Instead of focusing on trends this week, I wish to call your attention to an anti-trend. A smattering of individuals for whom mainstream fashion--for that matter, mainstream anything is about as well received as SARS. These are the kids that roll into English late, disheveled, yet somehow untouchably hip. Still not getting the picture? Think about girls in cigarette--skinny jeans and moth-eaten cardigans. Think about boys with slogan tees and shrunken jackets, stalking about in their sister’s corduroys.
Urban Dictionary would call this look hipster. Hipster as in: “I was listening to [insert obscure band name here] on vinyl last night…you wouldn’t have heard of it.” Unfortunately, a degree of cultural snobbery has come to be associated with the term. To avoid the pretentious connotation, some hipsters prefer the title ‘indie.’ Most, however, would rather you stop trying to label them and mind your own goddamn business. Don’t get me wrong; those that pepper Choate are refreshingly down to earth. These kids are out to listen to new music, travel to new places, and try new things.
Eloise True ’08, president of Free Tibet, adventurer, and sick hip-hop dancer, provides a great example. Her sandals were found in Ecuador, the ripped scarf and varsity jacket are vintage. Eloise has several piercing, including her nose, and is fully aware of the image she projects: “In middle school, I made the conscious decision to be different from my peers. I wanted my clothing to say ‘My ideals are not your ideals, your standards are not my standards.’ The pair of converse I bought in sixth grade-black-so destroyed I can’t wear them, are probably the most important object to me. They symbolize all that change.” Between visiting the Dali Lama and the Galapagos, Eloise also manages to mix uptown and downtown styles: “I love [Gossip Girl’s] Serena as much as the biker jacket and boots look.” For last year’s holiday ball, Eloise rocked a vest suit harder then any tart in a minidress could ever hope to.
Dave Shapiro ’08 may be the school’s most singular representative of the hipster lifestyle. I would go so far as to call him a Cool Kid. You know Dave: he’s the one with hair long, thick and springy enough to serve as a pillow at Sunday D. Typically, he’s decked out in Vans, dress socks, tight pants (never shorts), a band t-shirt, a flannel button up and fingerless gloves. “I don’t feed directly off of 60s style, but a lot of the people whom I look up to and take social and fashionable cues from dress like 60s children,” Dave says of the influential era. “ I have two favorite t-shirts,” he continues, “a shirt I bought at a Radiohead concert, and one from the local band La Guillotine. Another favorite thing of mine is long underwear. It’s not one specific pair of long underwear, just long underwear in general, that makes every day worth living.” Shapiro recognizes his appearance may be misinterpreted: “I feel as though a lot of people who see me think I’m a stoner.” He hopes others instead see a musician. Music, more than any other art, is a dominant element of hipster culture. Dave enjoys contemporary folk, indie, and even plays in a band. Shapiro’s alternative set of interests is evident in more than just his clothing and set list: “My lifestyle is becoming quite minimalist. All I really need to be happy is a guitar and enough gas to get to Mamoun’s Falafel Restaurant in New Haven. I just took my bed frame and my bureau out of my room because it was cluttered.”
Dave’s ubiquitous fingerless gloves were a present from Lily Gottschalk ’09. “I’ve never really thought about it before,” his friend muses, “but I guess my style is a little bit hipster.” It is not easy to extract this statement. Lily is so calm, so very open-minded, that things like categorization never really enter her field of vision. She likes to wear things “a little bit fallen apart, out of much loving use” and dresses for “an overall, happy vibe.” Today, that means fire engine red jeans, cowboy boots and a screen-printed tee, topped of with a tangled mop of blonde curls. “I pick up a brush occasionally,” she laughs. Lily’s nonchalance extends to the messages she sends, blithely mixing a Palestinian scarf (for some, the symbol of the anti-Zionist movement) with peace sign earrings. When asked how others react to her look, Lily responds: “My sister calls me a hobo. My dad laughs at me in an affectionate way-some of my clothes come from him--mostly he’s just glad to see I’m being myself.”
This is article to be continued in next week’s Fashion Forward.
