It’s not just clothing choices that make a hipster, though a certain fashion sense certainly comes with the title. There are many aspects of your personality, lifestyle, fashion choices, and opinions about life that combine to make you part of this individualistic group. You can be a hipster wherever you live, and thanks to the internet, it’s easy to connect with others with the same lifestyle even if you stand alone in your neighborhood or city.
Here are just a few tricks to perfecting the hipster look and attitude.
Fashion: Wear the Right Glasses
As far as fashion goes, just make sure you check your labels. Some of the best known retailers that cater to hipsters include Vans, Pacsun, and Urban Outfitters. Vintage is always acceptable, and skinny jeans are a must.
One of the most important items in your wardrobe, however, is a pair of eyeglasses. Hipsters love eyewear like shuttershades, oversized plastic glasses, or Ray Ban Wayfarers in bright colors.
If you need glasses to correct your vision, you’re already halfway there. Just find a pair of frames that complement your hipster style and make sure that your optometrist can find prescription lenses to fit inside them. Or check out your optometrists’ selection – many offices like The Eyewear Place in Edmonton carry brands of frames that could be exactly what you’re looking for.
If your vision is 20/20, thank your lucky stars and then get out there and buy some frames anyway. Just take the glass out or wear non-prescription lenses.
Lifestyle: The Hipster Contradiction
Though hipsters love some big name brands like Vans or Pacsun, they avoid mainstream consumerism as much as possible. They like to focus on purchases (both clothing and other goods) that help local retailers, the environment, and mom and pop corner stores.
If you’re a super shopper, you’ll have to cut way back on your spending habits to be a hipster. Hipsters are notoriously frugal and are into reusing whatever they have. They like to use old products and materials to prove that new things aren’t defining. Of course, loving new Apple electronics and certain name brand clothing is also a part of being a hipster; embracing these two contradictory elements is the trick to becoming a true hipster.
One way to get around this contradiction is to be an “early adopter.” Hipsters seem to know what is going to become trendy or popular before it hits the mainstream. Many mainstream fashion trends were started by hipsters, in fact. Of course, as soon as it becomes mainstream, hipsters drop the trend and move on to what will soon become the next big thing.
Health: Go Casual
Hipsters have a reputation of being unclean or not practicing proper personal hygiene. Disregard this stereotype—it isn’t true. Some might forgo shampoo, but that doesn’t mean they’re not clean. Most just substitute shampoo for environmentally-friendly soaps. Contrary to popular belief, hipsters shower regularly and brush their teeth just like everyone else.
However, if you want to be a true hipster, you’ll need to start avoiding expensive hairstyling, spa sessions, manicures, and lots of makeup and products. Hipsters don’t like conforming to what culture tells them is beautiful, and all of these “extra” beauty products indicate conformity.
Instead, go casual but clean. Take care of your body, but learn to see your whole self as your greatest asset rather than focusing on the one feature you can highlight with extra makeup or tanning sessions.
In addition, keep your hair casual and free. Wild curls and messy hairdos are perfectly acceptable. Let your hair go natural, and don’t try to tame it with chemicals (though dying your hair is also acceptable).
Start with these three tricks and go from there. Hipsters make their lifestyle their own, and part of the fun is not defining themselves completely—labeling themselves too clearly would put them in a cultural box, which goes against everything hipsters stand for. So just follow the basic guidelines and make your hipster style your own.
