Hipsters rove in hungry packs, easily identifiable by their painted-on jeans and quickly-rotating ensemble of accessories designed to make them stand out like their friends. When not loitering at bus stops and coffeeshops in considered poses of indifference, they're out looking for records nobody else has heard of (read: cares about). But even the meatgrinder of cool that is hipsterdom couldn't kill the truly awesome items on this list. Perhaps permanently scar them with the stench of dirty clothes and excessive hair product, maybe, but never, ever kill.
FlannelYou know that something has peaked when it's offered for $10 in the teen section at Target. Yes, flannel is reaching new heights in popularity. No, that is not an oxymoron. Pair it with a trucker hat, a scarf, and an ironic tattoo, and you have the flannel presented through a hipster lens. But if history has taught us one thing, it's that flannel cannot be co-opted into any one group. Not by lumberjacks, butch lesbians, truckers, nor Eddie Bauer-shopping soccer moms, and certainly not by cool people. If anything, the universality of something so ugly and unflattering speaks to the universal power of comfortable fabric.
SunglassesThis one cut it a bit too close for comfort, escaping death by hipsterdom narrowly just this year when every version of every pair of shades worn by any Hollywood hipster showed up at Urban Outfitters en masse for $25 a pop. But sunglasses will always be cool, and that's just the fact of it. That is, unless, you pull a Corey Hart and throw 'em on at night. Then we don't know you.
Pabst Blue RibbonSomehow this beverage became inextricably linked with trucker hats and weasel mustaches when it came to hipster cliches, but let's face it, there are several perfectly good reasons to drink this stuff. First off, it's cheap, so you don't have to be some kind of trust-fund twerp to get blitzed off of it. Secondly, it's readily available, whether the bar's an Uptown hotspot next to an art gallery or that skeevy dive featuring centerfolds from 1983 stapled to the wood-paneled walls. Third, it's been around for a long time, and if it's survived being popular among the fixed-gear crowd, it should probably outlast them. Fourth, and best of all, it's not advertised on TV -- sure, if you drink PBR, you might be considered a hipster, but better that than one of those frat-dude morons who thinks the idea of preferring beer over women is, like, so true bro.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
