If It's Hip and Trendy, They're Not Interested

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In an age saturated with microtrends, some people are turning their backs on cool.

The hypnosis of hipsterism is entrenched among many of L.A. 's urban sophisticates, especially those who work in the trend-driven industries of media, music and fashion. But for many twenty-, thirty- and fortysomethings, the appeal of being cool and edgy is rapidly deteriorating. "The last identity you would want to claim now is a hipster," says John Leland, author of "Hip: The History." "It's the worst of insults."

The inevitable backlash — not against the bohemian veritas but the sycophantic consumer of cool — is well underway. If hipness is losing its appeal, it may have to do with how difficult it is to stay ahead of the curve.

In a recent issue of his JC Report, a global fashion and lifestyle trend report, Jason Campbell prophesized "the downfall of the hipster." Staying cool, says the fashion trend forecaster, "has become a bit of a joke at this point. It's a rat race that's really difficult to keep up with, and a lot of people are bowing out."

A fashion-designer friend of Campbell 's recently confessed that he was so overwhelmed by the endless barrage of new designer denim brands that he vowed to wear only classic Levi's 501s as a form of protest. "People aren't feeling they need to run out and pick up the latest thing that whatever celebrity of the moment has," Campbell says. "They're returning to things that resonate with them and are part of their personal style."

"I think people are exhausted by trends that have the half-life of a millisecond," Leland says. "You live in a state of perpetual whiplash, in which the minute you're up on one trend it's gone and you should be on to another."

So if everybody's hip, then let's be unhip, and indeed, what a very hip idea. Some people are just fed up with the whole enterprise. A growing reaction to hipsterism is "granny chic," or social groups centered around archaic hobbies. Stitch and Bitch and The Church of Craft are two Los Angeles-based examples of groups that gather to work on quilting, needlework, paper craft and lace making — in unabashed earnestness.

[Brian] Bernbaum, [founder of the] the blog hipstersareannoying.com, wonders if conservatism from the heartland may be infiltrating hipster-heavy metropolises, "making people seek out something more meaningful" in their lives.

The Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2005

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If It's Hip and Trendy, They're Not Interested

Category: FASHION

By: Pete Kendall, July 21, 2005

“The mood behind fashion is father to the outcome. In 1969, people wanted desperately not to look prosperous, and lo and behold, a few years later, they weren’t. Fashion signaled a mood change, which had tangible results.”
Prechter's Perspective

According to Richard Hastings, a retail analyst at Bernard Sands, “A conservative set of habits is building among consumers.” As this conservatism hardens, they will join the deflationary trend by getting out of or defaulting on debts, becoming tenacious bargain hunters and, eventually, canceling purchases altogether.
The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, September 2004

It’s the End of Trend, So It Must Be the End of the Trend

Social mood tends to hew out cultural phenomena that coincide with its direction. That’s why the public usually gets interested in more affordable fashions like hobo styles or long hair in bear markets and trends that appeal to more extravagant tastes in a bull market. Quilting, needlework and granny chic are a big departure from the luxury fever that has had big spenders literally munching on gold flakes in recent weeks (see EWFF’s piece about the gilded edge on conspicuous consumption in the June issue). Why now? Because, in a global depression, a warm blanket and your grandmother’s practical sense of style come in extremely handy. And a devotion to high-dollar, hyper-fast fashion trends suddenly becomes dizzying. The “exhaustion” of hip described above fits perfectly with the shift from “expansion to conservatism,” which is covered in more depth in “The Economy & Deflation” section of the March issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast.

It’s also in line with the reversal from a rising to a falling social mood in 1968/1969. Over the last 20 months, EWFF has tracked the movement of the culture through a similar reversal. In 1968, the Dow tested its all-time high as the Value Line Arithmetic index of small-cap stocks was reaching substantial new highs. Today, the aftermath of an even larger-degree peak is playing out with the Dow near its countertrend peak high and the Value Line Arithmetic at a new all-time high. In 1968, Timothy Leary said it was time to “Turn on, tune in and drop out.” As the mood turned down, many did just that switching to granny dresses, cross stitch and various other “counter-culture” lifestyles, just as they are now. But as their name suggests, hippies were anything but uncomfortable with conforming to the trend. If anything, they celebrated it. According to the LA Times’ trend spotters, the very idea of herding is under threat now. The evidence is still anecdotal, but it bears watching. If everything the herd holds dear becomes passé, the cultural effects of a bear market will be extreme indeed.

Additional References

The psychological aspect of deflation cannot be overstated. When the social mood trend changes from optimism to pessimism, consumers change their primary orientation from expansion to conservation. As debtors and potential debtors become more conservative, they borrow less or not at all.
Conquer the Crash

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