Crystal Renn - Featuring New Look "The Ballad"

Not all models in this magazine are sporting swimsuits.
Sarah Ruba, who works under the Next Models umbrella out of New York, has stood before the camera shutter for Converse and John Varvatos. Before that she worked in a soup can factory. Now the brunette stunner is rocking a new look. Alongside her husband and fellow Canadian, Adam Pavao, Ruba crafts deeply seductive pop in, well, New Look. Call it fashion house. Coco Chanel once dispensed that bit of wisdom, about how you should always take one thing off before you leave the house. The same philosophy is smartly applied to New Look’s sparse arrangements of slinky synthesizers and sighing hooks. Or what Ruba describes as “subterranean dance funk.” There is confidence in its minimalism.

The couple records in Ontario, in a capacious, creaky Victorian house built in 1889. The two also share a cozy apartment in Brooklyn. “It’s a great neighborhood, all brownstones, like The Cosby Show,” Pavao explains, in a manner befitting one so keen on the 1980s. New Look’s self-titled debut is as much Donna Summer as it is Don Johnson. Keyboard music tends to be a bit chilly. But Ruba’s breathy come-ons bring enough heat to cure that problem. Despite the fact their tunes were crafted with computer chips in the nose-numbing cold of Canada, they evoke blazing suns and summer breezes. Perhaps not for their creators. “We’re the palest non-beach-bums on the planet!” Ruba says.

Q & A with New Look

Something from the past you wish you could bring back.

Adam: Whoa, this answer could get heavy. How about the irrepressible optimism of youth? Yikes. O.K., we’ll just go with... Seinfeld.

Favorite Record?

Adam: Dirty Mind by Prince. Substance by New Order. I Want You by Marvin Gaye. We could go on and on..

What inspires you?

Sarah: Good music, modern art, science, New York City, nature, fashion, architecture, love. Ha! We sound like a couple of hippies.

The first record you owned?

Adam: I remember being around six years old, walking around the house with a Walkman and listening to Wham!
Sarah: The first CD I owned was TLC’s CrazySexyCool. The first cassette I had was a tape a classmate made for me. On one side was Debussy’s Clair De Lune, and on the other side was Queen’s Greatest Hits.