rolls eyes

Other tidbits:

Remember the Arafat scarf?

The keffiyeh which everyone wore, especially if they were British and only parted with their scarf in the shower? The one that Urban Outfitters discontinued because of complaints from Jews? I finally found out what it was called (keffiyeh) and what it meant: "In the 1930s, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism and the intifada as a result of its association with rural areas (as opposed to the city-dweller's fez)." And why it initially left Yasser Arafat and Leila Khaled's heads. In Italy among other places it was worn in solidarity with Palestinians. A conservative blogger commented that retailers have been sugarcoating its original meaning:

Urban Outfitters called their version an "anti-war scarf."

UK clothing store ARK was a little more honest; they called it an "Arafat scarf."

When Kirsten Dunst showed up with one in Teen Vogue magazine, they called it a "breezy global-chic scarf ."

Delias.com called it a "peace scarf," but when people protested they changed the name to " Euro scarf."

Now the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and murder, the kaffiyeh, is being marketed at yet another store for young people, Alloy, this time as a "Riviera scarf ."

Another conservative blogger named little green footballs takes it too far when he says that a keffiyeh scarf with a skull on it adds the insignia of the Nazi SS. Then Ed Hardy is a dyed in the wool Fascist. So is the 10 year old girl who came to my dad's birthday party wearing his Ugg-style snowboots. I wonder if I should kvetch that the trend divorces/doesn't divorce the political symbolism from the item of clothing (so I should be offended as a Jew). Or maybe Freja Beha can wear it to her heart's delight. Somebody might whine that bourgeois consumerism coopts ethnic clothing and saps it of cultural symbolism, proving the gross meaninglessness, yada, yada, yada... the commodity bereft of the means of production... fetishism... slippage... can't step in the same river twice.. Yawn. (An admittedly half-assed rendering, but I have an example of this type of criticism below)
But its so preeetty. I mean, I think that scarf looked incredible on the people I've seen wear it. I know for a fact that Urban Outfitters replaced it with sparkly scarves made in India, probably meant to go with a sari or Punjabi dress. I have two, maybe they are too colorful to be worn with muted Euro olive greens and perhaps a messenger bag (I think European kids, because they are used to dressing this way as part of mainstream fashion, wear more streamlined, muted colors than American hipsters, especially those who have adopted the fitted hats, kicks and screen printed hooded sweatshirts of hip hop streetwear). I can vouch for it too, just.. not with photos, exactly.
I still kind of want one of those scarves, though. I'm probably destined to be ridiculously behind trends, which might liberate me from following them, or trying to outrun them. I worry that I just like what is in style and don't have the foresight to call a trend idiotic, maybe I even jumped on the huge hornet sunglasses bandwagon. I wonder how SLC kids stay looking so put together, since even if they don't admit it, they do follow trends. Where did they put their huge beaded necklaces and colorful 60s inspired coats with big buttons? I don't think the coat thing is done yet, but having a colorful one isn't as big a deal anymore. The big sunglasses have pretty much been trashed and I don't see aviators around as much anymore, even the imitation Ray Bans that replaced them. Colorful leggings, gold lame leggings are seen less and less now. I also haven't been in SLC in a month. Maybe flats are disappearing too, in favor of highlighter colored patent pumps? I hope so, I just bought a cobalt blue pair, my first pumps, though they look stupid in the picture and cobalt blue wore out its popularity. Naw man, they are in Shoe Mania on Union Square, so as far as the high fashion public is concerned, they never happened. I like street fashion better than the runway looks its ideas come from because often high couture looks so dull or silly arranged on the modes. Plus, I don't mind being a little, um, fashion backward because of the new trend projected for the future:
High waisted jeans. Even high waisted white jeans. The four high waisted horsemen of the apocalypse, I'm literally shaking in my shoes. How the hell are they going to sell me this? And I wonder if the models will pair them with a crop top or whether women will hide them under long shirts. Though I loved the skinny jean on other people, it took me a while to start wearing it since people told me that it was unflattering. As far as I can tell, the mom jean widens attention to your ass area and makes your hips kind of jut out. I learned that from the Gilda Radner Jewess Jeans skit and the boney-ar$ed chick from Saturday Night Fever, Karen Lynn Gorney. Both embody the 70s physique, specifically the flat, thin ass with jutting hips. I know almost nobody that fits the 70s chick type other than our medieval history professor, Susan Kramer. Seriously, you should see her. What an idiot Scar J looks in them. Partly because she has one. Though I normally think that having the semblance of an ass is the saving grace of jeans, particularly skinny jeans. And as far as the rest of the world's people, we will see. I wonder when SLC girls will roll out with them.

rolls eyes x 2:

This is from the michigoss blog, a post called "Nihil Es Hipsteri" attempting to define hipsters. Note the similarity to the Lukacs discussion above. I hate this stuff. And the blog would probably attack the keffiyeh with gusto, with criticisms considerably more interesting and therefore annoying than a conservative blog can put out:

"Must we give up the hope for an identification of the penumbra of "hipster"? Utilizing some sort of Wittgensteinian game, or a post-modern, anti-structuralist strategy would hardly be enlightening. Obviously I wouldn't write this article if I didn't have some sort of hypothesis. So here it is: the hipster is so hard to identify because what unites this group is nothing. It is a lack of belief, a lack of unity, a pervasive nihilism of the 21st century, and yet a deep and almost nostalgic yearning for some time in which there was still something to believe in, something worth fighting for. Paradoxically, this lack of unity in beliefs and aesthetics leads to overall cohesion.

Since the modern search for cause is empty, it leads to the all-encompassing, non-unifying wear and tastes of the hipster. The power of this movement without meaning is indicative of our current cultural condition. We bourgeois intellectuals can no longer justify violent action, nor can we even justify non-violent action. We are so disillusioned that no cause is without fault and we are imprisoned in a Dostoyevskyesque stagnation. Not only are we rebels without a cause, but we don't even have a rebellion. And so all we can believe in is aesthetic value. We are forced to enter the cult of beauty, with a longing for more morally transparent times.

It is for this reason that hipsters fetishize those icons of American identity: the cowboy "going west," the 50's beatnik rebelling against her oppressive society, the punk throwing off the bonds of 80's yuppiedom. And yet these in essence only share a small number of precepts, stemming from a desire for "something else". This is why one amazingly finds hipsters espousing some aspects of these various movements and even opposing ones as well."