Hipsters don't ski

Dear Hipster:

I just got back from an early-season ski trip with my kids’ families. Let’s just say it’s been a long time since I hit the slopes. Ski fashion has changed...a lot. I don’t get it myself, but I was left wondering what the skiing equivalent of thrift-shop fashion is. Does skiing even have fashion-conscious hipster types to keep old styles alive?

— Seth

Despite the fact that today’s hipster fashion oddly resembles 1980s yuppie-inspired skiwear (bright colors, big glasses, high waists, etc.), hipsters don’t ski, not in Southern California, anyway. I can’t speak for “hipsters” in Vermont and Colorado, if they even exist. No hipsters means nobody to keep vintage style alive on the slopes. It’s not that hipsters wouldn’t ski if they had the chance, but hemorrhaging all that cash before the freezing drive to Mt. East Nowhere, when there are perfectly good indie bands playing at home, doesn’t appeal to hipsterkind. An old friend of mine, then a chef at a small bistro, described driving to the ski lodge with his girlfriend and drinking an Irish coffee at the bar and soaking up the heat of the fire before turning around and heading back to their urban apartment.

However, if hipsters did ski, you know they’d wear waxed jeans and leather jackets, if for no other reason than to antagonize real skiers.