’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Melissa Allen

Age: 33

Occupation: freelance graphic designer

Residence: Cleveland Park

Spotted: Dupont Metro, Q Street entrance, waiting for her husband

Destination: Tabaq Bistro on U Street NW

Style Definition: “I hate to be so vanilla…but…eclectic. I love boutique-y and thrift stores.”

Hipster Giveaway: Looking like you’re a starving artist when you’re actually loaded. Allen’s tunic is from Anthropologie ($128), and her brown leather messenger bag is by Bally ($859 on styledrops.com).

Color Palette: Allen doesn’t have a favorite color and chooses not to coordinate her shoes with her bag, belt, etc. “I hate matchy-matchy.”

Ironic Footwear: boots by Frye ($253.95 on zappos.com)

Brush-Off: “I just wear what I’m in the mood for.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Khalid Larkin

Age: 25

Occupation: Cafe Saint-Ex employee

Residence: Shaw

Spotted: 7:45 p.m., 14th and S Streets NW

Destination: Barnes & Noble in Georgetown, to read

Style Definition: “Small T-shirts, tight [Levi's] jeans. [My style] is first-wave punk. That’s the music I listen to, so that’s the look I go for.”

Hipster Giveaway: He looks like a bike messenger but isn’t one. Speaking about his hat, he says, “I just wear them because it helps with the sweat.” His Peugeot bike cost him $50 at L&N Thrift.

Tattoos: Three on his forearm—a snake on a heart, a beet, and a parallelogram. “My friend Leroy said, ‘You should join my beet club!’”

DIY Item: A white T-shirt with Sharpie drawings of shapes and birds created by friend and artist Alicia Cosnahan.

Ironic Footwear: Low-top black Chuck Taylor Converses he has worn every day for six months

Brush-Off: “It took me five minutes.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Janelle Zara

Age: 18

Occupation: student, waitress, newspaper intern, salon receptionist, soon-to-be Slovakian English teacher

Residence: Dupont Circle

Spotted: 11:05 p.m., 2400 block of 18th Street NW

Style Definition: “H&M whore,” with “Karen O and D.C. schoolgirls” as inspiration

Hipster Giveaway: multi-colored shag, layered tees—one plain, one animal print

Ironic Footwear: black-cotton Mary Janes

Prep Time: 45 minutes, “but that included checking my e-mail, changing CDs, and reading Angela’s Ashes.”

Brush-Off: “These are the same shirts I wore last night.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Mara McLaurin

Age: 16

Occupation: junior at School Without Walls

Residence: Brightwood

Spotted: 11:30 p.m., 18th and D Streets NW

Style Definition: “Eclectic. Just, like, comfortable. Kinda bohemian-indie. Fun.”

Layers: 4: flannel, hoodie, striped Forever 21 shirt, camisole

Hipster Giveaway: black footless leggings underneath a denim skirt with thrift-store belt

Found Objects: “My friend Dana’s bag.”

Ironic Footwear: “I call them my ‘Pumpernickel Chucks.’ They’re all scuffed up from the deli I work at.”

Prep Time: “I had to rush. It was 10 minutes.”

Brush-Off: “I’ll just throw it all together and see if it works.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Justin Kielsgard

Age: 24

Occupation: manages local hip-hop band Panacea; plays the “typewriter and xylophone and hand claps” in Igloo’s Bitch

Residence: Cleveland Park

Spotted: 11:15 p.m., 18th and D Streets NW

Hipster Giveaway: Stereolab T-shirt, brown corduroy pants, and rectangular Versace glasses

Style Definition: “hobo-chic”

Found Objects: thrift-store blazer, hat stolen from a friend

Ironic Footwear: “thrift-store leather shoes”

Prep Time: 1 minute

Brush-Off: “I slept in everything but the blazer.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Crystal Canja

Age: 24

Occupation: Lockheed Martin employee

Residence: Rockville

Spotted: last night’s Strokes concert, DAR Constitution Hall

Hipster Giveaway: bright-yellow Dickies dress with black leggings and tie

Style Definition: “Fashion before comfort. Don’t shun the ‘80s just because it was a really bad decade.”

