The type of guy you'd expect to find in East London.
London has a few areas where young people live, and when I moved there, the areas were Camden, Hoxton/Shoreditch, Notting Hill and its surroundings, Soho, or South London. Camden was full of rockers and Hoxton and Shoreditch (East London) was inhabited by people with assymetrical haircuts who were only employed as graphics designers or freelance stylists. There used to be a term (referencing the main street in the Hoxton area,) “Webshite on Old Street” which summed up what most people there did. Notting Hill was for wealthy kids, and bankers, Soho was for wealthy people who don’t mind a lot of noise, gay people, or wealthy gay people, and South London was just plain old dodgy and should be avoided at all costs. I managed to live in London for a full year before I crossed south of the river, the exceptions being my many trips to Waterloo station to get the Eurostar to Paris.
I think the word Shoreditch Twat comes to mind here.
Hipsters love two-toned hair.
I wonder if those are glasses, or flasses?
Anyway, I always hated going out in East London. The people hanging out there were so pretentious. Camden was full of drunk, stumbling idiots, whereas East London was full of pretentious drunk idiots. I’d rather have the former. East London was very difficult to access because it had no tube stations, so you had to get the bus, and since I lived in North London, there were very few buses that went from Camden to Old street. We always used to joke that there should be a Camden – East London express on weekends, for all the trendies going out in each other’s neighbourhoods. Plus, East London is full of ugly industrial buildings, unlike the Georgian townhouses in Camden, and there are no bank machines. Well, there are like one or two, but they are always a hundred miles away from the crappy bar you are in, and by the way the bar only takes cash.
So when I saw this video about the Hipters in East London, I was thrilled. Finally someone is properly taking the piss out of all the “trendy” people who live there. Fashion Editor At Large also wrote a great post about the video and the East London types. I guess most cities have neighbourhoods like that. In Vancouver, it is Main street, where everyone thinks they live in London and wears weirdly unfashionable clothing, but not in a good way, and have strange, trendy haircuts. (Sorry to all my Main street readers, some of you are genuinely cool!)
You must watch this video with the sound on! Another term, that makes me nostalgic, is Shoreditch Twat, described by the Urban Dictionary as
Usually a new media, fashion student, photographer-type person with a privileged digital or old school arts background who lives/works/socialises in London’s East End area of Shoreditch.
This look is just scary.
Skirts are for girls and hooves are for animals.
Even a 12 year old girl would look lame carrying that bag.
Here is what I loathe about ‘Hipster Dickeads…”
- Their haircuts. Usually asymmetrical in some way, often two-toned. Hipster guys spend a LOT of time on their hair to make it look like they just rolled out of bed. And nowadays dying it grey is seen as cool. Maybe they should start wearing fake wrinkles too?
- Wearing flasses. Flasses are fake glasses. I wear glasses because I NEED them. How would people feel if I started pushing myself around in a wheelchair, just for fun?
- The fact that vintage clothing has become totally overpriced because of hipsters coveting loads of old crap.
- Agyness Deyn.
- Living in strange warehouse spaces, or “live work spaces” with barely any amenities or proper mod cons but somehow thinking that is cool. Last time I checked, it is not cool to be freezing in the winter, and have no walls between you and your roommate.
- Hanging out in old man’s venues in the middle of nowhere. Bethnal Green Working Man’s club is a great example. An old, crappy venue about half an hour’s walk from a tube station. Totally inaccessible, and virtually no taxis nearby when you want to leave.
- The fact that hipsters all seem to think they are stylists, and therefore have devalued the role of the stylist
- Other things that they have overdone and therefore have ruined for the rest of us: playing records, riding old fashioned bicycles, longboards, facial hair, and cardigans.
Is that a girl or a guy?
Do-it-yourself creative t-shirt knots that add 15 pounds. Probably do-it-yourself pink hair too.
Where is the hipster/dickhead area of your city?
All images from Street Peeper.
