It was a Saturday afternoon, and I decided to go to a café to get some work done. Upon entering the café, an eager woman looked up at me and asked, “are you here for the interview?” She was sitting around a small table with four other unusually stylish individuals, each holding clipboards and teacups. For whatever reason, my immediate assumption was that they were recruiting new members for a bohemian cult. Frightened, I shook my head, shoved headphones in my ears, and sat at a nearby table to work.
Soon, out my peripheral vision, I began witnessing people coming to interview for this hipster society, and I became overwhelmingly curious. I removed my headphones and began occasionally tuning in to the conversations. After listening for several minutes, I found out that I was indeed correct about the nature of these interviews. They were for the new Urban Outfitters coming to Nassau Street. Here is, verbatim, what I overheard:
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Interviewee 1: I just want to be surrounded by a more artsy crowd of people. Hopefully younger people (anxious laugh).
Interviewer: Well you’ve certainly come to the right place.
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Interviewer: (Asking about previous employment) What was your most challenging day at Build a Bear Workshop?
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Interviewer: How would you define your style?
Interviewee 2: I usually get my style by looking at other people’s style.
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Interviewee 3: I’m like, getting into hats now.
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Interviewer: I liked that she liked to talk. And I liked her outfit
Other interviewer: Yeah, She seems really promising
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Cafe owner: (giving some advice on how to get more interviewees): Reach out to grad students’ wives.
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Interviewee 5: I have a cat named Brahms.
Interviewer: That’s cool!
Interviewee 5: I’m glad you know who Brahms is.
Interviewer: Of course! What a great name for a cat.
Interviewee 5: Thanks! I like quirky things.
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Interviewee 6: They discriminate against chunky people.
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Interviewer: (to other interviewer) I had to wear Xena bracelets on my wrists all the time at my previous job.
Other interviewer: What does that mean?
Interviewer: They’re just these large metal cuffs. I also wasn’t allowed to have tattoos.
• • •
Interviewer (to other interviewer): Our underwear run small, and it’s so hard to explain that to people.
• • •
The interview process was nine hours long, and saw candidates hailing from Princeton to New Brunswick and beyond. As is hopefully clear from the inappropriately detailed eavesdropping above, these interviews were taken very seriously, and with good reason. We must not overlook the historical importance of the day that Urban Outfitters announces itself as a member of the highly respected retail community of Nassau Street, where it will join the ranks of Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, and Brooks Brothers.
On December sixth, when Urban opens its distressed-oak and rusted iron-framed doors to people of Princeton, a revolution will sweep the township: Sperries will be replace by tattered Keds, Vineyard Vines’ pink whales by faded plaid, and Longchamp purses by ripped canvas messenger totes. Urban Outfitters is more than just a new place to spend the money that you don’t have; it is symbolic of an emerging paradigm shift in the fabric of Princetonian culture (pun intended). It is the announcement of the rise of the hipster. Hopefully the ironic tone of this article (as appropriate as irony is in this context) won’t deter you from outfitting yourself here. I encourage everyone, hipsters young and old, to go try on some fedoras and some tortoise-shell glasses (no myopia required!). Who knows, you just might meet a cat named Brahms.