Required reading

Module I — A Brief History of the Discipline

The discipline traces its modern form to Brooklyn, circa 2009, where the foundational conventions — the unironic mustache, the mason-jar drink vessel, and the nostalgic embrace of the typewriter — were first codified. The candidate will be expected to acknowledge this lineage while gently insisting that they were, in fact, wearing flannel before any of it.

Module II — Vinyl, and Its Display

The candidate will be evaluated on the curation of a record collection intended to be seen as much as heard. Acceptable choices include the second album by an artist whose first album is universally beloved, anything on Numero Group, and a single, prominent reissue of a record originally pressed in fewer than three hundred copies. The candidate will demonstrate fluency in the discreet repositioning of records during dinner parties so that the most defensible spines are visible to guests.

Module III — Vintage as Identity

The candidate will demonstrate proficiency in the assembly of an outfit drawn entirely from sources predating one’s own birth. Acceptable provenance includes the estate sale, the East Village stoop find, and the carefully named boutique. The candidate will be examined on the strategic deployment of the phrase “It was my grandfather’s,” which, when used correctly, terminates all further discussion of the garment.

Module IV — Knowing About Things Before They Were Cool

The advanced practitioner does not merely like things; they predate them. The candidate will be evaluated on the deployment of the canonical formulas: “I saw them in 2014 at a small venue,” “They’ve actually changed a lot since the early stuff,” and the most advanced of the formulas, the rueful “I liked them more before everyone got into them.”

Module V — Strategic Adoption of the Niche

The candidate will demonstrate the disciplined adoption of preferences just ahead of the broader culture: the natural wine before the wine bar, the neighborhood before the rent increase, the cocktail before the menu insert. The graduate is expected to maintain a relationship with at least one bartender who knows their order and to refer to their preferred neighborhood, in conversation, as “the only one in the city that’s still real.”