When the hipster takes up the pipe

While the pipe used to be associated with older smokers, with fishermen or with philosophers, the trend is now going the other way, with smokers who are younger, bearded and tattooed. Yes, hipsters have taken up the pipe.

Portrait of the hipster

The hipster is first of all a way of life. Daily life is set to a laid-back attitude, to music, to light conversation and to freedom of every kind, which is the hallmark of the men who take part in the phenomenon. Where being a hipster once meant being on the margins, the word no longer carries the same ring: the hipster has become very much "in".

A hipster is fundamentally over 18 but under 25; beyond that, the word used tends to be "bobo". A dandy moustache or a biker beard, it is now a matter of choice. What remains unavoidable are the tattoos, the glasses and the second-hand clothes.

But the portrait would not seem complete without one further accessory. A pipe has to be added. Yes, the same one your grandfather had. Only then can the hipster claim the title.

The pipe is to the hipster what veganism is to the rocker

Long dismissed as an unkempt figure, the hipster has become a tidier one, with the look of a retro intellectual. The cigarette is slowly giving way to the pipe. The pairing is an unlikely one, yet it has caught on.

More and more young people are turning to the pipe, for the values they attach to the object and for the unhurried way it is handled. Manufacturers are hardly complaining, quite the opposite. Growing numbers of young customers are walking into pipe shops to ask for advice on what to buy.

Chacom is among the French pipe makers to have noticed this interest among hipsters, and is pleased to see its craft appeal to new generations.