0:00:04 > 0:00:06You've seen them, haven't you?
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Those guys with the big beards and the lumberjacky clothes.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13And you've probably got a word for them too.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15You probably call them hipsters.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17But you don't necessarily know any.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22They live in very urban areas in big cities.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28They're not exactly a subculture, nor exactly a tribe.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33But they're united by a love for buying special, real things.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38This cup of coffee is a 12 cup of coffee.
0:00:38 > 0:00:3912?
0:00:39 > 0:00:42- So you have to be... - Blimey, thank you very much!
0:00:42 > 0:00:44They're very keen on food.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48In the '60s you would pick up your guitar,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50nowadays you might open up a cafe.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56And they make things, too - in an artisanal way, whatever that means.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00We've got hops and stout, Bethnal Pale Ale.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Bethnal Pale Ale(!)
0:01:02 > 0:01:04- Well, I'm obviously going to hate it.- Of course.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06And everything they make comes with a back story,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09and it's supposed to be authentic and real.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Though it's often beautifully designed.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15So it's kind of make do and mend, leaving things as you found them.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Exposed walls, raw floors.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Naked light bulbs.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24But big business has got in on the act pretty quickly.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28And all this hipster stuff is being packaged up and sold back to us.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Did you give your class a kit to look hipsterish?
0:01:32 > 0:01:35No. I think what you try to do is...
0:01:35 > 0:01:38- Somebody did!- Somebody did.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40But now there's a backlash starting.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41Once a term for cool
0:01:41 > 0:01:45is now something no-one wants to hear somehow.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49It's come to represent something a bit political.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52200 people turned up outside branding torches
0:01:52 > 0:01:54and wearing pigs' masks,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56throwing paint bombs at the window.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58I'm Peter York.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00I'm a market researcher.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03So putting people into groups is my job.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07This is a film about hipsters.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Who are these people,
0:02:09 > 0:02:10and what does it all mean?
0:02:26 > 0:02:28This is Shoreditch, East London.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31It used to be an actual place, but now it's a state of mind.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37And it's the most inventive place imaginable.
0:02:37 > 0:02:44It's been summoned up from nowhere, from nothing, from post-industrial,
0:02:44 > 0:02:49urban wreckage, by the voodoo forces of contemporary art,
0:02:49 > 0:02:54clever developers, and media, in a period of about ten or 15 years.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56And it's a sort of Shangri-La,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59a place where no-one need ever grow up.
0:02:59 > 0:03:05It's a constant theme park, based around the hipster lifestyle.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15I'm always looking around as a researcher and as a writer,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17I like a nice new group.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19In the early '80s, with Ann Barr,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22I co-wrote The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24which was a very popular guide
0:03:24 > 0:03:27to a tribe of upper middle-class young people.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31The archetypal Sloane Ranger lived in expensive parts
0:03:31 > 0:03:35of West London, like Kensington and Chelsea,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38and escaped to their parents' place in the country at weekends.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44More than 30 years on, there's a new group in town
0:03:44 > 0:03:48that people talk about. They're in EAST London.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Hipsters are difficult to understand,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54if you look at them with 20th-century comparisons in mind.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57They're not like the old teenage tribes, the hippies and punks.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00They're not like social or cultural revolutionaries.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02It doesn't work like that.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Now, we're living in a post-POST-modern world.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Sorry about that term.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11This group doesn't seem to be looking forward.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Hipsters borrow heavily from the past,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18taking things up and putting them down again, they're very retro.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22The Cereal Killer Cafe in Shoreditch is supposed to be a hipster joint.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28What they do is import breakfast cereal from all around the world
0:04:28 > 0:04:30and serve it in an interior
0:04:30 > 0:04:33that looks like the set of a children's TV show.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36I could give you Raisin Bran Crunch...
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Raisin Bran Crunch, fantastic.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40- That sounds nice, yeah?- Yes.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Hipsters use irony in a way that allows them to consume
0:04:43 > 0:04:47pretty much anything - no matter how mass cult or banal,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50as long as it's done with a nod and a wink.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52But they're often quite heartfelt
0:04:52 > 0:04:54about what they're actually doing.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Thank you very much.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02The Cereal Killer Cafe is ironic in the way art school people are ironic
0:05:02 > 0:05:04about popular culture.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06The owners, twin brothers Gary and Alan Keery,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09look very hipstery with their hair buns and beards.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Gary did art school, Alan ran a cool menswear shop in London.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16But the H word seems to be a problem for them.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I don't think there's anybody that'll call themselves a hipster.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I wouldn't consider myself a hipster. You know, some people
0:05:21 > 0:05:23think just cos you ride a bike, you're hipster.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Just cos you buy clothes in a charity shop, you're hipster.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29- Just cos you have a beard and tattoos, you're hipster.- Mm.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31We hoped that you had the answer.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33I don't. Sorry!
0:05:33 > 0:05:35To me, what people think is a hipster, is someone who's...
0:05:35 > 0:05:39who works in the creative industry, They're just being themselves.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Most people who you would tag as hipster
0:05:41 > 0:05:43aren't trying to be anything.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45There is some people who would be, like, "I want to be a hipster
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"and I will dress in the hipster costume."
0:05:48 > 0:05:51But then most people are just doing what they... Just being themselves.
0:05:51 > 0:05:57Well, Alan and Gary are clearly on the run from the hipster stigma.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00And this sounds as if it's going to be harder than I imagined.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04So I've enlisted some experts to help guide me through.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08What defines hipsters for you?
0:06:08 > 0:06:09I think that the hipster
0:06:09 > 0:06:12is a relative concept,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14I think it is defined differently by different people
0:06:14 > 0:06:16with different agendas.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20I think it would be very rarely defined by
0:06:20 > 0:06:23hipsters themselves. I think it's unlikely
0:06:23 > 0:06:26that people would refer to themselves AS hipsters.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30It is an epithet that tends to be applied by other people
0:06:30 > 0:06:33to things that they perceive to be hipster.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Nobody truly living that subculture wants to be identified
0:06:38 > 0:06:40as being part of that subculture.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Which is odd, but kind of the point.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46Erm, I think...
0:06:46 > 0:06:48being a hipster revolves around
0:06:48 > 0:06:53removing yourself from the banal and the obvious, and the mainstream.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55And what is mass.
0:06:55 > 0:06:56And as soon as you do that,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59if someone then says, "Oh, you're part of that,"
0:06:59 > 0:07:02- then it's ruined your...removal, as it were.- Spoilt your day!
0:07:02 > 0:07:03- Exactly.- Spoilt your day.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08So, if hipsters just won't admit to being one,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10how do you recognise them?
0:07:13 > 0:07:15I'm going to start with the look.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20All movements are SUPPOSED to have a look.
0:07:20 > 0:07:21So what's theirs?
