In my 2016 NYC trip, I did a social experiment.
For the first time in my 13 NYC trips, I visited the city during the month of December and for the first time I went to Rockefeller Plaza during the holidays. Also, I dressed up like a Southern tourist: large, fluffy and colored jackets without far, plaid woolen shirts, bootcut blue jeans, big woolen hats etc etc. The only not so non-New-Yorker thing was my shoe – I wore a pair of designer black boots without a gothic belt and without a cowboy knuckle.
I blended in with the tourists very well with this attire in the 47th and 5th. But, I couldn’t hide the frustration on my face because of the super slowly moving, awe-inspiringly directionally-challenged, “Ooooh just like the movie Spiderman” screaming and annoyingly blocking everyone else, selfie-taking crowd!
Now, my visits to SoHo, TriBeCa and Little Italy generated a very different response. I would never forget the glare I got from the locals who took one millionth of a second to look at my clothes! This experience got me aware of the New York Hipster factor!
After some observation and research I came to the conclusion that the New Yorker hipsters are in their 20s and 30s, wear knee-high designer black boots even in summer, wear black trench coats and hoodie with far in winter, wear skinny tapered jeans, with a smug look on that can never be bitch-slapped off of their faces, wear their long hair: straight and untied (if identify with the female gender), or in a tight bun (if identify with the male gender), highly aware of the green lifestyle, always height-weight balanced, highly aesthetic about themselves and their surrounding and very kind and friendly to tourists when asked for directions.
Should I do the second phase of the experiment dressing up like a New Yorker hipster in my next visit and see what kind of look I get from the locals in lower Manhattan and from the tourists in Midtown?
Science, art and lifestyle 