So true Maya...and I loved receiving your sweet note on your HK Paris note paper.
It totally made me smile, because it reminds me so much of my daughter, who has spilled her HK love onto my granddaughter who has tons of HK stuff including undies GALORE!!!
You and my daughter are so close in age...this HK love spans all age groups:)

I CAN'T believe that I missed this post ! ( thanks Scarlet for pointing this out..)

I recently used the term here on the site. It is something that has been haunting since last year ( yes, this is MY life RoseandJoan ! ) ever since my brother-in-law used it. He is a photographer in Hollywood. He also refers to doing things out of "irony" - like his friends were drinking bad beer and smoking Marlboro cigarettes in "irony".

I think it is a very silly and funny term that no one can really pinpoint. AND that is what makes it so appealing to people. I find that some people want to be very different from the crowd and part of that is confusing OTHER people. You become "so cool" that no one "gets" it. I think that is what "ironic" style is. Now I don't know if some one is a poor dresser or is ironic. People who think that their style is ironic, also think of themselves as "uber" witty.

For example, I didn't get the movie Pulp Fiction. It became almost blasphemy that I would admit it to people. Yet when I asked what was so great about it, I often got the answer, " You can't put it into words. It is of a different level and you don't get it. "

These are very important things to contemplate because it gives us a glimpse into the human psyche. I LOVE THIS !!!!

1. "Pulp Fiction" is my very favorite movie ever!!

2. I think Madonna and Sharon Stone look amazing in the slide show posted on the first page, even though apparently they are insufficiently ironic to pass muster with the slide-show authors.

Oh Isabel, you have made me laugh, does smoking ironically mean you are aware of the health implications but say 'hell yeah' anyway because irony gives you immunity from your silly choices.

My brain still hurts when I think of this.

I recently re watched Reservoir Dogs and was amazed at how quickly cutting edge can date. I imagine Pulp Fiction to be the same. BTW my favourite part of Pulp Fiction was the fragmented and rearranged plot line.

MaryK - I should have picked anther movie as an example. Yikes !! You just saw all those characters as potential clients ! Personally, I loved Pan's Labyrinth, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and My Life as a Dog....none of them ironic, I don't think.

R&J - maybe that is why I did not fare well with that movie, I am rather linear - how ironic.

Oh, and haven't you heard of "ironic" lung cancer ?

I think the reason I loved Pulp Fiction was that it was SO over-the-top that I didn't have to worry about things like whether the cops were going to come after Butch later on, or whether Mia was going to OD some time when nobody was there to save her, or any messy details like that. And the other thing I loved about it was that we saw a lot real, true, honest-to-goodness romantic love among all the comic-book craziness. Butch and Fabienne, Mia and Vincent (on Vincent's part, anyway -- what might have been), Bonnie and Jimmy.

On the other hand, I also LOVED Pan's Labyrinth. Nothing ironic there -- just lots and lots of true-blue straight-up honest-to-goodness human emotion! *sob*

Some of my fave movies are Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Snatch. They are ridiculous shows.

I will be honest, Pan's Labyrinth only won me over for it's gorgeous monsters. Can't wait to see the Don't Be Afraid of the Dark remake.

I find the whole 'ironic' thing funny. If you do it everyday, you're just doing it because you like it, be it an activity or a style. I'm all for being silly for the sake of being silly but at some point you just ARE silly. (And I admit, I'm a total dork.)

RT - I can' t bring myself to watch Reservoir Dogs....Maybe I am too sensitive and take this all too seriously.

I love your thoughts that after a while, you just BECOME silly !!!

( RT and MaryK - Benicio Del Torro would love the two of you ! I heard him interviewed and you would've loved it. )

*still sniffling over Pan's Labyrinth*

RT, GREAT point about The Silly!

I've stayed out of this discussion because few things irk me more than the way the word "ironic" is misused these days (not by any of you, but in general). WTH is "ironic fashion"? Self-referential? Pretentious? Condescending?