0:07:25 > 0:07:28- Hello.- Hello.- I'm on a mission...
0:07:28 > 0:07:33to find out what I should have in the unlikely event
0:07:33 > 0:07:36that I wanted to dress as a hipster.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38OK. Our store isn't just for hipsters.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43- No!- But we have got a few items that I could pick out and show you
0:07:43 > 0:07:45what a typical hipster guy would wear.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49So, probably our Levi's jeans...
0:07:49 > 0:07:51- Yes.- Um...
0:07:51 > 0:07:53- Black Levi's.- Mm-hm.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Obviously our workwear jackets as well.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58- I'm not against work.- No?
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Maybe one of our flannel shirts.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04- Oh...- How do YOU feel about it?
0:08:04 > 0:08:05Too woodsy.
0:08:05 > 0:08:06SHE LAUGHS
0:08:06 > 0:08:11This looks very... outdoorsy, American...
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Yeah. Would you wear one?
0:08:13 > 0:08:15No. SHE LAUGHS
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Everything's very oversized.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20- Yes. I'd noticed. - The baggier, the better.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22It's the opposite of sleek.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26- Yeah, I guess so.- And the opposite of Italian designer menswear.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27Yeah.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The clothes are meant to say,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34"I'm outside of mass conformist shopping centre looks.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38"I don't follow celebrity styles. I make my own choices."
0:08:39 > 0:08:43You'll be astonished to hear this isn't 100% my sort of thing,
0:08:43 > 0:08:48but I'm learning, and what I've learnt is there isn't a uniform.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53It isn't properly tribal, like any tribe I've known in the past,
0:08:53 > 0:08:54it's much more...fashiony,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58more pick and mix, more...ironic.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01I think there are a number of reference points within
0:09:01 > 0:09:04the hipster look that point to previous trends,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06or previous youth cultures.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10I think you have the jeans, lots of jeans, very much 1950s teenagers.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13The rolled denim in particular is a nod to the greasers back then.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16There's a kind of mod feel as well
0:09:16 > 0:09:19in the more streamlined pieces that hipsters tend to wear.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And then there's grunge in the mix too - the plaid shirts,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26the long hair and the general sort of...scruffiness.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The East End of London was, until recently, a poor area,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37where people did hard manual work in docks and factories and workshops.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41But many of those jobs don't exist now
0:09:41 > 0:09:43and great swathes of the area have become, sort of,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45middle-class neighbourhoods,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48where the NEW people can play at dressing up.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54They're often playing at being these rugged old hard-working types
0:09:54 > 0:09:57with jobs like truckers or lumberjacks.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Old world jobs they don't actually know anything about.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09It's something this shop, run by Andrew Bolt, understands very well.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12All these things are sort of workwear or purpose wear,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15aren't they? And yet the people who wear them
0:10:15 > 0:10:20- aren't necessarily going to have that purpose, are they?- No.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23It's a very easy fashion to adopt.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Workwear doesn't scream when it walks in a room.
0:10:26 > 0:10:27It has a kind of...
0:10:27 > 0:10:32a confidence in its authenticity and heritage, I guess.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36It's not saying, "Look at me, I'm in fashion."
0:10:36 > 0:10:38It's kind of saying, well, you can't have a pop at me,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40because this stuff's been around for 100 years.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43So there's a kind of...I guess a comfort in that.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46I'm interested in items that are timeless. That are...
0:10:46 > 0:10:49You know, a lot of my jackets have been made exactly the same
0:10:49 > 0:10:53since the '50s. So in a way...
0:10:53 > 0:10:55that's hipster in itself. You know,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59this jacket is made exactly the same as it was back then.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01- Gosh!- And this will last you, not a lifetime, this will last you
0:11:01 > 0:11:03multiple lifetimes.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Yes. And it's also very erm...masculine.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09I think so, yeah.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12We don't do the primary industries as much as we used to do.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15There's a kind of a masculinity gap, I guess.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19And I think this kind of workwear coming through
0:11:19 > 0:11:21may be a way of kind of harking back to that,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23romanticising this idea of...
0:11:23 > 0:11:26getting up and working on the railway lines
0:11:26 > 0:11:31for 18 hours a day or whatnot. I think, you know, that masculinity
0:11:31 > 0:11:34that they might be missing elsewhere in their lives can be kind of
0:11:34 > 0:11:37taken off the peg and put on straight away, through fashion.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40A masculinity gap, oh!
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Up to now, everyone's focused on men. They're easier to spot.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47But presumably there are hipster women, too?
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Hipsterism, I think, is not an entirely male phenomenon,
0:11:50 > 0:11:56but I do think that the male hipster is a much more readily recognisable
0:11:56 > 0:12:00stereotype than the female hipster.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02The male hipster...
0:12:02 > 0:12:05stereotypically, has a uniform.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09So, a beard, for example, is a key one. Tattoos, maybe.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13The hipster mode appealed to men more because you could get
0:12:13 > 0:12:15quite geeky with it.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18I think, having had a decade or so of everyone looking quite sleek and
0:12:18 > 0:12:22sharp, and also very commercial, suddenly, you could grow your hair,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26you could grow a dodgy tash, you could see what a beard looked like.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32I think it was a loosening of what was considered fit or attractive.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37And I think young men - certain young men - really went for it.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Many of the clothes have come from old-fashioned manual trades.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48But the beard thing really is a bit harder to place.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55Beards were probably last in fashion with the hippies, prog rockers,
0:12:55 > 0:12:56or Jeremy Corbyn.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00It's a very male thing.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Most ladies really can't do it, so it's filling that gap.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08A lot of effort goes into these extravagant symbols.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14And in East London's hipster land,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18most barbershops offer specialist beard and moustache management.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Keep it similar to what it is.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25- Get it well-rounded at the bottom, get a good shape going on.- Yeah.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28And have a little tidy up, keep it all in proportion, really.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31So in regards to the shape, you're looking to get a bit more roundness,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33a bit more of a lumberjack-type sort of finish to it?
0:13:33 > 0:13:36- That's exactly it.- Would you like it quite natural
0:13:36 > 0:13:38- through the edges for you? - Yeah. Sure.- OK, cool.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40So if you'd just like to lean forward for me,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42I'm just going to lean this back.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45'I've come to a railway arch in Hackney
0:13:45 > 0:13:47'to meet beard barber Lee Wells.'
0:13:47 > 0:13:50- Does that feel comfortable? - That's fine, yeah.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51'But what's behind the bearded look?'
0:13:51 > 0:13:54You were talking about lumberjacks.
0:13:54 > 0:13:55Yep.
0:13:55 > 0:13:56What's that?
0:13:56 > 0:14:00So, lumberjacks is a term of...
