Two of my young barista colleagues are enamored of the "hipster barista" identity: the clothes, the hair, the Friends dream. They were just wee tots when that was new so I don't fault them for seeing coffee girl as a role they put on. After all, I wanted to be an English folkie...but the 70's were well past when I hit that age.
Sometimes these girls work overlapping shifts so I am treated to their expansive, wide-eyed, adoration of all things Coffee Shop. It's fun to be privy to their excitement and, sometimes, it gets me thinking.
The other day their chatter sent me ruminating on the look of a barista. We do tend to be something of a trendy lot: always wearing the hottest tees, jeans cut in the newest style, or funktastic retro and vintage pieces. Baristas do tend to be on the leading edge of the local style but rarely pursue a "look."
Have you ever wondered why?
It's all about the coffee and the need to look good to our public.
Put another way: we freaking HATE having giant coffee stains on our clothes so we replace them often because the incidence of catastrophic staining is extremely high.
Espresso likes to spit at you; explode out of it's nice, tidy, carrier; coffee willfully spills out of air pots that over-filled due to a collapsed filter in the coffee maker. Bleach leaps out for your darks and lies about its' strength when you test it. In short, coffee shops are designed for ruining your clothing.
The destruction is constant and if you look closely you'll see that some of your coffee peeps are covered in the stuff. It's a badge of honor. I'm not there yet. I'm just too particular about my clothes and I'm rather enjoying the excuse to enjoy thrift stores again.
