| Written by: Sarah Freiseis/ Brigitte Segura |
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| Photos: C. Yohance DeLoatch |
f you’re a man of stature, an NBA fan, or just plain curious… we’ve got an exclusive for you. GQ and NBA teamed up to present the Court-ture ’07 fashion show featuring Jared M. and Rochester Big & Tall Clothing at the NBA store in midtown Manhattan. It’s about time that “Big and Tall” got fashionable. The show included looks from designers such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Tommy Bahama, and most notably…Jared M. The introduction of the Jared M. line certainly brought this product variety to the next level… affordable luxury clothing. Jared M. has made a name for himself by providing custom clothing in fine quality fabrics.
A little help from the NBA’s very own “Big and Tall” didn’t hurt either. Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Jared Jeffries, Kenny Martin, Antoine Wright, Jimmy Jackson and David Lee sauntered down the runway amongst the male models. Walt Frazier stole the show… who needs to survey the models, NBA, or otherwise when this guy is around…suave and smiling … wearing that trademark hat. His well-known look and demeanor carried a presence that is unmistakable.
So you’re big, and hey, you’re tall… so now what? Traditionally this category of consumer has had little to choose from to create a wardrobe. What we saw here appears to work. Jared M.’s classic tailoring and 1940’s inspired silhouettes create a refined gentleman approach to bringing out the gentle giant in all of us, regardless of size. Sometimes the bigger guys dress a little more modest, but hey big is beautiful…so why not flaunt it. We loved: the silk wool tuxedo jacket, the black trench, a chalk stripe powder blue blazer, the western plaid shirt, a preppy argyle sweater, and the reiteration of the sophisticated color we in the industry refer to as…”sand”. What we still don’t get though is why do some of the clothes look “too big” for the big fellas, for instance baggy sleeves? Word on the street is that show producers allowed the players and models to wear the styles in a manner that suited their own personal style… if that’s true who knows…maybe you should ask Ira, part of the Jared M. sales team… that’s who we heard it from.
So there it is…all you need to have a tremendous following and a fabulous event…GQ, NBA, “Big & Tall” models, hot suits, hip music, and complimentary cocktails. Yes, this may have been more of a social event than a proper runway collection show but we got the point. The “Big & Tall” market is taking a proactive approach to delivering affordable luxury clothing to the retail mass by offering exclusives to designers that take looks straight from the runway and fine-tune them to suit the consumer. The efforts are sure to evolve into pay offs of gigantic proportions for both designers and customers alike. The crowd was filled with more non industry people than not, but what we all understand is this… stand back and be captivated as these fashionable men deserve to be noticed, and there not afraid to stand out in a crowd anymore.
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