0:14:00 > 0:14:02lumbosexual,
0:14:02 > 0:14:09which is a gent who aspires to having that outdoorsy...
0:14:10 > 0:14:12..wild, unkept look.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14I think it's like, you have the metrosexual
0:14:14 > 0:14:15and then the lumbosexual,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18it's just a term that, sort of, people aspire to
0:14:18 > 0:14:19- to have that type of look.- Yes.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21'Lumbosexual.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23'That's a new one on me.'
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Are there any other current beard-look names?
0:14:27 > 0:14:31So, the lumberjack is more of a roundish shape.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Last year and the year before, the square beard was quite popular.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39People quite like a Viking beard, or a wizard beard.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Quite a popular beard at the moment is called the Verdi beard.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Bit similar to myself.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48What sort of jobs do most of your customers have?
0:14:48 > 0:14:50A lot of people are self-employed,
0:14:50 > 0:14:55in like, either media, architects, web design.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57That type of field.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01So people do, sort of, find themselves sitting behind a PC
0:15:01 > 0:15:07or behind a desk and not having that feel of being in touch with, like,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09their masculine side.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12'They all do those kinds of jobs, really,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15'like so many people now, especially people around here.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17'It seems a bit of a contradiction,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19'but Lee's shelves are groaning
0:15:19 > 0:15:22'with beautifully designed grooming products.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27'It's so not the lumberjack's cabin here. This could be Mayfair.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Would you like some beard conditioner in there,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32- for you, today?- Yes.- Do you have any allergies at all?
0:15:32 > 0:15:33You allergic to anything?
0:15:33 > 0:15:35LIQUID SQUIRTS
0:15:35 > 0:15:36'Beard conditioner?
0:15:36 > 0:15:38'Like moisturiser for hairy people.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42'I still don't quite get this beardy thing.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47'It seems a bit steampunk, a bit neo-Victorian.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49'And a bit homosexy.
0:15:49 > 0:15:50'A bit Clonezone,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'a bit...Tom Selleck in Magnum PI.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57'But what IS riveting is the amount of time and effort
0:15:57 > 0:16:01'that goes into maintaining this manly, authentic, rugged look.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05'It's just as constructed as the metrosexual look
0:16:05 > 0:16:07'that went before it.'
0:16:07 > 0:16:08Cool. If you'd like to lean forward for me.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14- Well. That's good, isn't it? - Really nice.
0:16:14 > 0:16:15- You like it?- Really nice.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19'Hipsters today are always on about looking "authentic".
0:16:19 > 0:16:22'But what does that word mean, really?
0:16:22 > 0:16:25'Does it mean real, not fake?
0:16:25 > 0:16:27'Is THAT the hipster big idea?'
0:16:30 > 0:16:32To understand where it's coming from,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35we need to look at where the word hipster first came from.
0:16:35 > 0:16:42The little syllable "hip" was in use as early as 1902 in black America.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47During the jazz age, the word was used by black musicians to describe
0:16:47 > 0:16:51anyone who was tuned in, or in the know about their world,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53and their music.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58Somehow, in the 1930s,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00"hip" acquired the common English suffix
0:17:00 > 0:17:02and the word "hipster" was born.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10It's funny - when we use the word today, the "hipster,"
0:17:10 > 0:17:12and we speak of a present-day category,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16that name identifies a completely different set of people
0:17:16 > 0:17:21in the 1940s and 1950s. Black American hipsters, jazz performers,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25and the people who hung around them at the clubs on 52nd Street.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26That's the kind of original hipster.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30There's an interesting problem
0:17:30 > 0:17:33with that little syllable "hip".
0:17:33 > 0:17:38After all, hip jazz musicians
0:17:38 > 0:17:41in the 1940s and 1950s
0:17:41 > 0:17:47said that if you have to ask what it means to be hip, you're NOT hip.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52But those new 1950s hipsters WEREN'T black -
0:17:52 > 0:17:55they were young, middle-class white people trying to tune into
0:17:55 > 0:17:58the lifestyle of the black musicians they followed.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01To find something lacking in THEIR world.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Often with hilarious misunderstandings.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07America's economy was booming away then.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Regular people had regular jobs.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12They bought little box houses
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and filled them with all the newly produced mod cons.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20Beatniks influenced by writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
0:18:20 > 0:18:24positioned themselves against this materialist tide.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Their challenge was that there were more important things in life than
0:18:29 > 0:18:34possessions, and hipness was about more than just a toaster.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36It was about expressing your uniquely marvellous self.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Hipness is something that you start to see after World War II,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and the classic definition comes from Norman Mailer
0:18:45 > 0:18:47in an essay from the 1950s.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53He basically says that hipness is a way of resisting the mass society.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55So it's the mass society versus the hipster.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58You know, the fake versus the authentic,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01the scientific versus the irrational.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06And so, the hipster was this figure who refused to conform,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09who did everything his own way.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14The word was marginalised by the massive wave of the pop 1960s,
0:19:14 > 0:19:19until the late 1990s, when it re-emerges to describe people who,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21when you look closely, seem completely different.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28I think that hipsters, as they're really reborn for us, around 2000,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32actually don't seem to have any continuity with the earlier world
0:19:32 > 0:19:35of black hipsters especially, or of jazz etc.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37In fact, what's so shocking about them
0:19:37 > 0:19:40is that they seem to align themselves with whiteness,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43who suddenly turned up in neighbourhoods that had been black,
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Latino in New York,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49and occupied almost the place of a kind of ethnic group.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52# I'm hip, but not weird
0:19:52 > 0:19:55# Like you notice, I don't wear a beard... #
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Unlike the hipsters we mentioned earlier,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00the white bohemians following black jazz musicians
0:20:00 > 0:20:02and riffing on their lives,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06these new American hipsters seemed only to be referencing
0:20:06 > 0:20:08WHITE stereotypes.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12One of their key settlements was the area of Williamsburg
0:20:12 > 0:20:16in Brooklyn, just across the river from Manhattan in New York.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23To really understand the movement and find out about hipsterdom today,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25I'm going back to source.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31New Bohemia, here I come.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36This is Bedford Avenue. It's the main drag of Williamsburg,
0:20:36 > 0:20:42and people say this is where it all started, back in the early 1990s.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47And now, it's a very respectable neighbourhood.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50And there's something for everyone. It's actually
0:20:50 > 0:20:55a popular tourist destination, and it's in all the guides.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01But 20-plus years ago, Williamsburg was still a poor,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04largely Latino and Jewish neighbourhood.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07And it was from there this whole thing began.
