Here I am sitting in the hippest of hipster coffee shops, Café Intelligentsia in Venice CA on the hippest street in LA, Abbott Kinney. Where one tea has the titillating title “Iron Goddess of Mercy.” The name makes me oddly think of the Indian Goddess Kali who is so horrific (She is depicted as a 1000 year old warrior woman who carries the severed heads of her enemies) I would not want to drink any fluid associated with her. The coffee is fabulous I will give it that. Awesomely prepared, executed and served. So lets talk about the “look” of this place shall we? Most of the men are wearing glasses. There are a smattering of hats, one beret and a few wool caps. One woman in rollerblades, which seems dangerous with hot coffee served in a china cup. The women mostly wear leggings, low booties with a men’s style shirt. Black grey and brown are the colors of choice. Everyone looks up when you walk by. And the staff is by far the hippest of the crowd. To add a little spice, a towering transvestite in a bike helmet just walked in. Other than the tranie, facial hair seems to dominate the room. There is also a movie filming near by so a PA (Production Assistant) occasionally rushes in and orders 10 coffees as if the rest of the planet does not exist.
After living in this hood for a few months I have realized there are real hipsters and there are faux hipsters. I am neither as I shop at the gap. So how do you determine the difference? A faux hipster combines one too many hip elements, a fedora and leggings and booties and a tassel bag. For a man he may have wild facial hair, brightly colored kicks, a vest and Buddy Holly glasses. So if you remove one or two hip elements does that change the faux hipster into a real hipster, sadly no. Sometimes it is something really subtle like foundation. A hipster woman does not wear foundation. Or on a man maybe too clean sneakers. The elements that make a hipster are quite elusive, like Sasquatch or a really good sitcom. Dude it’s just like a feeling?
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