I wonder how long ago it was that the first person said “If you’re trying to be cool, then you’re probably not”?
I noticed in the States that the nebulous hipster culture walks this fine line. The actors, but also the stage.
After lunching on what might possibly be the best siew long bao in the world, in NYC’s Chinatown, we took a walk into the Lower East Side. Our friend wanted to show us a coffee shop where you chose your regional variety and it was sucked through clear tubes from the container, across the ceiling, into the grinder, where the pierced, goth-lite, lit-student barista did his thing. Woo hoo! I just wanted to get out the door and run back to the Italian cafe where I’d had breakfast.
We had narrow run-ins with similarly painfully self-conscious retail in the US, and the Lower East Side seemed to have more than its fair share. Yet a lot of the spaces we passed through in NY, like Roebling Tea Room , were equally carefully targeted and put together but managed to avoid coming across as trying too hard.
It’s tricky to know how much is too much I guess.
pic by yangpup