0:21:07 > 0:21:08Some people would date
0:21:08 > 0:21:14the rise of hipsters to the colonisation of
0:21:14 > 0:21:19devastated neighbourhoods of New York City, by artists
0:21:19 > 0:21:21and other people who are highly educated,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23but not particularly well paid.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27So often they moved into working-class neighbourhoods
0:21:27 > 0:21:31or even industrial neighbourhoods, where rents were low.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36These people became visible, by opening up businesses -
0:21:36 > 0:21:40bars and cafes and art galleries -
0:21:40 > 0:21:44to cater to people like themselves, with certain kinds of tastes for,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48maybe, the quirky, the unusual, the very contemporary.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53Now that it's all poshed up, it's hard to find pioneer hipsters
0:21:53 > 0:21:57in amongst all of these tourists and fancy shops selling cheese.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Sir, I like the way you have your brake on your pants
0:22:03 > 0:22:04a little long.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Maybe I should just be pulling my pants up a bit more.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11I would say. But that's a rather handsome-looking overcoat
0:22:11 > 0:22:12you got!
0:22:15 > 0:22:17You're being quite fashionable today.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20- It's the native dress of my country.- Really?- Yes.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23We're on a mission, and perhaps you can help us.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27We've come all the way to Bedford Avenue,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30in search of a mythical creature.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35- Something a bit like a unicorn. - Like a what?- Bit like a unicorn.
0:22:35 > 0:22:36- OK.- The hipster.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I just think you should just browse, and you'll see
0:22:39 > 0:22:44all different types of uh... misbehaviour.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47- Just hang out?- Yeah.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58So THIS is the birthplace of 21st-century hipsterism.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02But what's the scene today? Has Williamsburg lost its cool?
0:23:02 > 0:23:04And who are the hipsters now?
0:23:04 > 0:23:08There certainly seem to be fewer beards around.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11- Hipster?- Yep.- What is it?
0:23:16 > 0:23:19It's a person about to become a yuppie, I think.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21It's a person about to become a yuppie?
0:23:21 > 0:23:22It's a person in the creative class...
0:23:22 > 0:23:24- Yes.- ..about to become a yuppie.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Creative class. Yuppie. So being a hipster today
0:23:27 > 0:23:29IS a middle-class thing.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Kind of no longer a badge of cool -
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and not something a cool person aspires to be.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38It's something that people say to negate the ideas
0:23:38 > 0:23:42of a learned person with any ounce of style, normally.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44So if you had a turtleneck on...
0:23:44 > 0:23:47- So a put-down?- Well, it's a put- down. Repression, right...
0:23:47 > 0:23:50'Greg Ferreira is an artist and musician with his own
0:23:50 > 0:23:54'recording studio in Brooklyn. And he's had experience
0:23:54 > 0:23:56'of the NEGATIVE use of the word.'
0:23:56 > 0:23:59I might come out with some Albert Einstein theory,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02- and blow your mind, right?- Yes.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Two minutes later, some dude who does not value what I'm saying,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09looks at me and goes, "Hipster". And it's over.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13When I was a kid, I had hair down here and I played guitar
0:24:13 > 0:24:14in heavy bands.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18And I skateboarded. I got called a headbanger.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Then I got a little bit older, I heard some good records.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25When Bad Brains went on, I was like, "Oh, short hair!"
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Then, I got short hair and then it was, "Now, you're a punk."
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Here we are now, and I'm a hipster. All I am is a collection of all
0:24:31 > 0:24:35- of those different...- All of those things. All of your enthusiasms.
0:24:35 > 0:24:36The things that I've loved.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Are you in line of descent from the beatnik people?
0:24:40 > 0:24:44I don't know. I've read Ginsberg, you know...
0:24:44 > 0:24:45Am I a DESCENDANT of those people?
0:24:45 > 0:24:48As far as I know, I'm a descendant of the Portuguese people!
0:24:49 > 0:24:52I'm not sure about... Do I consider myself a hipster?
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It's too easy to label. Like, I've gone through some trouble
0:24:55 > 0:24:57to be a diverse character, and now you're just going to stick me
0:24:57 > 0:25:00in the hipster category?! That's easy. I've always considered
0:25:00 > 0:25:01myself a rocker.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05If I have to be one thing, if I have to go down as one thing,
0:25:05 > 0:25:06can I please just be a rocker?
0:25:06 > 0:25:08That's one reason.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10But why do so many people like Greg
0:25:10 > 0:25:13not want to be labelled as a hipster?
0:25:26 > 0:25:29I think there was a huge backlash to the initial hipster movement,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31which was the sort of early 2000s,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35complaining that it was perhaps the first countercultural movement,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37or youth culture movement, that had nothing at its core -
0:25:37 > 0:25:40no kind of belief system, no moral cause.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43No fight. No verve, really, that it was...
0:25:43 > 0:25:47horribly commercial in a way and kind of empty at its core.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49After that backlash,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51people didn't really want any part of being a hipster
0:25:51 > 0:25:53and so what grew from it
0:25:53 > 0:25:58was hipster culture that no-one wanted to be named as part of.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01So, it actually became much more wholesome.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05The next incarnation of hipsters is someone who has sort of...
0:26:05 > 0:26:07community spirit and community roots
0:26:07 > 0:26:12and they're interested in the authenticity of where they live
0:26:12 > 0:26:14and the things they buy,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18it's kind of an organic... agrarian take on modern life.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23There it is again, that word - "authentic".
0:26:24 > 0:26:28So it's not just the trusty look and vibe of the woodsman
0:26:28 > 0:26:30we met at the beginning of the film.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34It's also about what you make and eat.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Oh, I'm afraid we're into the craft movement here. SO not me.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43New hipsters love making things now.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Earthy, old-fashioned things.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53East London is absolutely full of cottage industries now,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56most of which seem to be based in railway arches
0:26:56 > 0:27:01and run by men with...beards, living the dream.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05# Tutti frutti, fruity
0:27:06 > 0:27:09# Tutti frutti, fruity
0:27:09 > 0:27:10# Tutti frutti, tutti frutti... #
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Ed Taylor gave up a career as a web designer
0:27:13 > 0:27:17to start a business with his partner making traditional sodas.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20That means fizzy drinks.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22So, is this your global delivery system?
0:27:22 > 0:27:24This is an amazing bike.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27We use this for nipping about in the local area,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29if we've got to get fruit from Ridley Road
0:27:29 > 0:27:31or drop off a couple of cases to the local cafe.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35So these under here are called medlars.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38They look like they've rotted already.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41That's kind of the point. When they're unripe, you can't eat them,
0:27:41 > 0:27:46they taste awful. They only taste palatable, and I would say good,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49once they've bletted, so that's once they've started to ferment out.
0:27:49 > 0:27:50So this one's beautiful.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54The stuff inside here looks horrible, but is delicious,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58- if you like that sort of thing. - I'll do it very carefully.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59Don't be afraid.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01It tastes a bit like caramel apple sauce.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Yes, it does. What a surprise. You could come to like it, couldn't you?
