Mar 22, 2005 04:00 PM
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After a weeklong drought, New York magazine's Look Book is back with Karim Sanders and his Baby Amir should wrap. By day, Karim is an NBC parking attendant and a travel booker for musical acts; by night, the man is a Bergdorf junky with a Barneys habit on the side. After the jump, Intern Alexis grills Christian Lorentzen, Tiffany Gong, and Alexis Oliver for the input on Karim's style and suggestion on how to bring a smile to Amir's face.
Christian Lorentzen, film critic, n+1; book critic, Journal-News
Karim's style is all over the place one minute he's rocking the Tims and the down jacket, the next he's in a cashmere sweater and reading glasses. How can we help Karim streamline his style?
As a former construction worker, I can sympathize. But the answer is simple: jumpsuit. My crew faced the same dilemma as Karim champagne tastes, limited means. It was unseemly to be passing the bottle of '85 Clicquot around the truck on the way back to the garage from the site Friday afternoons still wearing boots and dungarees soiled from a day's honest toil.
So we pooled our wages to spring for a set of matching periwinkle unis. Those afternoons, stripping down to reveal our linen ensembles and cravats, we imbibed in style. Perspiration complicated the summer months, but in the end it leant a robust musk, an extra layer of allure beckoning the young women we often shouted at admiringly on street corners.
But the high living couldn't last. Soon the whole crew developed an addiction to the automated gambling game Keno, then a fixture in Massachusetts barrooms, and went into hawk. We sold our jumpsuits to a squad of Polish fence painters and downgraded from Clicquot to Budweiser to avoid collective bankruptcy. I can only hope things go better for Karim.
Why does little Amir look so unhappy?
In addition to being crestfallen about the fact that he's appearing in New York instead of TimeOut Kids, the purportedly sweet and charming Amir is stifled by the drab attire his father has purchased for him. He should be encouraged to unleash his inner Liberace. He might just end up the bestselling novelist of his generation.
When Karim decides to walk around all day with his son on his shoulders, does he have to color-coordinate?
Again, Amir should not be saddled by Karim's (admittedly refined) style choices. Having grown up under the watchful eye of a working class father whose greatest academic achievement was the Best Dressed award senior year of high school, I know what sort of issues Amir must be dealing with. Do your own thing, kid. fathers were born to be defied. And while I have your ear, there is no God.
How will Puff Daddy react after reading that Karim thinks his style is only "sort of cool"? And perhaps more importantly, how will Farnsworth Bentley react when he meets Karim?
My sources tell me that Puff Daddy got fed up with the Adam Moss New York a few months ago those solemn Martin Schoeller cover portraits; the unrelenting stream of renegade teen stories; feature writers cherry-picked from TNR; self-inflating self-deprecation from the likes of Adam Bellow and James Atlas; Keith Gessen's unforgiving book criticism; and that Naomi Wolf thing, he hated it (H. Bloom is a friend to Bad Boy) so he let his subscription run out. Karim is safe from P. Diddy, but he is liable to get an umbrella in the back one of these days.
What else has Karim been contemplating for the past nine years?
The character of American life under a Dole/Kemp administration.
Tiffany Gong, Fashion Designer
Karim's style is all over the place
one minute he's rocking the Tims and the down jacket, the next he's in a cashmere sweater and reading glasses. How can we help Karim streamline his style?
Forget streamlining. Not only would I suggest pairing the Tims and down jacket with the cashmere sweater and reading glasses, but in addition I'd have Karim throw in a few pieces from this past season's hit-list, like a pair of Mukluk style fur legwarmers, some high-waisted trouser, and a Balenciaga motorcycle bag to pull it all together. Sure, the results may cause Karim to curdle more than a few passing pedestrian's eyeballs, but finding a look that is wholly and completely defiant of semiotic deconstruction and pigeonholing (Ghetto Fabulous! Gangsta! Gatsby-esque!) is priceless.
Why does little Amir look so unhappy?
Oh come on, you'd be pissed off too if you were being paraded around the streets of Manhattan in a headpiece that hasn't been in style since Willa Cather penned O, Pioneers! and the Donner party self-immolated in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy. The poor kid looks like an extra in Amish in the City. If you must mine other decades for stylistic inspiration, please at least steal from the nihilistic future. I prefer George Orwell, or the oft-exploited Philip K. Dick references. The past is so like, over.
When Karim decides to walk around all day with his son on his shoulders, does he have to color-coordinate?
Well the child is clearly acting as a muffler, so of course he has to color coordinate. Regarding this matter, I must say that even though I'm always a fan of using small dead animals as neck accessories, I don't know how I feel about medium-sized live children. That's so As Four two season ago. Still, I hear that they're making a resurgence (children, that is, not As Four). Expect them to make on appearance this spring suspended from Vincent Gallo's filthy earlobes, popping out of Tara Subkoff's non-existent d
colletage, and hanging from Ludacris's necklace.
How will Puff Daddy react after reading that Karim thinks his style is only "sort of cool"? And perhaps more importantly, how will Farnsworth Bentley react when he meets Karim?
Who is this Farnsworth Bentley character? Isn't he just P. Diddy's walking, talking, umbrella stand? Anyway, I think that Puffy's reaction is pretty obvious. He'd just point to one of his many examples of nouveau-plebian exclusivity—-Lizzy Grubman hosted parties, menstrual colonic irrigation sessions, stretch-S.U.V. limousines. In terms of measuring quantifiable "coolness," I think these items speak for themselves.
What else has Karim been contemplating for the past nine years?
How anyone can still believe anything in this age of The Simpsons and Derrida. Or maybe that's just me.
Alexis Oliver, New York architect and self-described Nolita "it-girl"
Karim's style is all over the place one minute he's rocking the Tims and the down jacket, the next he's in a cashmere sweater and reading glasses. How can we help Karim streamline his style?
Why streamline your style when your pockets are big enough to carry your entire wardrobe around with you? I mean, the man is wearing the Noah's Ark of sport coats. If all the clothes in the world are ever wiped out by a giant flood, this guy's pockets will bear the responsibility of keeping the seed of fashion alive on this Earth.
Why does little Amir look so unhappy?
Probably because his dad just told 40,000 people that he shops at Bergdorf Goodman.
When Karim decides to walk around all day with his son on his shoulders, does he have to color-coordinate?
What exactly does "bare money" mean anyway? That makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Maybe Karim should put less effort into coordinating outfits with a 3-year-old and try coordinating the two words in that dumb-ass expression.
How will Puff Daddy react after reading that Karim thinks his style is only "sort of cool"? And perhaps more importantly, how will Farnsworth Bentley react when he meets Karim?
If I were Puffy I'd be pissed off that Karim debuted the child-as-accessory thing first. Having an actual kid draped around your shoulders is clearly the most fabulous accoutrement since the fedora.
What else has Karim been contemplating for the past nine years?
Reasons to accuse people of discriminating against him, opportunities to name drop.
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