Big Apple Pride Is in Fashion

NEW YORK — Bandannas, banners and posters reading “Evil will be punished” and “We’ll do what it takes.” World Trade Center postcards. “I (Heart) NY” T-shirts. They’re ubiquitous, and selling faster than the roasted cashews New Yorkers love to buy at street corners.

New Yorkers have never been known for sentimentality, but this week, as shock has given way to grief and grief has begun to harden into fighting spirit, residents--not tourists--are snapping up images of the city’s most potent symbols. It’s a form of local patriotism and the Big Apple’s latest fad.

“Aw, that’s smooth,” said security guard Jamie Wimes as a shopkeeper held up a shirt with a freshly printed Twin Towers logo. “You gotta show you’re part of the team. Our people were hurt.”

Kamal Sharif, who runs a poster shop near Times Square, said he normally sells two to three framed panoramic photographs of the World Trade Center per week. Over the weekend, he sold out and ordered 200 more. “I even took 10 bucks off the price,” said the 29-year-old India native. “I do what I can.”

Across the street, vendor Ghassan Rahbe sold out of Twin Tower postcards and glass snowballs featuring the buildings. “Everybody’s missing our jewel,” he said. “It’s like losing a son.”

Rahbe boosted his business by ordering extra “I (Heart) NY” shirts and selling them for $3 apiece. Before Sept. 11, when hijacked airplanes leveled the World Trade Center and killed thousands of people, Rahbe sold 50 such shirts a day. Monday he sold 300.

Sidewalk artists in Brooklyn sketch charcoal drawings of lower Manhattan. Men with thick accents peddle Twin Tower key chains. The patriotic clothes also lend some color to a city that usually favors blacks and grays. The fashion trend already has a name: “new patriotic minimalism.”

“It’s amazing how quickly this place turns tragedy into kitsch,” said New Yorker Matthew Rothchild.