ETA: I was in a grouchy mood when I wrote this, and I realize I'm probably sounding like the old curmudgeon I secretly am. Ironic, perhaps, that I'm bitter about not being hip? And also to add a high-five to MaryK re: Pulp Fiction! I am a huge fan also - mainly because it is a great example of a classic story told so creatively. Lots of films tried to imitate it, but completely missed the fact that it's ultimately a very traditional story. A whole separate discussion!

But of course you all are sucking me in, being so interesting and articulate, and what a great discussion it is. I have no knowledge of, or interest in, hipster culture or whatever you'd call it - in the pursuit of so-called irony, it seems to have leached out all the fun and joy of just being silly.

Remember the Alanis Morisette song, "Ironic"? This is my favorite description of it, from this website:

http://www.lyricinterpretation.....you-stupid

"1: Alanis Morissette: Ironic

At last, we have reached the pinnacle of our brain-murdering list of song lyrics. Alanis Morisette’s Ironic has earned itself the ire of English majors worldwide since its release in 1996, and for good reason: nothing that she writes about in the song is actually ironic.

Which is, you know, .. Ironic.

Essentially, all of the lyrics to Ironic are incidences of bad timing, of terrible circumstances, and other unfortunate events. These are called coincidences, and these are not how irony is defined. However, it should be noted that the line “It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late” actually is a form of cosmic irony, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as being “as if in mockery of the fitness or rightness of things.”)

Personally, I blame the song for the flagrant misuse of the word on an almost daily basis by people wishing to sound as though they were even vaguely literate."

AG ! I am so glad you chimed in !

Poor Alanis.....she doesn't care about being correct, she made A LOT of money.

All I want to know is, ironic in comparison to what ?

( MaryK, thanks for finally explaining it to me and not telling me that if I didn't get it, then I wouldn't get it : )

I read a great definition of irony once, along the lines of "buying an Armani suit with an extra pair of pants, and then burning a hole in the coat."

I've always thought of it as wearing an item or an outfit, usually associated with a specific period in history, or a subgroup (for example socioeconomic), but wearing it without honestly believing it reflects who you are. In fact choosing something on purpose that is the opposite of what someone like you might be expected to wear. Really what it boils down to is sort of wearing it in a costume-y way. Goes hand in hand with going against the trends too.
Hipsters in the past rebelled by wearing, say, free-spirit type clothes, so that is not ironic, because it is literal. Now in our anything goes world the kids think they are different by wearing old-fashioned suits and mustaches and fedoras, but obviously these items are associated with certain types of people, but they are wearing them not honestly, but ironically, because they subvert the meaning of the clothes... The college-educated affluent boys who wear plaid shirts, john deer caps and drink pabst blue ribbon beer--items associated with rural, working people.

I could be totally off... and confusing all hipsters with ironic style.

I think this slide show is entertaining http://www.pastemagazine.com/a.....-2009.html
Also the blog http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ discusses some of the fads associated with hipsters...
But I think eventually, ironic or not, some of the fads have made it into mainstream fashion (fedoras, retro glasses), so that makes it confusing. I read somewhere once that fashion designers have always looked at the young kids in up-and-coming neighborhoods for inspiration, so these trends have a big big influence on what all of us will be wearing eventually.

Any Futurama fans? The episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" touches on the use of the word "irony" most comically (and in song!); their definition: The use of something other than its literal intention.

On a side note, I've a close friend who is VERY good at wearing/doing things in an ironic manner but he's not a hipster. He's a bit like Zoe's college boy example, but without the college

EDIT: Una your rant makes me want to hug you ^^

Zoe - you answered my question with regards to " compared to what". I guess if I don't know the person, or even if I do, I can't tell whether are doing it because they really enjoy it or because they are being "ironic". So I just get utterly perplexed. So if you have to explain you are being ironic, are you really ? Oh my , my head hurts.

And you are right, these things do become trends. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this in his fab book, "The Tipping Point " where he specifically addressed individual style on the street exploding into a trend.

Aida, I'm glad my rant was not too off-putting. Didn't mean to be so testy.

Hugging you back!