I'm hoping enough young people will venture into the gentle art of moderate pipe smoking so it doesn't look like a cultural statement or hipsterism (whatever that may be). Approved or disapproved, it won't be an incongruity of age. The singer/songwriter Tom Waits said he started doing a stage persona of an old bowry man when he was in his twenties because the old guys got to wear all the cool hats. Which was a prescient observation implying that age is not always a bad thing. Which is probably a note of sanity. I avoided pipes for cigars in college because I didn't want to appear to be imitating a professor. For young pipe people, I'd recommend a less dramatic pipe -- cobs are good -- and a casual attitude so it doesn't look like a performance. If you enjoy it, it won't require acting, and that helps. Women pipe smokers would also be image breakers that would redefine things. Women have and will find their own way to carry it off, for their own purposes and in their own style, and that's a good thing.