0:28:06 > 0:28:07They're not as bad as they look.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Although this may LOOK like a craft hobby,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15apparently they're producing 12,000 bottles a week
0:28:15 > 0:28:17from all this awful-looking fruit.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22People talk about the kind of thing that you're doing.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27Lots of words they use, like - small, local business,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30entrepreneur, craft.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34- Yeah.- But the word they use all the time...is hipster.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40- How do you feel about that?- I think trying to define a business
0:28:40 > 0:28:45that has so many, or any business that has quite a big social impact
0:28:45 > 0:28:49in a local area - to call it a hipster movement maybe makes it seem
0:28:49 > 0:28:52like you just pigeonhole it into one category,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54maybe that's difficult?
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Ed might not think he's part of any movement, but those ideas -
0:28:57 > 0:29:02local, handmade - were picked up by the cool hunters.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06It's their job to spot new trends and pass their findings
0:29:06 > 0:29:10on to big business. Martin Raymond, of Future Laboratory,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13was one of the first people to see its potential.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16You saw people redefining a sense of neighbourhood again.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Talking about craft, artisanship, creativity.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24So suddenly you were seeing that rather than commercialism
0:29:24 > 0:29:25becoming important,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28culture and the notion of the culture neighbourhood
0:29:28 > 0:29:32or the culture city. And I think the hipster really defined that shift
0:29:32 > 0:29:36from the kind of suited masters of the universe
0:29:36 > 0:29:40to the kind of craft beer, the bike - the notion of authenticity.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44The feeling of everything should be organic
0:29:44 > 0:29:46and everything should be sourced locally.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49So really, in itself that was hugely different.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54Oof! Enough already!
0:29:56 > 0:30:00I should say now that I'm one of the most inauthentic people
0:30:00 > 0:30:04in the world. I'm allergic to those words "craft" and "artisanal".
0:30:05 > 0:30:07I dislike them
0:30:07 > 0:30:11because it sounds like an easy reactionary sentimentalism.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15But as a marketeer,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18I can see that the craft philosophy is a hugely seductive one.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24So I'm venturing forth, and heading towards yet another railway arch
0:30:24 > 0:30:28in Bethnal Green, to meet master brewer James Rylands.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32This is going to be quite a test for someone like me
0:30:32 > 0:30:34who normally drinks nice wine.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36We've got hops and stout...
0:30:38 > 0:30:40Yeah?
0:30:46 > 0:30:48Golly, that's sweet.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53As not a beer drinking man, what do you think?
0:30:53 > 0:30:58As the most non-beer-drinking man possible,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00I think it's amazingly nice!
0:31:00 > 0:31:03And, for me, almost bearable.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Charming!
0:31:06 > 0:31:10Yeah, I mean, it's very similar to what would have been produced,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13in essence, in London, you know, strong stouts importers
0:31:13 > 0:31:16- that were produced in East London. - Are you saying
0:31:16 > 0:31:19that's what an imaginary working man
0:31:19 > 0:31:21would have been drinking 100 years ago?
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Closer than...most commercial stouts, yeah.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28- Well, lucky old them.- Yeah.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33'We've talked about how hipsters have a rugged, masculine dress code
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'based on workers from the past.'
0:31:35 > 0:31:40'Well, the craft producers have also adopted SKILLS from the past.'
0:31:42 > 0:31:47So they serve beer here that harks back to a time when real men
0:31:47 > 0:31:49drank much more beer.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54Downstairs from the bar, James and his team make all the beer on-site.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01- What did you do before you were a brewer?- I did a degree in fine art.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03I did a sculpture degree at Chelsea.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05For me it was about creating something,
0:32:05 > 0:32:10so wanting to make something that was better than was already there.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12For all of us, this was our passion before it was our job.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16And it is a love. It's, you know, this is what I will do,
0:32:16 > 0:32:18all being well, for the rest of my life.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22So there's an element of romanticism about all this?
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Making things with your hands IS.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28And especially in a modern economic sense,
0:32:28 > 0:32:30to actually do something that is quite old school.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34It's the difference between buying a generic suit off the peg,
0:32:34 > 0:32:39made in Bangladesh in terrible conditions, and a handmade product.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45So James isn't just a maker but he's an artist, too.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Ed and James are part of a new breed of small-scale makers
0:32:48 > 0:32:52who've popped up all over East London over the past ten years.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56They really like their work, and they seem extremely nice.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00And it's no accident that these businesses have increased tenfold
0:33:00 > 0:33:04since the financial crash of 2008,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08with craft breweries shooting up from seven to 71.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12At times of uncertainty,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16people don't want to put their faith in numbers on a screen.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19I think young people suddenly realised that their futures
0:33:19 > 0:33:21weren't going to be as easy as they wanted them to be,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24so I think nostalgia became quite key.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28I think people wanted to have something that was real -
0:33:28 > 0:33:31you know, money had turned out to not be real.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35I think they were looking for something that felt more sturdy.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Sturdy. Real. Authentic.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43These words keep cropping up.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47The idea of authenticity means more than what you wear now.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49It's a belief system.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Something people describe as virtue signalling,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57which is all about showing you're doing the right thing.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00It's used to describe how we should behave.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Authenticity really is THE word of the moment,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06and not just in the hipster world.
0:34:06 > 0:34:12The idea of authenticity comes from Rousseau, in the 18th century,
0:34:12 > 0:34:17writing about people getting in touch with their inner selves.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Authenticity means to get simple.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24To get inside yourself and to uncover the true essence
0:34:24 > 0:34:26of who you are.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32Here we go. Getting in touch with your inner self again.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35I think there is a widespread desire
0:34:35 > 0:34:38for a sense of authenticity
0:34:38 > 0:34:42that goes far beyond any kind of hipster culture.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45So there is a desire to eat
0:34:45 > 0:34:49real food, wear real clothes.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The real exists in vintage furniture.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58And the perception is that people who originally owned this furniture
0:34:58 > 0:35:03lived lives more authentic than those that we are currently living.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Hipster interiors have to have this authentic feel, too.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18So everywhere you look, there are those characteristic surfaces -
0:35:18 > 0:35:22bare brick, industrial tiles,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24bashed-up, reclaimed wooden floors.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26Very high touch in a hi-tech world,
0:35:26 > 0:35:31it's a theme park reminder of what these buildings used to be for.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35In a typical hipster bike workshop stroke cafe,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39I'm having a Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance moment
0:35:39 > 0:35:42with architectural journalist Oliver Wainwright.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Well, the so-called hipster culture, I think, to me,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48emerged in the late '90s and early 2000s.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51People were being pushed, in London, further and further east
0:35:51 > 0:35:54into spaces where there was a very short time on the end of a lease,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57so the aesthetic came from this very provisional, ad hoc,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00slightly precarious situation you were in.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03So it was kind of make do and mend, leaving things as you found them,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06a very kind of DIY sensibility.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Weren't they aesthetically educated, people who had the eye?
