So hipsters, especially the male ones, come into a lot of flack. But I think they’re probably a lynch-pin of the new, or maybe the old economy.

I live in the Inner West and have noticed positive changes in the past 2-3 years which I think are driven not only by outrageous Eastern Suburbs property prices but rampant hipsterism. Whilst I lament the loss of the second hand bookshops the op-shops are slowly being squeezed down King Street up Enmore road and towards St Peters. In their place are hipster craftiness. Right now it is focused on fashionable food, craft brewing and other culinary stuff but this is these are the easily learned and commodifiable crafts. There are many definitions of hipsterism and although at face value it seems like a conformist culture some of the key principles are making it yourself, bespoke work, craftsmanship and quality not quantity. We are seeing this in raw produce, bread, coffee and brewing.

So what we are seeing are moving out of the hippies and moving in the hipsters.

As I see it in 5 years King Street and Enmore Road will be transformed. Already, with relatively underground bars, artisan gelato and new restaurants the place is becoming ‘go to’. The challenge will to be not the next Paddington in the sense that we don’t want to be decimated when the next Westfields comes along.

This type of alternative is mainstream and that’s not such a bad thing.

And if nothing else the profession of barber has new-found prominence….