The Look Book Book Arrives
To our office came a gleaming new copy of New York magazine's Look Book book. It's 255 pages of pictures of those New Yorkers whose "taste, or courage, or both," as editor Adam Moss writes in the desultory introduction, "you can't help but admire." Or maybe you can! All of our old friends are there: Mica De Jesus, the befreckled gypsy; Alex Kennedy-Grant, the guitar virtuoso; Kay Goldberg, the ninth grader who graces the cover; and of course Lisa Falcone, the writer, topless model and mere terrible of Liliana and Carolina.
The Look Bookers can be divided pretty neatly into four categories: students, old ladies, idiots and heroes. Categories I and III are not mutually exclusive; elements of both are often found in the subject. Ditto character types II and IV, and III and IV. Rarely will the looker find a heroic student, a I-IV hybrid.
Among the students, the best example of a classic Look Booker is Wyatt Hough; he is blessed with a two-page spread. Hough was met "leaving [his] art -history class, going home to Nolita to take a nap." On his way, however, he ran into Ms. Larocca and is now "doing yoga in the park." The picture is him in a rather sloppy chakra-asana in cowboy boots and striped pants. He chose the pants because he "usually fall[s] asleep in art-history class" and "thought that if [he] wore [his] most energetic pants [he'd] stay awake." Tuition at NYU is $35,283.
Many of the students transition from Type I to Type II (Idiots) upon graduating. Whether they are actually dummies or whether Larocca has edited them thusly is unclear but boy, they sure sound dense. Most of these people are, to put it charitably, freelance creatives. André J is a "muse," for example. Brian from Nolita (whose cramped apartment we once invaded!) is a "resaler." Alex Kennedy-Grant is a musician. He is also sports one of the two afros in the book shot from behind.
Much like how we have a fascination with father figures (Eddie Hayes, Dick Stern, Laurence Isaacson), Larocca has a thing for matriarchs. Impeccably dressed, wealthy and well-pearled, Larocca caught most of these women on their way to or from the opera. They are, by and large, the least interesting of the bunch due to their age which pretty much shields them from mockery.
It's only when these mothers are younger and horrible, like Lisa Falcone, that they become actually interesting. Who can forget the startled and naive looks of her two infants as they stare out helplessly from her akimboed arms? Who can forget the words of the heinously tan Falcone when asked whether she has other children as well? "I have three other kids—my pooches, Venus, Aphrodite and Zena. Two Yorkies and a Chihuahua. We're five girls and a boy."
The final category of heroes is also the smallest and most subjective. They include John Waters; a shirtless Native American named Terry "Coyote" Murphy; and an attorney with a fantastically waxed mustache named Louis R. Aidala.
We hope all the Look Bookers featured will be milling about at Bergdorf's tomorrow. We really hope Adam Moss will be chatting with Diaper Shorts and Brian the Nolita Resaler over salmon canapes and Amy Larocca will be fighting psycho mom Falcone over a pair of Louboutin heels.