hip·ster1 [hip-ster] –noun Slang.

1. a particular breed of middle to upper class 20 some things that tend to inhabit surrounding neighborhoods of urban areas. The hipster generally has money, yet shuns conventional materialism. They try to appear starving, broken, and angry, yet have the comfort of living in $2000 lofts. Trust funds are a common commodity among hipsters.

The goal of the hipster is to look ironic.

The hipster handbook defines the hipster as “One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term “cool”: a Hipster would instead say “deck.”)

The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitch anything held dear by the mainstream. A Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.”

It becomes a difficult task to then differentiate between those who actually cannot eat, shower, or afford clothes. The hipster’s style aesthetic is influenced by the homeless. The hairstyles worn by the hipster is generally ragged, dirty, and has the appearance of a lack of care though often hours of care is put into the upkeep of said look.

In areas such as Williamsburg is generally safe to assume that anyone possessing this look is indeed a hipster.

Clutching their Ipods and sipping PBR, the hipster has taken over areas that were once affordable and turned them into a hipster oasis prompting stores such as Brooklyn Industries and American Apparel to move into these neighborhoods.

In main urban areas, like Manhattan, it becomes difficult to distinguish between “homeless” and “hipster.” Unkept hair, dirty clothes, a general disdain for life in general? Homeless or hipster? You decide!

Test your skills with these nifty photos so you don’t give spare change to someone with a trust fund. Play the game after the jump: Read More »

I may be a fashionista, but clothes remain an oddity to me. I gave up dressing for the male gender along time ago and now if I show off my tits it’s because I want to. And because I like my breasts, to me they are empowering.

I embraced the baby doll tent/trapeze dress for summer because for once it was a style that was breezy and light and dare I say it comfortable. I decided I’d stick it to the man (or men) who found the style unappealing. I liked it. And they showcased my legs, another of my favorite features. It allowed me to keep the ladies under wraps but let people go gaga over my gams.

All in all, I loved the shape of the summer dresses, or the fact that there wasn’t much shape to them at all.

But it all got me to thinking. In a way although we dress for ourselves, we do dress for others. And the other night I had a horrifying experience where in all of this shapely/shapeless controversy came to a head.

I was walking to the train from work, standing on a corner about to walk into Union Square. It was late and I was tired and talking to my boyfriend. That day I had worn an American Apparel strapless tube dress with a flouncy tunic to cover up the fact that the dress showed more curves than I was comfortable with.

So, I was showing off my shape, but still covering it up. And I had on my mother’s old cowboy boots, since I work at a Texas BBQ restaurant and its pretty much the only dress code requirement of a hostess. They also draw way more attention from men than I ever imagined—I get a “hey cowgirl” at least every other day. Read More »

A couple months ago, we featured the creepiness that is Dov Charney, the owner of American Apparel.

Sure, the man looks like a serial killer and admits to getting it on with, like, every one of his employees, but he sure knows how to sell a product!

We’ve all seen the ads - the racy, half-naked and scantily clad models (think the HOT Abercrombie & Fitch ads meets younger-looking hipsters). There’s something raw about these ads, almost dirty - and that’s exactly what is getting younger-looking hipsters to buy into the brand.

According to AMNY, one of the store managers said, “This is the Lower East Side….I would be disappointed in the neighborhood if it was offended by this. It’s not pornographic. This is art.” Read More »

Like any self-respecting college girl, I always tote the newest Vogue, Elle, and if I’m feeling especially mainstream-In Style, on the elliptical with me. But as I’m burning the calories, toning the legs, and admiring the duds, I can’t help but wonder how anyone in college could pull this stuff off without being gawked at (and not in the good way) by your typical sweatpant clad college male.

Let’s take Balenciaga’s Spring ready-to-wear collection. Obviously, gold leggings were the stunner of this show. And why not? They’re totally hot….and $100,000, and one kind of gets the impression not too comfortable.

For a mere $36 dollars you can pick up a pair of gold leggings from your local American Apparel, pair them with a black jersey mini-dress, cute flats, and hit the library in style.

Read More »