Tan pants, and a pair of black shoes — like replacing your food with a flavorless protein powder

Dear Hipster:I just got a great job, and I can’t complain, but I hate having to go in business-casual. Let’s just say my office is not one of those hipster offices where everybody works around a big, reclaimed wood table and wears flannel and Chucks. I feel like I went to bed 24, and woke up 50. [frowning emojis] I honestly feel sharper and more confident in the clothes I like. What is the deal with making people wear a shirt with buttons — Jimmy, sent from my iPhone

I’m with you, man. The “business-casual” wardrobe may well be the antithesis of all things hipster. Poly-blend shirts awkwardly unrestrained by ties, tan pants, and a pair of black shoes with ugly square toes. Mainstream, much? That’s the clothing equivalent of replacing all your food with a flavorless protein mixture designed to eviscerate cuisine as we know it.

But, much as we must eat to survive, we must at times wear business-casual in order to earn the money we will spend on craft beer and poke. Some of my East Coast hipster friends (always fashion-forward) have made great strides in the business-casual workplace by rejecting the shirt-and-khakis look in favor of blazers, bowties, loafers, and tailored wool trousers. Refusing to let your environment dictate your life is the sine qua non of hipster style. Take a bad scene and run with it, rather than pout. You’ll feel way cooler.