Meet Hipster Cop: The Breakout Style Star Of Occupy Wall Street

by Justin Fenner | 6:16 pm, October 21st, 2011

We know our job is to write about fashion, but even we think it’s weird that the one person who’s really gotten famous as a result of the Occupy Wall Street protests is an NYPD detective nicknamed Hipster Cop.

Hipster Cop, otherwise known as Detective Rick Lee, is the community affairs guy for the NYPD’s first precinct, which just so happens to cover the area where most of the protesting has been taking place. Blogs covering the occupation noticed him from day one. He’s a plainclothes officer, so he mostly gets to wear what he wants — and what he wants to wear is skinny ties, slim-cut trousers and cardigans.

Lee, who is 45, explained to GQ that he’s been into fashion since he was young, and his style is more “country gentleman” than it is hipster. But branding is branding — and if there’s one thing Lee understands, it’s brand loyalty. He’s a devoted Ralph Lauren customer — so devoted, in fact, that his best friend works for the brand and tailors all of his suits. But his tastes don’t stop there:

GQ: Who are your favorite designers?
Rick Lee: I like Burberry. I like Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers. A lot of Theory‘s stuff. What else do I usually wear? I wear Levi‘s jeans. I wear a lot of J.Crew stuff as far as casual dress goes. A lot of English designers.
GQ: So it sounds like you’re into nice clothes that even the 99% can afford…
Rick Lee: Yeah, yeah. Well I think it’s all how you wear it, too. You can take some very conservative traditional clothing and kind of put a little of your own edge on it.

Huh. Well, we couldn’t tell you the last time we saw any member of the 99% wearing Theory, but that doesn’t seem to matter all that much to the protesters in downtown Manhattan. In a story about Lee, The New York Times noted that his style actually helps him do his job, which is primarily concerned with talking to protesters. Per the Times:

One woman was angry that protesters were talking to Detective Lee. “If he was a white-shirt, you wouldn’t be talking to him,’’ she said, referring to higher-ranking officers who wear white shirts. One of those officers became an unwitting star when amateur videos showed him shooting pepper spray at protesters who were contained behind an orange police netting.

We’ll take cool ties and not getting pepper-sprayed over over starched white shirts and burning eyes any day of the week.

[GQ, NYT]

Detectives Hipster Cop hipsters NYPD Occupy Wall Street personal style The 99%