11.05.2007

The style of New York City

New York has always been well known for its sassy style and extraordinary cultural mix. Now a new book captures the Big Apple’s real-life fashion tribes in all their diverse glory

Japanese student in orange coat

You see them everywhere, strutting up and down the New York streets, flaunting their style like plumage. As you try hard not to stare, you can’t help but admire their taste, or courage, or both.

Perhaps you’ve wanted to stop them, grab them by their purple neon lapels and ask them what they were thinking when they got dressed that morning. That was the genesis of the New York Look Book.

Jody Quon, New York magazine’s photography director, chose Jake Chessum to take the pictures. His photographic style is so animated you can feel his subjects in mid-stride. He paired up with Amy Larocca, the magazine’s fashion writer, and set out armed with release forms, a portable white backdrop and the hope that this exercise might actually yield some interesting results.

As it turned out, Amy and Jake were a perfect match.

They discovered they shared a talent for choosing – and seducing – just the right subjects for this social experiment. And what they brought back turned out to be richer and more wonderful than anyone could have imagined. It was no surprise that the city was full of stylish people – this is a world fashion capital, after all – but the depth of personality that each style revealed amazed everyone. There were plenty of women and men wearing the latest fashions, but the streets also randomly generated legions of incredible-looking people who’d given serious thought to making their look their own.

The book was titled the Look Book to echo the name designers give to their compilations of a season’s collection. After all, it is a frequently expressed contention that the streets of New York are a giant runway, with each passer-by playing the role of model and designer of his or her own style.

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