Berlin

Berlin is moving ahead at dizzying speed. Every conceivable topic has its own dedicated magazine; and what, by the way, is a “post hipster”?

The lifestyle magazines displayed in the newsstand of the grocery store not only feature “women,” “gardening,” “sports” and “stars” but, in a category of its own, “culture.” One of them is a rather voluminous magazine entitled The Museum Messenger. In Latvian, there is an expression called “white envy” that denotes admiration rather than jealousy. But envy is envy – felt towards the people from Berlin to whom culture is just as important as bread. I am not even talking about proper places selling press products, such as the Kaiser’s stores. It seems that every trend in a given niche segment, as small as it may be, has its own magazine.

I buy a souvenir for the artists in the illustration department of Diena – a magazine about recent trends in graphic design. They, too, are so very talented, creative and original. There is a specific creativity that seems to thrive under life-threatening circumstances, which particularly holds true for the cultural media of Latvia against the background of the economic crisis. Indeed, it has historically become a distinguishing characteristic of the Latvian mentality.

Friday, 18 January, Fashion Week

The Berlin Fashion Week is underway. News on TV show a young mother on her way to one of the shows, summoned for a short interview in the street, who rather gruffly identifies herself as a “post hipster” – just to be on the safe side. However, she does not disclose the distinctive features of this style. As my curiosity has been aroused, I later buy the book What was the Hipster? at the book store of the Hamburger Bahnhof museum, a sociological study analyzing the demise of the hipster on a purely scientific basis. One chapter is called “The demise of the hipster.” Whoops! So has it already died? I thought it had just been born! No doubt about it: Berlin is the avant-garde of urban lifestyle and sets the fashion tone at dizzying speed.




More entries from Undīne Adamaite’s Berlin Journal:

Berlin, 5.1.2013: Neither a False Tourist Nor Truly a Local
Berlin, 6.1.2013: Sunday Rest in the City
Berlin, 7.1.2013: The Berliners’ Lightness of Being
Berlin, 8.1.2013: At the Tagesspiegel
Berlin, 9.1.2013: A Monthly Portion of Courtesy
Berlin, 10.1.2013: A Play in a Foreign Language Remains a Façade
Berlin, 12.1.2013: At the Theatre in Knitted Caps
Berlin, 13.1.2013: An Intermediate Summary
Berlin, 19.1.2013: Blind Date
Berlin, 21.1.2013: Old Fashioned and In Demand
Berlin, 26.1.2013: Čus, Berlin!