Cover of Birth of the Cool published in 2001
The term cool has been used and misused since its inception to mean a wide array of things to a wide array of people. Something might be cool to one person but not another. For a history lesson on the word in not only a linguistical fashion but also a social and cultural one check Lewis MacAdams' Birth of the Cool.
It also features some great style from the likes of Miles Davis, Juliette Greco, Jackson Pollock, Jack Kerouac, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, William Burroughs, and Jean-Paul Sartre (photographed on the left in his trademark sheepskin jacket and bottle-thick eyeglasses in Paris, late 1940s.)
The philosopher, novelist, playwright, and hero of the intellectual underground was a proponent of existentialism: the idea that "God is dead. Therefore the universe is absurd. The only thing we know is that we exist. We are responsible for our own destinies."
Jazz greats of the time Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk picked up on his teachings and appropriated the Left Bank cafe-intellectual style to their own fashion.
I'll admit heavy stuff for a style blog but you have to know where you're from to know where you're going. And since it seems cool is one of those things everyone wants, we should at least know what it actually means. For a truly fascinating work check the link below...