel.” …from the polly vernon article…
    well that doesn’t sound like such a terrible life to me?
    x

35. I’m actually feeling the desert boots, in particular the white ones with the lacey bit on the side.

36. i do worry that all this hipster bashing is coming from people who are a little bit jealous of the life these so-called hipsters lead, or have us believe they lead at least.
    also – was was really hoping i’d keep scrolling down and come to a photo of you actually wearing all these things. any chance??

37. Kirsty Lee: just need the desert boots to get me going…. !

38. I love the looks you’ve come up with but I think the term ‘hipster’ kind of encompasses more than an aesthetic now.
    It IS a defined cultural movement, and I think it’s been deemed the dead end of generation y. It’s where aspiration ends and apathy begins. I’m not sure how you diferentiate a hipster from someone who just dresses to that aesthetic, but there is definietly a whole section of our generation whose rebellion is complete ignorance and inaction.
    I think because the movement is so introspective, and has only been defined from the outside, ‘hipsters’ themselves don’t really recognise their quiet rebellion. Mostly because they are too self involved or just don’t care. It makes me sad for our generation because we are so blessed and so many parents have worked so hard for us and yet so many young people just squander their gifts and become ignorant to anything but their own world.
    End rant.
    xx

39. Ps sorry about my little digression.I really do love AA simply, like everyone else that’s commented, because of the simplictity. Their basics are fantastic for layering with special pieces in your wardrobe.
    Their advertising is just soft core slash kiddy porn though.

40. i think you are totally spot on with your formula for 2009. in fact i have been searching HIGH AND BLOODY LOW for some uber skinny satin trousers, pref black, pref with a zip up the back of the calf. and the desert boots – a footwearstaple in my native South Africa (except there we call them ‘veld skoene’ (literal translation: field/bush boots)for both hipsters and farmers alike!
    any tips on finding that perfect pair of satin trews susie???? x

41. i don’t get it because hipsters have been around since what the 60’s? its even referenced in an old yardbirds song.
    its just “cool kids” within a certain age range who eventually will start having children move into the burbs and scramble desperately to remove their tattoos and piercings. then they’ll have to be explained to what a hipster means because they forgot.
    my parents were hipsters back in the days….
    were yours?

42. Well the Russian girls have been embracing the skinny satins since forever ( approx 5 years ago, when I first came to Russia).

43. Urban-dwelling sixth-former. I guess thats me then.

44. I am in love with Clarks desert boots, as soon as I can afford some I’m buying! I was not surprised seeing the article in the Guardian, it seems that all what my mother calls the ‘arty’ type seem to have a uniform of AA. However, I still like the basics they sell…although admittedly I’m going more to Uniqlo these days. And I still have no idea what a hipster is?!

45. YES!! it pleases me to know you’re a lover of clarks desert boots! and i wear mine with rolled up black skinnys and they i think they look amazing. But everyone at work laughs at me saying they look like teddy bears boots. I think they’re just jealous, and certainly will be if i get my hands on a pair of those jazzy floral ones!!

46. How do you pick any other labels for the “label of the year” award when AA has visibly (as worn on the backs of the masses) been the only label around?
    Are choosing on novelty, popularity, or quality?

47. the hipster “movement” needs to end. and soon. like really soon before i leave new york. or the country.

48. As much as people dog on AA, they really have been doing well lately… their stuff is everywhere and on everyone! They even opened their first store here at Waikiki recently. As for the new trends, the sheer shirts and Clarks desert boots look appealing.. I have GAP boots from the kids section that resemble them, they were only $25!

49. Hahaa! A month ago I was trying to explain to my 30-something male coworkers what a “hipster” was. I tried to define them as: “kids who wear American Apparel etc” – (they still didn’t understand -no clue what AA was- so I had them look it up in wikipedia) but then it hit me:I wear AA stuff too, does that make me a …hipster?
    P.S. according to the Brit in our group Hipsters are “Scene kids” in Liverpool.

50. Don’t worry about that Susie. Whether I like it or not you’re spot on the trend. What you’re showing here is already happening in Australian and I’m 100% certain that it’s ACTUAL now.

51. I have never understood the hatred of hipsters. The ridiculous stereotyping focuses on petty details about fashion trends. The Hipster Handbook was authored by an editor from a magazine (Adbusters) that, at least as of ’04, was a hipster staple (Who reads it now? I think many readers outgrew the rags religious tone the same way people outgrew the novelty of Vice).
    The fact is though that like all stereotypes the caricatures are built for entertainment and general readers with no firsthand experience with the subject have something to froth about. Years ago hipsters were supposed to be shallow socialists obsessed with irony. Now it just means people who wear skinny jeans. A lot of hipsters, according to this definition, wear nothing but designer labels now. I wish magazines would stop complaining about hipsters, its really just beyond viability now.

