I had to say, he looked better in person than he did in pictures, but even that wasn’t saying much. At the moment, sitting in his chair across from me, shoulders tense, jaw set, green eyes on fire, he looked ready to jump across the table and sink his teeth in my neck, and not in a kinky pleasant way. He was incensed. I had touched a nerve somewhere. My clients up to this point had all been women and they had all been eager to get their makeovers. Easton Shultz wasn’t the kind of man that was into fashion, clearly. I wouldn’t look twice passing him on the street. He was very… dressed down.
He didn’t look wealthy which was strange because people who were wealthy tended to want to look that way. Not to bandy about any unkind new money stereotypes, but, it was a fact that when people finally got their hands on the money they previously lacked, they made sure that people knew they were rich. That was where the gaudy head to toe designer label outfits with huge logos came in. I didn’t expect him to be fully decked out like a nineteen-year-old hypebeast but he looked like he worked at TKMaxx for minimum wage while he lived out of his mother’s basement. He would be at home on any college campus in the country. The epitome of sloppy single maleness. He was pushing back against the idea of changing his look and we hadn’t even mentioned the clothes yet, just the hair and his beard which were completely separate sins.
The beard was to men what makeup was to women. They could fake a strong jaw and handsome face that way but something made me have hope in Easton Schultz’s bone structure. It was a fine line between hipster and homeless however and he was dangerously towing it. He was well-built though, it wasn’t going to be hard to dress him. He had wide shoulders, a trim waist, and long legs - the kind of physique that made all clothes look good. The rest of him looked so good, I was hopeful that he had the whole package under all that hair. This was going to be fun, or it would be if he loosened up and stopped acting like we had insulted him.
“I’m sorry?” I asked him.
“I said then why don’t you go? Seems like you might be out of your depth.” The set of his jaw and the look in his eyes said that that was a challenge. Our first impressions had clearly been set and he didn’t like me very much. I wasn’t going on much but the feeling at the moment was mutual.
“Why don’t you tell us what you have planned for him?” Toby said hastily, steering the conversation away from Easton. The atmosphere was palpably tenser than it had been when I arrived. I wasn’t sure what I had walked into, but it seemed like the two men were of very differing opinions when it came to overhauling Easton’s image. I measured my words.
“To be honest, I didn’t think we would be starting from…” I reconsidered my words looking at Easton. “Well, my usual process is I talk to my clients first and look at their existing wardrobe to get an impression of their style and what they’re comfortable in. I like to build from that rather than styling clients how I or anyone else would like to see him.”
“That’s too bad because I want you to style him the way I’d like to see him,” Toby said. “Look at him. That kind of stuff is what he wants to wear and frankly, I can't have that.”
“Why don’t you get a fucking makeover then?” Easton snapped at his partner.
“I think we can make everyone happy,” I said, cutting in between them. I was not sure that I could do that but we were in a five-star restaurant thirty floors in the air. God forbid one of these men lost their temper and tried to toss the other through a window. With this pair, Easton specifically, it seemed possible.
He was still sitting there, stewing. Some people were more sensitive than others when it came to their wardrobes. They felt like it was their personal brand or identity and would take it personally when you told them that the band t-shirts they loved so much went out twenty years ago. I empathized but only up to a point. I would also be upset if I ended up on a worst-dressed list but when someone told you to dress better, it wasn’t for their sake, it was for yours.
I took in the man’s outfit. It was a travesty. Joggers, sneakers that were old on top of being dirty and an even older t-shirt. I could not abide men over the age of twenty-one dressing like he was now. I mean, if he was going to do it, some clean, higher-end athletic wear was permissible, but his partner was in a suit. This was a five-star restaurant. Time and place, please.
“I can tell looking at you now that you like comfort,” I said, tactfully.
“He likes looking like a frat guy who is on his eighth year of a communications degree with no graduation in sight. He needs to look like a competent entrepreneur,” his partner barked. I nodded, trying to stay level and not take sides, even though I was firmly on the side of Toby.
“You can be comfortable in more formal clothing. In fact, the line between comfortable and sloppy is much thinner than people imagine.”
Easton had been silent for a few moments, not even reacting when his partner said he looked like a failing college student, but his face twisted with my remark. “Sloppy?”
I hurried to remedy the situation. “It’s the attention to detail. That t-shirt you’re wearing is… fi
fteen, twenty years old?”
“It’s vintage.”
“It's old.
“I prefer my clothes lived-in who would rather wear a stiff, starchy shirt and tie that they could barely move comfortably in?”
“That doesn’t mean you have to look untidy.”
“First I was sloppy. Now I’m untidy,” he said.
“That t-shirt is stained and faded at the same time.”
“Yeah, and you know how much of an effect it has on my work ethic? Zero.”
“It's not your work ethic I’m here to fix. It’s your fashion sense.”
“You know what? Why don’t you girls discuss your fashion without me? I don’t need you telling me my clothes are stained and off-trend.”
“So, you agree that your clothes need replacing? That’s the first step,” I said.
“I don’t.”
“You need this. You don’t agree, that’s apparent but clothing speaks before you do. You can’t present something like this to clients and expect them to be happy with it. They’ll most likely look for someone who inspires a bit more confidence in them.”