gentrification

Colonial aesthetics and Ralph Lauren

December 20, 2014

Colonial aesthetics and Ralph Lauren

In a direct line from my earlier post on the heritage hipster style as a settler colonial aesthetic, here is another exhibit in the colonial museum of fashion: Ralph Lauren using genocide-era vintage photographs of native men in western dress as part of its recent marketing campaign.

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Settler & pioneer “heritage hipster” styles in the age of Idle No More, Chinatown gentrification, &c.

October 14, 2014

Settler & pioneer “heritage hipster” styles in the age of Idle No More, Chinatown gentrification, &c.


Men in British Columbia, 1859, one in a newly discovered collection of early photographs of white settlers and First Nations in B.C. Via Vancouver Sun © Royal British Columbia Museum, reprinted with permission

An abridged version of this essay has been published in the May/June 2015 issue of Briarpatch Magazine

I am probably as bored of casual hipster-slagging as you are.

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A friend put this captioned magazine page through my mailbox

May 29, 2014

A friend put this captioned magazine page through my mailbox

This made me laugh quite hard.

Also, courtesy of the enjoyable fuckyournoguchitable tumblr: antlers, actual real taxidermy, fake taxidermy, steer skull and cardboard antlers.

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Interior design and architecture in a world gentrifying at a surreal pace

June 20, 2013

Interior design and architecture in a world gentrifying at a surreal pace

In case you think that what follows is an exaggeration, please take a quick look at the recent articles listed below. They are only a small selection from a rising wave of articles on gentrification and the new super-rich. 

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Berlin’s skyrocketing housing costs and hipster proliferation

September 18, 2012

Berlin’s skyrocketing housing costs and hipster proliferation

The above video by a Berliner complains about Berlin’s influx of hipsters, addressing them directly in its conclusion:

“Please stop to face your neighbourhood… it matters if you try to live in Neukölln or whether you just live your imported party here.

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Paris Shoes sold logging boots and ladies shoes to Vancouverites

November 13, 2009

Paris Shoes sold logging boots and ladies shoes to Vancouverites

Paris Shoes at 51 W. Hastings, in Vancouver, possibly 1919. Maybe if shoeboxes still looked this beautifully white you wouldn’t have to have salespeople constantly disappearing into the back. I somehow doubt that the uniform whiteness of this bank of shoe boxes could every happen again, though, and if it did it would be twee rather than pure utility. 

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