Ironic Footwear: black, graffitied Chuck Taylor high-tops

Excessories: four neon-glitter plastic bangles—“15 tickets each from Dave & Buster’s!”

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Brush-Off: “I just kinda put on what was clean and laying out.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Dan Jones

Age: 28

Occupation: host at Logan Tavern

Residence: Columbia Heights

Spotted: 1:45 p.m., U Street and New Hampshire Avenue NW

Hipster Giveaway: Thick-rimmed glasses, compass tattoo on inner arm, Winston Light cigarette, slim-fit Lucky Brand Jeans that set him back “$100-plus,” he says.

Style Definition: “Casual and an attempt to look somewhat grown-up.” Jones says he’s going for the “updated ‘50s look” with his Brooks Brothers glasses. He chose them in part, he says, because the bluish rims match his eyes. “I have to wear them every day, so picking them out was a process.”

Ironic Footwear: black bowling-inspired Mossimos that he bought “because they were cheap.”

Brush-Off: “I just kinda put on what was clean and laying out.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Names: Tiffany Chan, Luke Bailey

Ages: both are 22

Occupations: psychology student, Georgetown University; environmental-studies student, Georgetown University

Residences: West Georgetown, Burleith

Spotted: 10:15 p.m., Food for Thought Cafe

Hipster Giveaways: Chan sported a red-and-white polka-dot blouse fastened with safety pin and jeans tucked into metallic-gold scrunch boots from Urban Outfitters; Bailey rocked a rainbow-colored ski vest by Ski Daddle, purchased at a vintage store in Santa Cruz.

Style Definition: Says Chan: “I think it’s pretty simple. Just jeans and sweatshirts, mostly.” Bailey adds that Chan has “a collection of phenomenal shirts,” is a seamstress, and is “very good at picking things out from thrift stores and avant-garde shops.” “You’re like my publicist,” says Chan. Bailey describes his own style as “very messy.”

Found Objects: Bailey was wearing a shirt that belonged to Chan’s dad when he was captain of the MIT ping-pong team, a hat from a housemate, pants and an Adidas track jacket belonging to a friend named Will, and Chan’s ski vest. “The shoes are mine,” he says.

Brush-Offs: “I’ve had this safety pin in for a long time, since last summer,” Chan says. “I was trying to go out, and I was in a hurry. It wouldn’t be the same without it.” Says Bailey: “I put on whatever’s on top of the pile of messy clothes.”

Hipster Love: Chan and Bailey met three years ago. “The reason I talked to him was he dressed different than everyone else at Georgetown,” says Chan. Bailey felt similarly about Chan’s checkered slip-on Vans. “He was like, ‘Nice kicks,’” says Chan. “Nobody had them in D.C. yet.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Adam Robinson

Age: 27

Occupation: Corcoran Gallery of Art staffer

Residence: U Street

Spotted: 9:15 p.m., 14th and T Streets NW

Destination: Destroyer show at Black Cat

Hipster Giveaway: Satiny purple shirt that calls out subtle purple paisley design on H&M tie. “I thought, Hm, I wonder how that would work out.…H&M is pretty cool.”

Style Definition: “Retro from neck to ankle, urban on shoes.”

Found Object: “Nikes my friend picked up for me.”

Brush-Off: Robinson shops at thrift stores and buys “whatever I could get a good deal on.”

’Cause lookin’ cool ain’t easy.

Name: Elyse Canosa

Age: 20

Occupation: engineering student, University of Maryland

Residence: College Park

Spotted: 9 p.m., 14th and T Streets NW

Destination: Magnolia Electric Company show at Black Cat

Style Definition: “Haphazard.”

Layers: 3. “I just thought these colors would go together. I needed something to go under [the Maryland Terps baby T] because it’s kinda short.”

Ironic Shoes: checkered Vans-style slip-ons

Found Objects: “This is my mom’s shirt I found in her closet. It’s at least 20 years old.”

Brush-Off: “Most of it is me being, ‘Eh, I’m tired.’”