In a town where orthodontists have piercings, the competitive struggle for hipness takes odd, all-pervasive forms. Over the weeks to come, the Field Research division of Entertainment Inferno will examine some of Hollywood’s indigenous peoples.

When people talk about the similarities between Los Angeles and New York, what they usually mean is glamour: velvet ropes, media empires, high-end sushi. The Faux-Brooklynites, however, are intent on imbuing Los Angeles with the musty, bookish aspects of New York City culture. They start literary magazines with elliptical one-word titles, obsess about bagels, and flock to events like the Downtown Art Walk which allow them to pretend they’re back home, if they squint a little. Anybody wearing a scarf in Los Angeles during any month besides February is probably a Faux-Brooklynite.

Faux-Brooklynites have close ties to the Cargo Shorts Mafia; often, a significant other in the Mafia will have drawn the Faux-Brooklynite here from the motherland of Cobble Hill. However, Faux-Brooklynites do not have industry aspirations per se. Instead, they write short stories and novels, often concerning a sensitive protagonist’s feelings of alienation after coming to LA from New York to join a significant other.