Coming down the steps the other day, I crossed between two undergrads who were dressed remarkably the same, even though they were of different genders. What united them was the Carleton Hipster Look. A geezer's guide to duplicating it this February:
1. Start with skinny jeans. No, skinnier. Think "running tights," only in denim and stopping about an inch above your shoes. A very dark, almost purple color or a very light, almost white color is best, though a bright corduroy (mustard, orange, red) can do in a pinch.
2. Put on some white socks, and on top of those put on some insubstantial athletic-type shoes, the kind with almost no discernible sole. These shoes should be brightly colored, if not garish - like these.
3. You need a t-shirt, the more threadbare and ironic the better. Only lame-os get Threadless shirts; you need something hipper. In fact, go ahead and wear that Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt you bought back in high school as a sign of coolness; you can wear it now to comment on being cool. It's not a shirt, it's quotation marks.
4. Look outside and guess the temperature, then choose a jacket that would be appropriate if it were approximately twenty degrees warmer. A tracksuit jacket is good, so long as it's very bright-colored and/or foreign(-seeming) in origin, but you can also go with a very thin jean or corduroy jacket.
5. Find your hat and mittens, then put them away again. They ruin the look.
6. Put on your sunglasses, which should be either big ol' stunna shades (girls) or retro-looking aviators (boys). A red-brown tint to the lenses is good, but even better is a lens that fades from clear at the bottom to dark brown or black at the top.
7. Grab your bookbag - something flimsy, ideally - and hit the sidewalk!