The Independent has an interesting article dissecting the phenomenon of the global hipster and how previously cool meccas such as London and Tokyo have been replaced by a global cool. The cool kids no longer the sole territory of a single city but can be found everywhere.
“There always used to be a particular city that was the centre of cool at a particular point in time,” says Ted Polhemus, style anthropologist and author of Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk. “But now there’s no longer a place where it’s ‘at’; there’s no longer any centre of the world’s popular cultural universe. For a time it seemed it would be a simple matter of shifting from London to Tokyo. But instead, street style is everywhere and in places you’d never have guessed it would be.”
This global hipster has become ubiquitous in various cities across the world as have their shopping meccas like American Apparel and Uniqlo. They’re wearing similar clothing and listening to the same music, all while keeping a dose of mandatory ironic humour, leaving one to ask where the individuality and authenticity is. “The band that defined the US branch of the global scene was The Strokes, a quintet of monied Manhattanites posing as Lower East Side hipsters.”
It seems as though anyone can be a hipster with the reach and easy accessibility of the Internet. Trends that crop up in one city are quickly issued out to a global audience who embrace the trend or look in cities on opposite sides of the globe.
“As this ‘borrowing and referencing’ takes place not in capitals of cool like London but on an international scale, via the internet, the result is that same brand of individuality is sold, worn and celebrated the world over, simultaneously.”
Meet the global scenester: He’s hip. He’s cool. He’s everywhere. [The Independent]
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