More on counterculture cool. It’s not just for right-wingers. The latest funky lifestyle trend to be identified is the Indie-yuppie. Appropriately the Indie-yuppie phenomenon was first popularised through a blog. But the Indie-yuppie life isn’t without guilt:
Stereogum’s subsequent contest ‘You Might Be an Indie-Yuppie If You . . .” received the most responses Lapatine has ever gotten to a single post.
“If you can afford New York City rents and can go to these rock shows, you are definitely an indie-yuppie,” says Lapatine, who fully admits to being one himself.
“I just bought a ticket for the Death Cab for Cutie show at Central Park, and it cost $35 - at what point is that indie?”
In other words, you must be an active, contributing member of society who considers your iTunes library an extension of yourself and who turns up for work at 10 a.m. - though you may be hung over from last night’s secret Gang of Four show at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God! That’s me!’” says entrant Tanya Manchini, a 31-year-old editor from Hoboken (who admits she was relieved the Nine Inch Nails show she saw on Monday night ended early).
“I crossed the line when I stopped dressing in thrift store clothing and started appreciating shoes by Michael Kors,” she adds.
Still, she says, “it’s hard to reconcile yourself to it when you came up through the college radio punk scene, and then you grow up to become a person with disposable income. It really hit home.”
Horrified moment of self reflection. I am totally an Indie-yuppie!
Well, you’re certainly left-wing and fabulous at any rate, Kimbo.
It’s that moment when you ask St Vinnies counter staff if they take credit cards.
Or when you say - at last a purple suit! I thought I’d be able to find one at Wayne Cooper, but alas!
Hmm, for me it’s spending $100 booking tickets in advance online on the credit card and having my social life planned for the next 2 months.
Ahhh the Sonic Youth demographic…
Oh shit. They’ve finally demographied (Deomgraphatised? Deomgaphiced?) us. We’re stuffed. How can we hide from the marketing machine now?
(I’m knitting myself a beanie but yesterday I blew $170 on a pair of Camper shoes… reckon that just about sums it up.)
I went to check out the new range of Campers at Brotha Sister in the Valley on Sunday, Kate. Campers are the fabulousness!
I know. I love ‘em. The fabulousness indeed! They are the Doc Martens of the New Millenium.
Sadly I only ever buy them — why yes, I do have three pairs of Campers, thanks for asking — when they are on sale. Does this make me less of a yuppy?
I buy most stuff on sale, Kate. I think that makes us classic Indie-yuppies. Scored a mauve jumper and shirt from Industrie last week for half price and a purple argyle pullover from Blaq for 30% off.
We are a marketing niche!!! Aaarrrggghhh!
You’re a vision in purple, Mark…and a marketer’s wet dream.
You say it, bro!
Kate - I just love Campers.
Oh, you young people with your pierced hipsters and beat-hop music, flitting round the hoodies in your giddy quest for what’s “”chilling” and “fully sick”.
While I’m “down” with that homieboys, I’m afraid my days of being a dedicated follower of fashion are behind me now, as I sit at home by the fire with a book of improving literature open on my lap, listening to my gramaphone records, contemplating my collection of shrunken heads and puffing reflectively on a blunt as the faithful mistress brings me my slippers in her mouth.
Enough with the hoodies, for goodness sake. Hoodie this, hoodie that. For me the word ‘hoodie’ only conjures up the image of a Rabbi with scalpel.
When I grow up I want to be a Nabakov!
harry, you can’t wear cargo pants (or even “army pants”, whatever they might be) with a velvet smoking jacket. You just can’t.
I have to agree with Zoe, harry.
And I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that purple leather jacket, Mark.
It was favourably commented on at the Rics gig I wore it too, Zoe.
“can‚Äôt wear cargo pants (or even “army pants”, whatever they might be) with a velvet smoking jacket.”
A thong and fishnet stockings on the other hand…
Also, Zoe, you might want to talk to Liam about his IR shorts. Not sure if they match the beret.
Liam,
The deed is done by a mohel, not a rabbi.
And, yes, Harry, you will have to ditch the army pants if you aspire to Nabsy’s shiny-arsed bourgeois comfort & relaxation. Speaking of which, Nabsy please stop trying to be hip to the young people. It’s making me cringe. You’ll be calling Jeeves your “dawg” next.
Mate, everything goes with a beret—more specifically, a boina, characteristic headgear of the Basque country.
I have enough nowse(sp?) to not wear army pants with a velvet jacket. Have a little faith. Actually my father had a deep green velvet smoking jacket and one of those English fezlike hats with a dongly bit on it, but my brother claimed the jacket as a pre-inheritance and was a great hit when he wore it with a chainmail shirt at a RockyHorrorShow screening.
