Hipster Fashion

Karen Latchana Kenney, Ashley Newsome Kubley (Illustrations) Hipster Fashion.  What's Your Style series
Published March 1st 2014 by Lerner Publications

I feel compelled to say that the author and illustrator did a very nice job on this book. It was probably assigned to them by Lerner. While I can't speak to whether or not the trends are current (The Armchair Librarian does), it's a pretty book.

But I almost want to buy it just so I can laugh at it in ten years.

Where to begin? I knew some actual hipsters in grad school (hi, Anne!), and they did indeed wear "geek glasses", thrift store sweaters with moth holes, and combat boots with 1950s dresses. But they didn't set out to be hipsters. That's the thing: the whole point of being a hipster is to do something different. If a hipster saw something in this book, he would immediately stop wearing it because it was commercial and trendy, and therefore no longer hipster like. Since I have been wearing dangly owl necklaces since 2002, I've been dismayed at the reintroduction of them into the fashion world. One appears in this book. I don't think I can wear them anymore!

A couple of issues with information-- thrift stores don't really have much in the way of good vintage-- for a while I liked to wear polyester prom dresses from the 1970s to work, and I haven't found one in ages. Even my pleated skirts are hard to find. Vintage stores, perhaps, but the costs are probably out of reach for teen budgets. The book also suggests using Pinterest for clothing ideas, and I'm pretty sure teens don't use Pinterest. Their mothers, perhaps.

But I really want to read the other books in the series now, especially the Preppy one. 

Look! I'm a hipster! Geek glasses, actual 1950s dress.

This is from 2008. I bought the glasses in 1999. I don't wear them now.

When teens start wearing long pleated skirts, turtlenecks, blazers, and Clarks loafers, I don't know what I will do!