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----- Burgundy Pants -----

A recent conversation with a friend:

Me: "I bought burgundy pants."

Her: "That's so hipster."

What does it even mean? Why do people often feel the need to use the word hipster to express a one-worded response; a word that encompasses so many enigmatic results. I admit I've used it a few times until i began to wonder where and why this word started; then hearing people use it for anything and everything lead me to confusion eventually annoyance.

Let's begin with its etymology. During the 1940s, Jazz aficionados were termed as a group of hipsters; a way to describe their lifestyle: cool, edgy, different, creative. Ah that makes sense in today's world. But does it—really? Does it mean my burgundy pants are cool? I always thought kids of today wanted to be cool, edgy, and different too? Doesn't everyone aim for hipsterness coolness in their own way? The word revolved into a tiresome and confusing expression that has become a negative, even insulting, thing to be called a hipster. Since when did riding a bike in your summer dress, wearing a leather backpack with a pair of converse considered negative? Or attending an art gallery wearing your Ray Bans, paired with a satchel bag and boat shoes? Aren't these trends today?  It's a simple self-expressing desire to stand out from the sea of greys. Plus, most of the mockery items are sold in most retail stores to welcoming arms of the mockers; hipsters set trends. Are we hypocritical subsequently? It's almost as thoughtless, but no where near as offensive, as the connotation of such words like gay, fag or retarded—a list of words for the everyday, lazy person who cannot think of adjectives like lame, stupid, weird, etc. Does that mean my burgundy pants are lame? (hey thats mean, friend). I bought those burgundy pants because I always liked the colour albeit the trend; I never bought a pair due to unfortunate bad style and timing in the last decade (childhood burgundy pants were always wide leg corduroys, yuck).

Any time I get into a short discussion with friends concerning the word, it always ends with, "Are you one then?" I do momentarily stop, stutter and reflect. Am I? Well, most people in my creative field look like the urban dictionary definition of hipsters (maybe we just have good taste, wink.)  The common answer has been, "I don't want to be defined by a category". Which is true, my annoyance is in categorizing people into types. So is hipster a style or a person? I'm more inclined to say the former as calling a person a hipster is deemed meaningless.

(images taken from google-ing )

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