The Wonders of Wool

In many ways, autumn is the season of the hipster. Wearing scarves becomes more appropriate, and piling on the layers no longer suffocates you in the summer heat.

Unfortunately, it seems to be part of the hipster mantra to be as impractically dressed as possible at any given moment. I don't know whether this is intentional or simply a byproduct of fashion, but I feel it is my duty as an experienced meta-hipster to help the rest of the hipster world improve their quality of life - without making it look that way, of course.

What I bring to the table today is wool.

Wool socks are one of the best investments a hipster (or anyone, for that matter) can make for the winter. Put away those argyle dress socks or cotton ankle socks and slip into a pair of warm, dry wool ones. So much more comfortable when it's cold outside. Plus: dat red stripe. Am I right? Pick them up at the nearest Mark's Work Wearhouse, or at your favourite online store that nobody's ever heard of.

And while we're not too far from the topic of scarves - those come in wool too. And they're pretty great. So fold up those thin, decorative cotton (or - I shudder to think - acrylic blend) scarves, and get a real one. I'm sure your grandmother would even knit one for you.

For the extra-adventurous, there are wool shirts. This one's from Monitaly, but there are a lot of really great vintage ones as well, from brands like Pendleton or Viyella. Check out the vintage stores and thrift shops in your area - there are a lot of these floating around.

So, now you've been educated and have no excuse to wear impractical things this winter. Hope to see a lot of wool out there.

Finding Good Things on Etsy

Etsy isn't exactly new (nor is it particularly hipster-centric anymore - it's practically mainstream for goodness sake). However, it is still a spectacular repository of hipster things, and most items are fairly limited in quantity (being handmade or vintage), so I believe there is still hope for the hipster to find what he or she needs.

The thing about Etsy is that, as it becomes more and more mainstream, it is becoming diluted with things you (the hipster) and I have no interest in. Plus they sell furniture and other stuff that you and I both know is prohibitively expensive to ship.

So how do you find good things without spending hours and hours sorting through pages and pages of appalling mediocrity? Try this. Looking for a bag? Instead of searching "bag," search for "Capybara." As of today, your search would return 77 results - which is totally manageable - and you would find this awesome bag (except if you live in or frequently travel to Winnipeg, please don't by this exact bag, because I already did, and both of us having it would just be awkward and I would have to throw mine away).

Feeling more adventurous? Search "deer antler" and you'll find 7,985 items, all fashioned out of or in the shape of - you guessed it - deer antlers. You'll find this hair fork on the first page (and this one is fair game - however, you'll probably want to tell people you found the antler at the thrift store or in the forest or something and thought of using it as a hair fork on your own - much more respectable).

The key to finding great things on Etsy is NOT searching for what you want - i.e. a bag or a shirt or what have you. It's searching for something seemingly unrelated that you know you like, like a capybara or deer antlers - because what self-loathing hipster doesn't love South American rodents and ironic big game trophies - and then searching through those results until you find it in the format you're looking for.

Happy hunting (pun intended).

The Birth of Hipstery

Hello, and welcome to Hipstery, the amalgamation and rebirth of "Jacob Defends Hipsters" and "What Jacob Does" as a single blog about hipster things.

In the past, I have ironically blogged in defense of hipsters, and have also blogged sincerely about my love for certain hipster things. However, I will no longer subject you, reader, to any such confusion or contradiction. From here on in you may assume that every post is simultaneously ironic and sincere, although not in an Orwellian "doublethink" manner - rather, the voice of this blog is intended to be cheekily ironic simply in its existence, but sincere in its content and enthusiasm.

The reader can expect to see spotlights on superbly hipster products and websites, commentary on hipster culture and hipsters in society, and the occasional life advice for hipsters.

Since hipsters don't use exclamation marks in any non-ironic capacity, suffice it to say that I'm excited to be bringing my every hipster whim to life in this blog for the benefit of you, the reader, and to a lesser degree you, the skimmer, and to an even lesser although not entirely nonexistent degree, you, the guy rolling his scroll wheel up and down and deciding whether or not the length of the posts on this blog are prohibitive to your attention span.