52. I think I’m a bit bored of AA now, fanaticism tends to wane a little when you see 394832847 girls in the same tight black scoop neck dress on one night out in camden. It kind of is just a bit like gap (not morally of course) except gap at least has tailoring.
    I totally agree with you on the desert boot thing. Everyone at Central Saint Martins is all over them like a rash.

53. Living in New York’s hipster central, Williamsburg, I am used to all the adjectives and uniforms a hipster is ‘meant’ to have. Still, whenever I walk down the street, people don’t look like they are dressed in uniforms at all. In fact, the polo-clad preppy set dresses more uniformly, if I do say so myself. Yes, we wear a lot of vintage. And yes AA makes it easy to find the ‘basics’ you need to pair it with (shiny leggings=basics here). But that’s the beauty of vintage. It’s never the same item, and people wear it differently. I think AA deserves the accolade, not because I like the store (I hate the porn-y ads), but because they make simple stuff in a variety of colors that you can pair with even the most outrageous 80s batwing sweater… which now they sell themselves, under Cali Select. Still unsure how I feel about them selling vintage… Better than naming rip-off retailer Urban Outfitters.

54. I live in Brooklyn and the “hipster scum” that live here pretty much shop exclusively at AA, Uniqlo, and thrift stores. Let em go ahead and wear those boring, jacked up in price clothes that lack in quality and are made in quasi “ethical” sweatshops but for Gods sake get them out of my beloved thrift stores. Because of them prices have sky-rocketed at the Salvation Army & Goodwill stores. Take a chance and be ironic wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch ensemble for a change.

55. Oops almost for got to include Urban Outfitters into that category. The minute you walk any UO store it’s like a hipster grenade went off and spewed its remnants all over the place and on the people. Especially the “friendly” employees. Plus paying over a 100 bucks for a “vintage inspired” shirt at UO is outrageous & has never ever sat well with me or my wallet. All I have to do is go to Goodwill or Salvation Army for a real vintage shirt for $1.99. Beat that!

56. GRRR! Now everyone’s gonna be wearing desert boots. There goes my individuality with my plum coloured ones from Venice 🙁

57. oh dear, i spent all year looking for satin trews … where to get them??? sigh.

58. oh dear, i spent all year looking for satin trews … where to get them??? sigh.

59. i very much agree… with the “H” word. i must say one thing, as much as a dislike AA’s fashion-not-fashion “hipster” -ness i think certain things need to informed of. though NYC is purported to be the fashion capital of america, not all American fashions originate from there. i think it’s rather insulting to associate any fashion phenomenon with pretentious and thoughtless lower east side new york artistes. AA is a los angeles phenomenon, not a new york one. Dov Charney took an industry and style that already existed in LA and started marketing it to wealthy young west side angelino hipsters… through semi pornographic ads… and that’s kinda why it started getting so popular in LA. its progressive ideals attracted more young customers with cash in pockets bc most garments in LA are made through illegal sweatshop labor- and american apparel made it a point to produce legal and respectful *basic* wear with whacky colors and a modern cut not being provided anywhere else in the basic T market. when it became successful they naturally starting expanding their selection. i think the designers were just catering to a colorful look already being worn the more creative populations in the city. i understand that the american diplomacy record is not anything to be proud of, but i don’t think it should be mistakenly extended to fashion or the current american youth generation- they’re just spoiled children whose parents control large companies…
    i do think i understand why there is so much hatred against AA prototype kid. there are a lot of very protected and very spoiled children in the city (LA) who helped make AA what it is and thus have come to embody the type of people AA is supposed to represent… spoiled narcissistic thoughtless over-sheltered douche-baggy yet harmless overgrown children who love fun surface art and music and live to have sex, make money, spend money, and have fun. i think the reason why people get angry is because this is a very privileged lifestyle but these types of “H” people oftentimes do not know of any world outside their own and may not appreciate what they have enough.
    well, that’s my rant from what i consider the real ground zero for AA- Los angeles.

60. oh, btw, i adore your blog!

61. i love the headgear… everyone says hats are back, but i don’t see anyone wearing them except to ward off the cold. i would love to see some elaborate head-garments!
    AA style reminds me of the 80’s brand ‘MULTIPLES’ – where everything was one size and it was all these vibrant colors of cotton clothes that you’d cinch to your size with a bandeau. Does anyone remember this brand? I would love to get some of those pieces now.

62. Huh, I had a pair of Clarks desert boots a few years ago–I got them off ebay, wore them into the ground & didn’t feel inclined to get another pair. I had *no* idea they were considered hipster though I suppose I might have qualified at the time I was wearing them.
    I really hate Dov Charney. He grosses me out. The few times I’ve gone into American Apparel, I didn’t think the quality was any better than the basics at other shops & never bought anything. I don’t think I’ll start any time soon–though I obviously do. not. judge. other people shopping there. To each his own.

63. HI, Every one.
    I want to choose and buy some uniforms from internet now.
    Now i want to sell uniforms to Hongkong. But now i need some product info about uniforms.
    Who can give me some advice about uniforms. Thanks

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