0:36:11 > 0:36:14Didn't they know what they were doing?
0:36:14 > 0:36:17So rather than talking about hipster design, I think it's more
0:36:17 > 0:36:19interesting to talk about how hipsters curate spaces.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Everything is curated, from menus to interiors,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26it's about showing that you have an individual sensibility and taste.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31So you kind of pick and mix, find things from obscure vintage stores,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34or from the darkest corners of eBay.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37You bring it together in this process of bricolage.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41I would say hipster design is a process of collaging, of layering,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45of being a kind of promiscuous magpie, and sourcing things
0:36:45 > 0:36:48from whichever period or culture you're interested in.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52It's about expressing individuality. That's the idea of it, anyway.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56The original meaning of the word "hip" was "in the know",
0:36:56 > 0:36:58and the thing that marks out hipsters
0:36:58 > 0:37:03is that they're knowing in all their choices.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07They don't seem to invent things like real artists do - they curate,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12collect and gather objects into a museum of curiosities.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21But their real creativity seems to lie in entrepreneurial enterprises.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28They're particular about what they buy,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32and one of the things that they're particularly fussy about is coffee.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35They seem to spend half their day in coffee shops, writing
0:37:35 > 0:37:38and being creative on their laptops and phones.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Coffee is at the centre of the hipster world,
0:37:43 > 0:37:45so getting it right is worth a lot of money.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51In Williamsburg, every coffee shop seems to have a different
0:37:51 > 0:37:54selling strategy to help distinguish themselves.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59Selling the hipster product is all about one crucial element -
0:37:59 > 0:38:04back story. And this cafe has a remarkable one.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09Their story is that they're sourcing fresh coffee beans from Columbia,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12and roasting them faster than anywhere else in the world.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18The founder and managing director is Steven Sutton.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22This cup of coffee is a 12 cup of coffee.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25- Is a what?- 12 cup of coffee. - 12?- So you have to be...
0:38:25 > 0:38:28Blimey! Thank you very much!
0:38:28 > 0:38:30That's a bean that's around...
0:38:30 > 0:38:33- Right now, that should be around 18 days old.- Mm-hm.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Before roasting, and it was roasted yesterday.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39So it's freshly roasted, fresh coffee.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41It's actually going to taste not like a coffee,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45it's going to taste more like tea. It has a lot of floral notes,
0:38:45 > 0:38:47a lot of lemon notes, a lot of Mandarin notes.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50It's very fruity, very citrusy.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Try it out. It's going to be a little different.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56I'm worried about not doing justice to the things you told me about.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Or not being able to notice them.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02Worst case scenario, you're going to definitely have a very, very,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04very different type of coffee.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10And it IS extremely nice, but I'm now, you see,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13I'm now convinced that I'm tasting all the things you've said.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20'What I love is all this creativity applied to selling their coffee.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25'Steven's customers are the illuminati,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28'where the badge of cool is a 12 cup of coffee
0:39:28 > 0:39:32'and knowing the story that goes with it.'
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Tell me about your customers.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36This is a farm-to-table movement.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39It is definitely a hipster movement in that sense that
0:39:39 > 0:39:44all of my clients are very into that movement.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47It doesn't mean that you have to be a hipster to do it.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51You don't have to be hipster to like this, but it helps.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The new movement that is being created,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56and I guess it's the new generation,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59it's a generation full of information.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02They want to know that there's real traceability,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05they want to know there is information behind it.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09We have to be sustainable, environmental, social.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12So there's a mainstream political thing
0:40:12 > 0:40:16about how money gets spread around, and who gets the money
0:40:16 > 0:40:20and stuff like that, and there is an ecological thing about
0:40:20 > 0:40:25sustainability and land use and all that stuff.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29And then there's a thing of people saying,
0:40:29 > 0:40:34"I want the real thing, I will research it like crazy
0:40:34 > 0:40:38"and to determine what the real thing is and not buy something
0:40:38 > 0:40:41"because it's got a beautiful logo and a famous brand."
0:40:41 > 0:40:42Exactly.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46That's quite a burden for a cup of coffee to bear, isn't it?
0:40:48 > 0:40:50Actually, you get a lot for your money here.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54You get a little sort of play, with lovely set dressing,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57with beautiful sacks of coffee,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01and then you watch people doing artisanal things.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Sifting and sorting and roasting coffee to its peak of perfection.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12I think we can see a hipster-style businesses as part of a sort of
0:41:12 > 0:41:15broader legacy from the hippie counterculture.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18But they have an ethos
0:41:18 > 0:41:22that these products are not simply material goods,
0:41:22 > 0:41:27but they can add a meaningful element to your lives.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29So there are stories attached to them,
0:41:29 > 0:41:31there are values attached to them.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36And through consuming those products rather than others, you demonstrate
0:41:36 > 0:41:41your commitment to a certain sort of ethical framework.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46If you're seeking out authenticity, then obviously it has a back story.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50It tells a story about where it came from,
0:41:50 > 0:41:52what its origins were,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54who made it, why they make it,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58their beliefs. So you're not just buying that product,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02you're buying a sort of history that product.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Storytelling is fundamentally important to everything about us
0:42:06 > 0:42:08as human beings, the way we are.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12The hipster, in a way, realises that they're seeking that,
0:42:12 > 0:42:15they're seeking, what is the story behind it?
0:42:16 > 0:42:19And to sell something supernormally special
0:42:19 > 0:42:24at an eye-watering high price, you have to have a wonderful story.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28You have to have a very evolved marketing practice.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32But get this approach right, and you can make an awful lot of money.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36- Hello.- Hello!
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Can that really be £48?
0:42:39 > 0:42:43- That little box? - Yes, 24 chocolates in there.
0:42:43 > 0:42:44£48, blimey!
0:42:48 > 0:42:52These super-expensive chocolates are sold all over the world,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54and come with the mother of all back stories.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01The Mast brothers use a traditional sailing boat to go and pick up their
0:43:01 > 0:43:04cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic,
0:43:04 > 0:43:05and sail them back to New York.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09The Mast brothers have put this marketing strategy
0:43:09 > 0:43:11to very good effect.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15They've put chocolate onto a whole different level,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17as luxury brand fashion.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Hello. How do you do?
0:43:20 > 0:43:22- Rick...- Yes.- Hi. Michael. - Michael.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25- Welcome to our chocolate factory. - Oh!
0:43:25 > 0:43:27Isn't it so beautiful?
