The premise of this article - that Shoreditch trendies are imitating Deep South poverty is simply incorrect. It does identify trends in British culture, but, perhaps misreading the way London's fashion culture is stratified.
"Women totter by on 1980s, brightly coloured high heels, and I hear the clank of chunky, cheap plastic bracelets. It's not unlike finding yourself as an extra for a film set on a trailer park in the US. Except that I'm not in Redneckville, Georgia - I'm in London's trendy Shoreditch."
At the moment, what is 'in' is a mixture of late-70s New York punk style and 80s trash - that goes for music and that goes for clothes. Garish colours, dayglo fishnets, Siouxsie makeup, etc. Nothing to do with anything 'trailer park'. This goes hand in hand with the music that is played in Shoreditch clubs: 80s influened electro; late 70s post-punk; 70s disco and the modern attempt to reconcile it all, with bands like The Rapture, !!!, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Liars (incidentally, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can be said to have started this trend, and she wears Dior) - just as the clothes seem to be an attempt to reconcile all four.
As for "US-style gas station attendant shirts with round patches that say Ed, or Bubba. Or some have T-shirts that say "I Love Daytona Beach" or "Eat at Jimbo's BBQ". These guys all seem to have baseball caps on, too, usually advertising something like a fishing tackle shop on the front, with camouflage around the side. And the hats, more often than not, sit on top of mullets that look straight out of 1979."
Yes, but what is 'aspired to' here, is not some sort of ironic nod to trailer parks, but, I feel, more something to do with an ambiguous relationship to what is perceived as fake US small-town culture. I don't say that culture actually exists. I simply say that's what it's going for. For example, currently big are t-shirts for 'little league' teams, or t-shirts for US colleges that don't actually exist. It seems pointless and self-defeating to wear this kind of crap, but it's not - and I think this is what needs to be defended - poking fun at trailer park culture.
"... But that doesn't make the style innocuous."
(but it does in the UK, where the same cultural references don't actually exist.)
"Even in the US there is a smiling contempt for the underclass. There is a whole industry based on being poor, uneducated and naff, with trailer-park spoof websites (jolenestrailerpark.com) and cookery books: try Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Cook Book. And, of course, country music - how about Sammy Kershaw's She's the Queen of My Doublewide Trailer?"
And perhaps it's this American contempt for the trailer park that is the real problem?
"We also inflict this mocking attitude not just on Americans but on ourselves, too. For instance, the scally craze, with its council estate chic - white trainers, gold jewelry and a shell suit - is set for a comeback."
Julie Birchill has correctly noted this attitude at work in the media. Influential pop e-mail Popbitch has coined the terms "pram face" (for someone who looks like they should be pushing a pram around a council estate) or simply saying that someone looks "council". Ironically, though, it's people who live on council estates who aspire to this look, as celebrities wear designer labels such as "Juicy Couture" who make facsimiles of 'council' style.
"There seems to be some sort of assumption that these unfashionable, poor people have chosen to live in a house on wheels; to drive clapped-out Camaros; to wear tacky clothes; to have out-of-date hairstyles. But here, we choose to don a costume of poverty because we can afford to, and we don't even consider what it must be like for those who can't."
Incidentally, you can see why the article was inaccurate, by going to this fantastic website: http://www.hipstersareannoying.com/ which will make you nod your head and go, "aah, so that's why."
And for a definition of hipster, how about this?
Bohemian Like You
you got a great car yeh whats wrong with it today i used to have one too maybe i'll come and have a look i really love your hairdo yeh i'm glad you like mine too see we're looking pretty cool will get ya
so what do you do? oh yeh i wait tables too no i havent heard your band cos you guys are pretty new but if you dig on vegan food well come over to my work i'll have em cook you something that you really love
wait whos that guy just hangin at your pad hes lookin kinda bummed you you broke up thats too bad i guess its fair if he always pays the rent and he doesnt get bent about sleeping on the couch when im there
im getting wise and im feeling so bohemian like you its you that i want so please just a casual casual easy thing is it? - it is for me
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