A photographer recently decided to document the existence of Ethiopian hipsters.
In America, our hipsters fit a certain image. They all wear inexpensive clothes (or are they expensively designed to just appear cheap?), but spend so much time putting together their outfits that it would have been easier to pay a stylist. They all look like they are trying way too hard to look like they aren’t trying hard at all, and they all look so cool that it makes you wonder what they are hiding behind their ironic vintage shades and cheap beer cans.
In the Omo Valley of Ethiopia though, hipsters are an entirely different breed. Photographer Alex Franco found it fascinating how the Hamer, Mursi, Banna, and Bodi ethnic groups alter their hair and fashion to dress elaborately in a mixture of local traditions and western fashion.
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I feel like American hipsters could learn a thing or two from the Ethopians, who are recycling ideas to create something new entirely, instead of recycling ideas to look recycled. I’m just waiting for some of this to hit Brooklyn. We need a fresh dose of anything unbearded, Pabst, or plaid.
