Two weeks ago Rob Walker wrote a massive piece about underground brands in The New York Times Magazine. That was pretty cool, but to me, the REALLY interesting thing appears in THIS Sunday’s Times Mag, where readers get to write in letters responding to that feature. Because lets face it; at the end of the day, that article was not made for you (you, blog trotting all over printed hoodie obsessed freak.) You already knew all that shit. It was made for the dude who gets baked eggs with smoked salmon on a Sunday morning with an English Breakfast Tea, (light with one sugar) and enjoys reading his Sunday edition paper. And in case you forgot, that’s like 99% of the free world, whereas people like us, are 1%. So it was very interesting to see what “regular people” thought about Rob’s article.
“I, too, may be “just too old to get it,” but I think Rob Walker gave today’s hipster youth too much credit in his interesting article (July 30). I think what he describes is a new breed of entrepreneur rather than a new artistic or social movement. I’d argue that wearing a Hundreds or Barking Irons T-shirt is no more revolutionary than wearing a Ralph Lauren polo emblem or a Lacoste alligator — it merely announces membership in a smaller, perhaps cooler, clique. What are these new brands trying to change but where we buy and how much we pay for T-shirts? Offering a fashion alternative to kids looking to express their individuality is not art; it’s just good business.”
OR
“Dylan, Lennon, Ginsberg, et al., their relationship with wealth notwithstanding, were risk takers who shaped society with searing social commentary and strong convictions. The young men in Rob Walker’s article are committed to nothing but themselves and are too cool for consumers who visit mainstream shops and malls.”
OUCH! Hey I don’t write this stuff, I just copy and paste.
Read the rest of these gems here.
PS: Rob, I still want that shirt!
“Why sell subculture T-shirts that retail for $60 at stores like Barneys and other A-list boutiques? For Daniel Casarella to respond that this audience “gets it” is preposterous. These are simply people who can “afford it.” Paris Hilton is not representative of the subculture.”
haters. hundreds and ny thing tees are $30 a piece.
sounds like your description of “regular people” underestimates the readership of the times.
they might be right. alex p. keaton would love all these companies.
the irony!
I read the original article, and will read the letters very soon, but the fact is that this “hipster” subculture is lame.
Whereas the previous youth based subcultures stemmed from feelings of alienation and spawned creative, *productive* and physically participatory responses (ie: graffiti, skateboarding, punk rock, hip hop, etc.) the current subculture is based on either novel approaches to capitalism and/or just being “hip” to the new shit. The internet has fostered a pretty lazy culture based on doing nothing. No one’s getting their knees scrapped discovering new skating tricks. No one of this subculture can claim a common thrill like traveliing across country to find record stores to dig for hard to find vinyl… (or even hard to find sneakers). The only participation in today’s coolworld is shopping. The only shared experiences are standing in line overnight to buy a newly decorated sneaker, or browsing on ebay and talking about it on a blog.
The previous generation were accused of being “slackers” who were apathetic, but at least they were characteristically individualistic. Todays generation is arguably too complicit in following trends. Hey, I appreciate nice design and stuff too, but.. don’t believe the hype. It’s be great if kids started excercising their own creativity instead of JUST purchasing the creative output of others. Go out and actually DO something. Go out and get in trouble. Do something you aren’t supposed to do. Or that people think is crazy. YOU might your generation’s version of the Soul Artists, or Dogtown, or …