“thong and fishnet stockings”
Okay, maybe a cross between Nabakov and Bernard Black from Black books.
Celtic-Basque solidarity Liam?
Thong and fishnets? Sounds more like our Foreign Minister.
…
I didn’t know that about the de-hoodification, thanks Fyodor. This blog gets more and more informative every time I come back. It’s like
No worries, Liam. Just the other day I was treated to an in-depth dissertation on the differences between “cargo” pants and “army” pants. I learned something that day, my friend.
Mark, don’t you start on my trousers too! As the bible says “Let he who is with-out purple leather jacket cast the first aspersions.”
Nahh, you just go to Skin Deep in Elizabeth St and get one hand made. Then you wear it to a Yeah Yeah Yeah’s gig at the Annandale hotel, or to The Cops. Or Spod. Or something.
and people will be inexplicably drawn to you, in which case it’s wise to get the custom-made suit fashioned from a strokable fabric
… and, yes, I may very well own a purple velvet frock
I had a sudden vision of Nabakov as Mr. Burns. “Smithers! Bring me one of those new-fangled long play album thingamys, will you, so I can listen to The Andrews Sisters. I do so love Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy!”
And, BTW, cargo pants are soooooo 2001. All the cool kids are wearing skinny-legged grey denim jeans.
it’s wise to get the custom-made suit fashioned from a strokable fabric
Velvet, leather - both strokable.
Skinny-legged grey denim jeans - also strokable.
Come on people! Corduroy is the King of the Strokable Fabrics! (especially as Cor-du-Roi translates literally as “cloth of the king”).
Purple corduroy suit! Now the only choices to make are; single breasted 3 pin, or double breasted? Standard notch lapel or something more fancy? Is the cord JUMBO, NORMAL or MICRO? The head spins with delirium.
Maybe I need a purple garment to go with my yellow vinyl dress?
Kim,
Purple and yellow? Clash!
I think I just fall into the ’sad’ category. I’ve never heard of Campers (as shoes, silly people in tents yes), never shopped at Industrie or Blaque and I don’t currently own anything purple. Sigh.
Harry in fishnets, thong and smoking jacket would be a sight to see. Maybe at your next underwear party dude?
Campers rip-offs are the new Campers. You can’t be indy-yuppie if you still buy Campers. Campers are SO half-an-hour-ago.
Mindy, if you ever start buying those products I’ll stop talking to you.
Now does that make me more, or less, Indie-Yuppie?
How about this definition: You’re an indie-yuppie if your gravatar/commenter image represents you ironically, not specifically.
So where does that leave you, Mr cartoon beret in a red star?
And stuff Campers. RM Williams “Macquarie Yearling” boots, Dunlop Volleys, kung fu slippers and Clarks desert boots is all a well shod bloke needs to move from boardroom to beach to boudoir to bandroom.
And a nice pair of Blahniks for the AFIs and Logies.
Nabs—my best reference lies here.
Dunlop volleys? I recall being too ashamed to wear those, now they’re sold for more than I can afford. I’ll never understand the market.
I used to own a pair in grade 10.
Dunlop Volleys? 25 bucks at Target. Still very comfortable and, as I’ve found, tres insouciant on the streets of London, Paris and New York and Suva.
Ah, Suva, that tropical hotbed of international espionage and basket weaving.
But are volleys fashionable in Sweden? What about the edgy, avant-garde bohemian streets of Stockholm?
Anybody want to talk about the indie-yuppie label? I’m a summer intern at a Toronto, Canada newspaper trying to bring the story north of the border. Email dbrown@thestar.ca.
Hey Dana,
I think the complete lack of seriousness in the comments gives you a pretty good indication of what we think of the label.
Mark is wrong, by the way. Indie-Yuppie is a rebranding of an existing marketing niche. The old name? “Challenge”
I shit you not.
Apparently, some people don’t respond to marketing and are therefore a “challenge”. Y’know, the sort of people who are genuinely cynical rather than fashionably so. They are educated, lucid, frequently tend towards ironic comment etc etc and they think marketing is a load of shit and see straight through it.
It’s almost as if the only reason they discuss marketing is to take the piss.
Hence your cargo pants, Harry?
Very challenging, dude, very challenging.
Mark, on the other hand, is a sucker for anything purple. You wanna shift hoodies? Colour ‘em purple. Wanna shift a chasuble or two? Colour ‘em purple. Works every time. Mark thinks he’s different, but we’re not buying that magenta bullshit. It’s purple, dude, PURPLE!
I hesitate to mention this but I accompanied a friend on a visit to her optometrist today and was rewarded with a free pair of purple sunglasses!
