Want to be a hip rebel? Try loving your parents

(Chronicle Books)

Gone are the days when being on the edge of fashion was contrarian to your parents' taste: a new cluster of blogs (and books) idolizes the old folks.

My Mom, Style Icon

Piper Weiss used to poke fun at her mother Marilyn's style before discovering the vintage pieces from her fashionable past. Inspired by her subsequent enthusiastic posting of old family photographs, countless readers of her blog have now done the same, even leading to the release this month of an eponymous book ($18.95, Chronicle Books).

http://momstyleicons.blogspot.com

Dads: The Original Hipsters

The male counterpart gets the recognition it deserves on this blog, but with a more ironic twist than at My Mom, Style Icon. With some of the photos, you can't help but ask yourself if the featured dads were ever thinking of themselves as fashionable, but in retrospect they certainly are - analog camera and tightly fitted jeans and all.

http://dadsaretheoriginalhipster.tumblr.com


My Parents Were Awesome

Based on the submissions of the hugely successful Tumblr blog - that has lately inspired an Urban Outfitters campaign - a book has just been launched, detailing the personal stories of parents before life got too serious to worry about style: "the mom and dad who traveled by VW bus to see Led Zeppelin for $1, the grandmother whose halter top and shorts belied her perfect demeanor, the father whose wanderlust passed down to his equally nomadic daughter." Released this month, the paperback is available for $10 at Amazon.

http://myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com