To ask what a "hipster is?

[TheoriginalLEM]

So this term is bandied about a fair bit.

But what defines "hipster" ?

Why are people being so nasty? It's just a fashion and - as youth culture goes - I don't see what is wrong with this one.

Poncey lumberjacks. I like in Canada and there's a rash of them here.

It's not really a youth fashion. I quite like youth.

There's a couple at DD's school. Beards, kilts, weird umbrellas and the most unfriendly wankers you could hope to meet.

Short hair with a full beard.
Clothes so tight they look like kids sizing. Especially the shorts which leave nothing to the imagination.

How do you drown a hipster?

In the mainstream

Apparently I have fully embraced the hippster lifestyle.

Anti-hipster vitriol fascinates me. Because they are predominantly white and wealthy, they have become the only acceptable group to target with scorn. Paradigms of privilege! ponders

I find it funny how many 'only acceptable' groups there are. Smokers, hipsters, overweight people, Tories. Any others?

I once went to the birthday of an old friend (in the art world) a few years ago in Dalston(Hackney). It was very strange, as literally ALL the men were wearing tight fitting short sleeved shirts(mostly white), and had considerable facial hair. I don't think they could have been aware of how uniform their appearance was, it actually felt very cultish, considering everyone was in their 30s and 40s. They were definitely hipsters.

Take a mini break in Berlin for prime hipster spotting opportunities.

Is Google broken?

It seems to me that becoming a hipster is a man's attempt to become a woman-free zone. I can quite believe it is successful.

You'll find them all over inner city areas - Hackney, Brixton etc. which were once seen as a dump, and are now suddenly 'cool'. But only once they've driven the original residents out, of course...

As olderthanyouthink said upthread, Hoxton is a good area for hipster spotting. I was meeting a friend there earlier this year but her train into London was severely delayed whilst I was also en-route, so I found a nice bar/restaurant next to the station while I waited for her. I sat outside with my glass of wine and watched the world go by - it sure was hipster central!

Goodness I had no idea. Around these parts they are very polite and make nice coffee. What do they do that's so bad?

"Hipster" is basically normal fashion now for the last few years. Beards are a recession thing and have been mainstream again now for about 7 years.

The coffee thing is because recently (last 10 years) the technology/hardware for coffee roasting and preparation became cheaper and more accessible to small businesses and startups (and startups thrive in a recession - see above). It's like web design, micro-breweries, retail - the technology has become more democratic in lots of areas, with a lower entry to market, so more people can get into it. And then they don't have to wear suits to work so you see fashion changing.

They refuse to integrate into mainstream society... I should have thought that they are pretty solidly mainstream by now.

Fashion victims of a particular kind (as described). A 20-something version of a teen fashion/music/lifestyle 'tribe', signifying extended youth these days.

Rather like people naming their baby (insert latest trend) they all believe they're being very original.

But yes, basically THE standard, mainstream extended youth fashion tribe, for men anyway.

IMO, most hipsters think they are counter culture.

But they now count as culture... if that makes sense.

But why the vitriol, people? Live and let live, we are entitled to live as we please as long as we arent hurting others...

They cycle, they don't ski.

To be fair, one of these is more useful than the other for getting yourself around London.

One shouted I don't ski at me once at a party. Amused me no end.

It's a bit if a shit name, really.

It's a particular set of fashion/style/hobbies that go together.

But "hipster" is already untrue in the strictest sense.

As quoted above a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.

No longer outside the mainstream and, there's probably more than one thing that could reasonably be called "the latest".

They knit their own orgasms.

I read that it's a response to fading masculinity - the beard thing. Hmmm

Blimey some of you sound like my great auntie Winnie watching Woodstock.

Man bun?