Goddamnit, Mark. How are we ever going to get you to rage against the machine if you insist on taking those purple pills!
Sometimes I suspect you don’t really support THE CAUSE - you’re just one of those purple tower intellectuals caught up in your own PoMo world, when all around you honest working people are being sucked into a nightmarish world of mortgage-fuelled plasma-screen TV, SUV and his’n'hers jacuzzi consumption.
Would a purple Hayek t-shirt demonstrate devotion to “a” cause?
Popper might argue that “free trade under the rule of law” would be a noble cause, but I don’t see his “t” as a must-have this Winter.
“Hence your cargo pants, Harry?”
Army pantys dude. We already talked about this!
“Very challenging, dude, very challenging.”
Bought from the disposal store that doesn’t advertise.
All the purpleness of Mark is worrying. I strongly suspect that he will change his name to “@” and call himself the Blogger formerly known as Mark.
Either that or buy himself a purple beanie and start going on holidays to strange places like Khazakistan or something.
Now that really would be a turn-up for the religious Right. Consumption of goods and services, without the risk of jiggery-pokery that goes along with actually sharing a spa.
Either that or buy himself a purple beanie and start going on holidays to strange places like Khazakistan or something.
Bonus points if it’s to climb dangerous mountains, or you risk your life in some way. Points are taken off for every night you spend in a hotel.
Harry,
Is Khazakistan next to Canadia?
I think you might be thinking of Khakistan. It is where Americans get their Cargo pants, and explains why they have a military base there.
If Mark wanted to kill himself exotically (and I really don’t know where Mindy and Meg got the idea for this) he should try Kamikazistan. The scenery is wonderful and there are lots of cliffs and vluffs to hurl yourself off joyously.
The irony of Khakistan is that the US military is using cargo planes to transport cargo pants, while the guys sercuring the cargoes are wearing army pants. And these army pants wearers are flown around in army helicopters. It’s all a bit socialist really.
“vluffs” is Kamikazistani for “bluffs”.
look I knew it was one of those bloody ’stan’ places. I’m just a humble (former) geography teacher what do I know about these things.
harry, it doesn’t matter how much you try to defend your trousers it’s not going to work. Does Fyodor realise that in summer you wear the same trousers, just cut off at knee level with frayed edges? Did I mention the jungle boots?
I suspect Harry may be a cargo cultist. You don’t have a shrine to Prince Phillip in your house do you, Harry?
“Did I mention the jungle boots?”
Haven’t had jungle boots in years. I have my Uruk-hai kicking Blunnies now.
The discussion is not whether army pants actually look any good, but whether I wear then as opposed to cargoes.
I am not currently, not have I ever worn cargo pants.
“You don‚Äôt have a shrine to Prince Phillip in your house do you, Harry?”
No, just the one to Eliza Dushku. Although, by an ironic twist of fate I am subject to revenrence on a very small Pacific island. But, you would know all about that sort of thing, after all you’re worshipped in five states including the one where you only appear in the guise of a giant, pineapple-vomiting monitor lizard.
I’m actually knitting Mark a purple beanie RIGHT NOW. Next up: knitted cargos for Harry and knitted fishnet stockings for Fyodor.
Really, Kate? That’s so kind - will go nicely with my new purple sunnies!
And a red flea collar for EP, to reflect his true political colours.
Kate, please make sure you include enough width in the feet for the webbing. Also, can I have mauve or lavender rather than purple?
I think I’ve been to that island, Harry. For some reason everybody wears cargo pants with pockets on the FRONT of the leg. Weird, eh?
“I think I‚Äôve been to that island, Harry. For some reason everybody wears cargo pants with pockets on the FRONT of the leg. Weird, eh?”
HERETICS!!! They are cargoes masquerading as army pants. They will have justice decend upon them, quite possibly from the Eckbeater bilong Jesus Cry-s.
Kate,
With his purple hoody and purple beanie Mark’ll look like a combination of Eminem and The Phantom.
Eurgh!
harry, you’ve sparked my creativity. Mark, you’re getting a purple body-suit with balaclava! Knitted!
Fyodor, I can do any colour, I am not limited to shades of purple, though mauve fishnets would look lovely, I’m sure.
Yay!
Kate, have you thought of joining LP as accessories/merchandising/fashion design supremo?
Move over, Wayne Cooper! LP hits the fashion biz.
I mean there’s got to be lots of Indie-yuppie blog readers out there, hasn’t there?
I mean there’s got to be lots of Indie-yuppie blog readers out there, hasn’t there?
Maybe in Toronto?
MsFits has a clothing label.
