I recently wrote an article entitled, "Top 5 Ways to Spot a True Hipster," and while the article was meant to be light-hearted and fun, I truly want to raise the question of why. Why is the hipster culture taking over?
Each generation has its theme. 50's, poodle skirts and leather jackets. 60's, transitional period to the 70's. 70's, bell bottoms and striped sweaters. 80's, anything flashy. 90's, mom jeans. And let's not even talk about early 2000's, I have no idea what was going on there. But the 2010's have developed a style that almost reflects all the decades past: The hipster. It's a vintage, retro, rustic, 80's-90's reminiscent style all packed in one, with a touch of modern art deco feel; it's this style monster conglomeration we have created. Why not a new style? Turns out, this millennial generation is in a form of its own enlightenment era; we are looking at the past with rose colored lenses and have decided to make our age similar to the golden era. I am almost positive, however, that 30 years from now when I show my kids pictures of me in my favorite flannel holding a coffee that I am going to be mortified at what I considered fashion. Since our generation is the one to bring back the past, as history suggests that means the next generation will create something new, most likely a style that more closely resembles what Marty McFly expected when he dropped into 2015. I doubt if he actually had landed in 2015 he would have recognized it as the future, watching flannel clad, bearded men drink designer coffee.
But I still haven't answered my question of why is the hipster culture all the rage?
It's not just that we miss the past, no, we want to BE the past. It's a form of wishing to go back in time and glorify those eras, because if we can do that, then maybe the one we're living in won't be so bad. Some of the worst times in America was going on during the "golden years"; things like Jim Crow, segregation, the Vietnam War, and reaching further back, anti-Semitism, World War II, Korea, and poverty in the deep South and ghettos of big cities. The culture today feels as though gleaning the good from the past will somehow make up for the sins of those eras, and in turn hopefully our culture will make up for our sins as well, but even the arts, fashion, and music of an era are not meant to cover up the sins, but rather expose them. During the Vietnam War, a trend was started in high schools to wear a black armband in protest of the war. Music everywhere exposed the government for handling the war wrong. The photography and art of the 70's reflected the same message begging for peace. This idea of using what may seem like the more "petty" things of a society to send a loud message to the world as whole is basically screaming to the generation today, don't just enjoy the trendy culture, use it. In America today, we face very similar trials to those of the past, but the test for us today is how are we going to use our culture and fashion to affect change, or are we going to just enjoy the benefits of being trendy?
