NYC Trends That Are No Longer Cool
What can I say about New York City that hasn’t been said before? That she’s the city that never sleeps? Been there. That if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere? Done that. There are so many cliches about NYC because this city attracts the most ambitious people, the hardest workers, the trendsetters, and we end up engrossed in a culture where things happen here first that spread to the rest of the world. This is true of many major cities but some things are just … New York. Here are a few trends that are definitely no longer cool in New York, so if you’re wearing a wolf shirt, just … don’t.
Pretty much anything in urban outfitters.
MGMT and the “indie” bands of 2009 started the Native American/nature trend (Seriously. See: the cover of Oracular Spectacular. Also see: bands named Bear Hands, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Japanther, Panda Bear, Neon Indian, The Antlers, White Rabbits, Apache Beat. I could go on but I’ll spare you.) Thanks to this now-over trend stemming from Brooklyn, all the bros are now wearing shirts like this and this and this.
Cafe Grumpy
No longer Greenpoint’s well-kept little secret, thanks to Girls. New branch coming soon – to Times Square. Soon all the tourists can be drinking from the coffee shop where Hannah Horvath works!
How I Met Your Mother
While I wouldn’t exactly call this a “NYC trend,” the show is supposed to be based in New York (although anyone who’s lived here for more than 2 weeks can clearly see that the “New York” in HIMYM is a sound stage in LA…) I will venture to include it in this list. As someone who begrudgingly became hooked on this cheesy sitcom, I have super high hopes for its quirky roots, but if they had just let it wrap up with the 8th season we as viewers wouldn’t be teetering on the edge of our seats – not in anticipation of finding out who the mother is – but holding our breaths that they don’t fuck it up somehow. Anyone remember Lost?
Fancy Cupcakes
Thanks to another NYC-centric HBO show, Magnolia Bakery really blew up after Sex & the City popularized its cupcakes (although frankly, while I personally have not tried a Magnolia cupcake, every New Yorker who has claims that they’re “not that great”). The trend continued to grow until on its way down, the Wall Street Journal profiled the crash, thereby slamming the door firmly on their gourmet decline. Cronuts, anyone?
Donald Trump
Oh who am I kidding?? Donald Trump has never exactly been “trendy” and he was never “ruined” by success. He’s always been a weirdo.
Found this on the street the other day. Was tempted to grab. Resisted.