OK, but the purple phantom knitted bodysuit is made-to-order only; we can do off-the-rack purple balaclava as our off-the-rack line.
You’re the boss, Kate!
Mark, you’ll have to be the mascot. Maybe we could get you a purple helmet.
Maybe his special power could be the red patches on his elbows.
(Sorta like Graham Garden from the Goodies but his weren’t magical, but they are very ‘academic’)
What happens is the Purple Redeemer (name subject to change at short notice, although I vote we veto Fyodor’s “Purple Helmetted Warrior”) seeks out people who humanity is fading. HE lands beside them and implores that they receive his magic healing powers by touching the red patches on his elbows. Their humanity thus restored they set forth once more to take life’s hurdles. The Purple Redeemer flies off into the night and assumes his mundane existence.
This is such a nerdy Seth/Summer OC working out comic characters moment.
Yeah, pretty lame. Magic red elbows is a very sucky superpower. Back to the drawing board, Poindexter.
Hello!? He’s wearing a hand knitted body suit! If that doesn’t say ‘lame’ in the land of superheroes I dunno what does. You never heard of any other superhero having to stay inside when it rains to avoid shrinkage, have you? Giving back people’s humanity is a meta-superpower - it’s what Xmen was ultimately all about.
Whaddya want then?
Blasts of concentrated po-mo posts that leave enemies confused and incapable of action?
How about suction knee and elbow pads that allow him to climb ivory towers?
How about an ability to dispell anger in others by The Shroud of Jazz?
Could he channel the power of Beth Orton and end all wars?
Maybe Fyodor, you could be the Purple Redeemer’s Sidekick (Sidekick Bob, haha!) called Correction Boy.
PR: Oh em gee! Some people need some assist!
CB: Shouldn’t that be “assistance”?
PR: Thanks Correction Boy! I was talking too fast! Away!
Perhaps the Purple Redeemer could have the world’s only Superpower: America. He could weild America like a sword to defeat enemies and hit them into the sea or the sun with one all mighty swat. He could drop selected bits on bagsnatchers, cut-purses and footpads.
PR: Double yew tee eff?!?!?
Shoeless Peasant: Save my country, Purple Redeemer, it is in the grip of a horrible drought!
PR: By the power of America!!! HWAAH!
[PR drops Alaska onto said country thus curing the drought]
PR: Alaska saves the day again!
CB: And a small section of Washington state.
PR: Thanks, Correction Boy! Away! Where would I be without you?
CB: In Brisbane saving people with your red elbow patches.
I’m totally liking your work on this one, Harry.
If I’m in the Xmen, can I hang out with Mystique?
It’s “wield”, Harry, but please continue. I think you’ve a graphic novel in the making here.
Harry, the costume won’t shrink ’cause I’m using Superwash wool with 20 percent man-made fibres for durability. Rolls eyes. I’m also reinforcing the “sensitive bits” with titanium microfibre. Lame my ass.
(Can I be the Edna Mode-esque character, like in the Incredibles? Living in a totally cool Eames era pad and making costumes for superheros? I do have funky glasses and I’m quite short. Please?)
“If I‚Äôm in the Xmen, can I hang out with Mystique?”
Obviously, only if you’re naughty.
“I‚Äôm also reinforcing the “sensitive bits” with titanium microfibre.”
You mean the Ephathy Enhancers and the Sypathetic Modulators (both of which are important for restoring humanity)? My, you have done your homework!
“Can I be the Edna Mode-esque character,..”
Just step up to the plate. I appreciate that you think I have the skills and unmitigated genius to bestow heroic powers on others, but really the real hero is you. Here have a pamphlett. Yes, the one entitled “You are the Hero in You and other motivational DVDs”.
“I do have funky glasses and I‚Äôm quite short. Please?) ”
Anything reminiscent of Janeane Garofolo is good in my books.
“Please?)”
Hey I think it’s clear that The Purple Redeemer could use all the help he can get. But you have to work out the ‘witty asides’ part of the contract with Correction Boy.
Kate, perhaps you could expand into ‘berrays‘ as well.
Apparently they’re de rigueur this Winter for smug berray-wearing leftists. Extra latteleft points if they’re purple.
Mine’s black, just like white Australia’s history, and just like my leftist heart.
Haul from the Myer sale today - purple wool hoodie and purple jumper.
Raise you my 70s purple leather jacket, Naomi!
I am indeed of that opinion, Naomi.
So, Kim, please enumerate purple items of clothing in your wardrobe.
Not enough, Mark. I have a Larvatus Prodeo themed vintage dress in purple with mauve dots.
See here, Naomi, for a report on the purple leather jacket’s second outing this winter.