The 10 Commandments of a Cultured Hipster’s Style

1. Thou shalt never deny the cut. The cut is one of the most important parts of a piece of clothing. Clothing should complement your body, and give you a favourable silhouette. If it ticks neither of these two boxes, don’t even think about it. Even if the quality and the price is good, but the cut is horrible, it is not worth your time and money. You’ll just end up with buyer’s regret.

2. Thou shalt not deny quality. Quality, quality, quality. And if its all natural fibres (cotton, linen, bamboo) that’s even better. (But remember to still uphold 1))

3. Thou shalt dress for comfort, not looks. It’s not to say that looks are unimportant, however comfort is equally important. Those who dress for looks are only doing themselves a disservice. How could one still look good if they are uncomfortable?

4. Thou shalt have the essentials. And by essentials, I mean a white collared long-sleeved shirt, a classic white cotton t-shirt, a pair of comfortable and versatile jeans, a pair of dress shoes and casual shoes such as converse (vans are too mainstream nowadays.)

5. Thou shalt wear one item of clothing with flair. Indian-made natural-dyed scarf? Spotty socks? Colourful bag? Underwear with cats? The world is your oyster.

6. Thou shalt consider handmade/custom-made clothing. Handmade clothing gives a piece character. The item of clothing is tailored to your own desires – you can choose your own cloth, cut, stitching, whatever you like. It allows a cultured hipster to make a statement to the world about themselves and who they are.

7. Thou shalt never follow a trend (that’s too mainstream). Sure if you like a piece of clothing that is trendy at that time, buy it. But, if you have a good eye for fashion, you can also tell whether this trend will become a classic trend, or just a fad. If it’s still somewhat wearable in a few season’s time, wear it. And trust me, you’ll probably be even more stylish now.

8. Thou shalt iron your clothes. Trust me, even if you’re incredibly lazy, it’s not worth it. Especially for shirts. There is such a big difference between a non-ironed shirt, and an ironed shirt. (Then again, it depends how you want to present yourself…you may deliberately not iron your shirt. But if you want to be a cultured hipster, a cultured hipster would iron his/her shirt. Unless he/she was going for the casual and relaxed yet refined look. But that’s a matter for another day.)

9. Thou shalt value the importance of proportion. Proportion is closely linked to one’s silhouette, but proportion is slightly harder to manage. It’s hard to explain. Here are a few examples. Say you’re wearing a white shirt, untucked (ending around at the hips), with jeans and a beige jacket (which ends a third from the top of your thighs. This would violate the proportionality law because the length of the jacket is simply too close to the length of the shirt. The result of this would be a seemingly fatter upper body, or a very baggy upper body. A similar example would be wearing a very baggy top, with a very baggy pant. Don’t try this. Another example, do not wear a very long sleeveless top (cuts at mid-thigh) with baggyish pants and huge sneakers (this wouldn’t even be a cultured hipster’s style.) It just doesn’t work as it makes you shorter. (Justin Bieber does this quite often. Just google search him.) It’s not to say that all these examples look bad on everyone, but it is just very hard to execute well.

10. Thou shalt adopt a style which suits you. You should never suit the style. Once again, clothing is used to make you look better. It should only add to your character and the way that you want to present yourself.

Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman [/man]. – Coco Chanel