0:43:27 > 0:43:32Their USP is that they make all of their expensive chocolates,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34costing nearly £10 a bar -
0:43:34 > 0:43:39that's one the size of a £1.50 slab of you know who's fruit and nut -
0:43:39 > 0:43:42here on site, from bean to bar.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46A hipster-style Willy Wonka factory.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49The chocolate that we're making is not just another bar on the shelf.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51It's a story. It's an education.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53It's a whole experience.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57Nearly 90% of the chocolate consumed
0:43:57 > 0:43:59in the world is made by three companies,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03so to be able to disrupt that, makes us feel like
0:44:03 > 0:44:07we're that rock and roll band that we were never able to be in!
0:44:08 > 0:44:14Some might say that we're the poster children for what a hipster is,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17but maybe in the '60s you would pick up your guitar,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20nowadays you might open up a cafe.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22Well done, those boys.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25But changing the world through posh chocolate
0:44:25 > 0:44:29seems a bit Marie Antoinette-ish and comic to me.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Now, interestingly, since we met,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35the Mast brothers have been in the news for allegedly using
0:44:35 > 0:44:37ready-made chocolate in their products.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39And, even more controversially,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42not even being bearded when they first started out.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46They've apologised to customers, who they say they may have misled.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Who knows where the truth lies?
0:44:48 > 0:44:52That's a theme we'll return to later. But, clearly, there are a lot
0:44:52 > 0:44:55of people out there who want to buy cool, virtuous, luxury goods.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00You have the most philanthropic impulses about remaking the world
0:45:00 > 0:45:05from the ground up. And the most venal kind of
0:45:05 > 0:45:08avid desires for the rarest things.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12The classic hipster dynamic of - what is rarer?
0:45:12 > 0:45:16What is newer? What is harder to produce, and yet,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19how can I show my superior taste by knowing about it first,
0:45:19 > 0:45:21by possessing it first?
0:45:21 > 0:45:25A lot of energy in hipster land seems to be devoted to something
0:45:25 > 0:45:29I completely recognise - luxury goods.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31It's not what I was expecting...
0:45:32 > 0:45:35..but it's what I call micro connoisseurship.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37To be a micro connoisseur means
0:45:37 > 0:45:40instead of being a connoisseur of, say,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43Renaissance painting or 20th-century literature,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46or something really major, a micro connoisseur
0:45:46 > 0:45:49is a subset, say, of foodies.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52You're very good on bread, or coffee, or chocolate.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Everyday things.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59And what this means is that people will pay supernormally high prices
0:45:59 > 0:46:02for things that appear to be supernormally special.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06It's not surprising that hipster style businesses quickly went under
0:46:06 > 0:46:10the microscope of my friends in the marketing world.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Clients originally felt that hipsters were a kind of
0:46:14 > 0:46:19interesting but eccentric and non-profitable minority.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22They didn't see the benefit of the association.
0:46:22 > 0:46:23What did you suggest they do?
0:46:23 > 0:46:26I think we first of all suggested that they examine closely
0:46:26 > 0:46:30the principles of hipsters. What is it they are trying to talk about?
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Organic - how does that resonate with the consumer?
0:46:33 > 0:46:37Very well. Sustainable - excellent with consumers.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39More localised industries
0:46:39 > 0:46:41and artisanal activities
0:46:41 > 0:46:45to reinvigorate and revitalise the neighbourhood -
0:46:45 > 0:46:46consumers love that.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Once Martin and his team had explained these ideas
0:46:50 > 0:46:55to big business, they were quick to exploit these very lovable things.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Mainstream corporate marketeers have definitely clocked the hipster look.
0:46:59 > 0:47:04They've been buying it up in job lots - or they've been faking it.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09The hipster trend is absolutely everywhere now.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13It's a funny mixture of urban chic and shantytown.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19I think people have co-opted elements of hipsterism
0:47:19 > 0:47:22because they can say "This is cool."
0:47:22 > 0:47:25it just becomes a means by which
0:47:25 > 0:47:30large organisations can sell a different look and attitude.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33You now walk into a Pret A Manger,
0:47:33 > 0:47:35and it's essentially got a bit of
0:47:35 > 0:47:38this subculture going on now in their outlet.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43So you can see how the mainstream has co-opted this look
0:47:43 > 0:47:46and it is taking it to the world at large.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50# Imitation
0:47:53 > 0:47:56# Imitation... #
0:47:56 > 0:48:03The interiors of quite a lot of fast food restaurants now are modelled on
0:48:03 > 0:48:06sort of hipster lofts, so they have...
0:48:06 > 0:48:08erm...
0:48:08 > 0:48:13real or probably fake stripped brickwork walls,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17apparently mismatched shabby chic furniture,
0:48:17 > 0:48:23but probably no doubt produced on a mass scale but to look as if
0:48:23 > 0:48:29it were vintage. So the aesthetic has permeated everywhere.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36Just at the moment that trends like hipsterism hit the high street,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39the pioneers, the originators, the early adopters will be saying,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43"That's so over." But in my experience,
0:48:43 > 0:48:47that's the point that it really starts motoring.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51That's the moment when it goes from the Bauhaus to our house,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55as Tom Wolfe immortally said. That's when it gets to you and me.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00And our coffee's a Guatemalan single origin speciality.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04So you've got flavour notes there of milk chocolate and orange.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Even Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11part-owns a rather hipster-style high street coffee chain,
0:49:11 > 0:49:15complete with the stripped-back aesthetic.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18You know, the industrialised lighting, distressed wood table,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21the Edison light bulb, the chalk blackboard - in themselves,
0:49:21 > 0:49:23business didn't understand that,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26but when you can associate profit with it...
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Did it give people a kit to look hipster-ish?
0:49:29 > 0:49:33I think you can give people... Unfortunately...
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Did you give your clients a kit to look hipster-ish?
0:49:35 > 0:49:38No. I think what you try to do is...
0:49:38 > 0:49:41- Somebody did! - Somebody did.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46You can see some hipster effects on high streets in the country.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49But the biggest changes are concentrated
0:49:49 > 0:49:53in post-industrial parts of big cities.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56This process is part of that unrelenting thing
0:49:56 > 0:49:57called gentrification.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04We've already seen in the rougher suburbs of New York
0:50:04 > 0:50:06that when the artistes, graphic designers, bakers,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09brewers and coffee makers moved in,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12the area was transformed by the creative class.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17This has been mirrored in London's Shoreditch.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20At first, the effect is actually rather nice -
0:50:20 > 0:50:24the food, the look, the coffee and the fizzy drinks.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28It's all rather wholesome and tasty, if you like that kind of thing.
0:50:28 > 0:50:29It feels good.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32# ..That this joint is to hip for me... #
0:50:32 > 0:50:36I think being a hipster is all about having a nice life.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39It's going into a coffee shop with your Mac and sitting down
0:50:39 > 0:50:43and working there all morning with your matching iPhone.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45It's probably having a fixed wheel bike as well.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49They do sort of flock together. They are a collective.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52And where one lives, lots of them live, and you find them living
0:50:52 > 0:50:55in these sort of utopian enclaves,
0:50:55 > 0:50:59where all of their children are brought up together,
0:50:59 > 0:51:03where there's a farmers' market that they all go to every week
0:51:03 > 0:51:07and it is a real utopia if you go to certain bits of Hackney.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10They've got it sorted out in a lovely way.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13And you said that without a trace of topspin.
0:51:13 > 0:51:14You said it is if you might mean it.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17Well, but this is the thing about hipsters,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19their lives are nice.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21That's why they come in for such a lot of flak, I think.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25They are a bunch of people who have worked out what is pleasant,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29and they happen to be able to afford it, and so they've gone for it.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Now, here's the difficult bit.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35As the hipsters were having their nice lives, the estate agents
0:51:35 > 0:51:40and developers - very different people - quickly got in on the act.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45Building owners and developers gradually began to realise, hey,
0:51:45 > 0:51:49this could be turned into some very expensive housing.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Estate agents follow artists
0:51:53 > 0:51:57like seagulls follow fishing boats.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59That's where the money's going to be next,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02because that's where the fashion is going
0:52:02 > 0:52:06and that's where aspirational people will want to live.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Once upon a time there WERE artists - at least arty types -
0:52:11 > 0:52:15but the movement quickly mainlined into entrepreneurism.
0:52:17 > 0:52:18In Williamsburg,
0:52:18 > 0:52:23one of those loftish apartments that were so run-down 20 years ago
0:52:23 > 0:52:26will cost you 3 million and up now.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29It's a similar story in London's Shoreditch.
0:52:30 > 0:52:35So the moral seems to be if you want to make a lot of money,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39buy a dump in the next hipster land, and it'll make you a fortune.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44I think, looking back,
0:52:44 > 0:52:49if you ask yourself why did this modern hipster moment happen
0:52:49 > 0:52:51exactly when it did,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55it turns out really to have to do with money.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57The flow of global capital
0:52:57 > 0:53:02into so-called global cities, London, New York...
0:53:02 > 0:53:06Because those places, specifically real estate in those places,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09came to seem like safe investments.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15And of course, Shoreditch is just yards away from the shiny towers
0:53:15 > 0:53:17of the City of London.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22And the area has become a popular hipster-themed tourist destination.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28One of the places those visitors love is the Cereal Killer Cafe
0:53:28 > 0:53:30in Brick Lane.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35But for some, it's come to represent a selling-out
0:53:35 > 0:53:37of what was once a working-class neighbourhood.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47In September 2015, 200 anti-gentrification
0:53:47 > 0:53:50class war activists targeted the cafe,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54blaming hipsters for the rising inequality in East London.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57Wearing pig's head masks,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00they daubed the word "scum" on the shop window.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05This is a new thing now, but that was actually dragged in front
0:54:05 > 0:54:08of the door to barricade the door closed, because people were trying
0:54:08 > 0:54:11to get in. The customers had actually barricaded themselves in.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15What conclusions did you draw from that experience?
0:54:15 > 0:54:19They attacked us because they see us as...
0:54:19 > 0:54:22the faces of "hipsters" in East London.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24They knew if they attacked us they would get press about it,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26and they were absolutely right.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Possibly one of the things that people have got against you
0:54:30 > 0:54:33is that, whatever you do,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37you're part of the onward advance of gentrification
0:54:37 > 0:54:40in a formerly working-class area.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42The thing is, I've spoke to people who lived here
0:54:42 > 0:54:45sort of all their lives and they said 20 years ago,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48this place was a shithole. So when these artists and stuff moved in...
0:54:48 > 0:54:50- They've made it better?- Yeah.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54Well, there's pros and cons about gentrification,
0:54:54 > 0:54:55I can understand that.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58But, essentially, where we come from in Belfast,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00you don't have gentrified areas,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03most people wouldn't have heard of that. In Belfast it's like,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05there was a bit of a shitty area
0:55:05 > 0:55:08and now it's a nice area. It's a nice place to go.
0:55:08 > 0:55:09And that's a good thing.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13You can see their point, can't you?
0:55:13 > 0:55:17Why should they be hammered for doing something people enjoy?
0:55:17 > 0:55:21Hipsters never really said they were aiming to change the world.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24They just meant to live a nicer life, or start a nice business.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Today, the line between being a rebel
0:55:29 > 0:55:32and being a fundamental conformist has got rather blurred.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Just about looks - except for the inequality debate.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38Hipsters don't go there.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44What we call a hipster is usually somebody going about their life
0:55:44 > 0:55:47in a pretty unthreatening way.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50It seems more like a consumer culture than a counterculture.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56So when the marketeers spotted them, they packaged the hipster lifestyle
0:55:56 > 0:55:59into something that could be sold to the rest of us rather fast.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02And you could say it's become one of
0:56:02 > 0:56:06the most successful consumer movements ever.
0:56:06 > 0:56:07Will they leave a great literature,
0:56:07 > 0:56:11will they leave a distinctive musical genre?
0:56:11 > 0:56:17Will they leave artworks that have never been done before,
0:56:17 > 0:56:19and won't be done again?
0:56:19 > 0:56:23This hipster culture - is it counterculture, is it subculture,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26or is it consumer culture?
0:56:26 > 0:56:32And I would have to say that it seems like consumer culture to me
0:56:32 > 0:56:36because, especially nowadays, so much of it is
0:56:36 > 0:56:39orientated around products.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41But it's not ALL been bad.
0:56:41 > 0:56:47I think the hipster legacy is more focused on environmental policies.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52I think it's a slightly different version of consumer society.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56One that cares slightly more about the origin of products and feels
0:56:56 > 0:56:59a certain amount of consumer guilt as well.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02They actually have kick-started
0:57:02 > 0:57:06a whole return to making cities civilised again.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08To making them about community values,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and to making our public spaces less bland and
0:57:11 > 0:57:13kind of cookie-cut corporatism.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18So in some ways they've started a process of re-engagement,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23and reopened the debate about politics, social space, communities,
0:57:23 > 0:57:27that I fear we haven't had for the past decade.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41So what did the hipsters ever do for us?
0:57:43 > 0:57:49Well, they gave us better craft beers, and better coffee,
0:57:49 > 0:57:54and better bean-to-bar chocolate, and better sourdough toasties.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56But it all came at a price.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04And they regenerated neighbourhoods.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07But that came at a price, too.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10Higher property prices.
0:58:10 > 0:58:11Some winners, some losers.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16We're ALL a bit hipster now.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20But meanwhile, out there,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24the unremitting search for the new frontiers of cool,
0:58:24 > 0:58:28that constantly moving target, just goes on.