Style Counsel: Willie Brown on Dressing the Man

Willie Brown was once dubbed "the Best Dressed Man in California" by Esquire magazine.

Who?

If you're not from California, it's forgivable if you've never heard of him.

Simply put, Willie Brown, 74, is one of the most powerful people in California politics. An attorney by trade and a politician by nature, Brown held the powerful office of Speaker of the California State Assembly from 1980 to 1995 â€" a record 15 years. After term limits cast him out of that office he was twice elected mayor of San Francisco. In total, Brown served more than 30 years in state and local government.

Today Brown heads up The Willie L. Brown, Jr. Institute on Politics & Public Service. The institute's mission is to train students for careers in municipal government. But Brown continues to do play the part he has always played best: power broker. He remains one of California's chief behind-the-scenes "king-makers."

Ask Brown the secret of his success and the answer you're likely to get is a simple one: style. For Brown, that means style in all things, whether it's the words you use in a greeting, the way you shake hands, how you cut a deal, and, not least, the panache with which you wear your suits. In fact, the flamboyant Brown is as much known for his $6,000 Brioni suits as he is for his reams of successful legislation. He once even threatened to institute "formal Fridays" at San Francisco's city hall if city workers didn't button-up. They don't call him "His Dapperness" for nothing.

BNET caught up with Brown at his offices in San Francisco's elegant Ferry Building â€" a place which Brown as mayor used his "juice" to have renovated and which today draws thousands of townies and tourists each year â€" to ask him to share some of the secrets of his sartorial success.

BNET: Give us the 10-second Willie Brown advice for executive dressing today.

Brown: I'd start off by saying, you should buy quality clothing. Quality clothing includes attention to fabric, attention to style and, more importantly, attention to fit. That automatically means not cheap. If you buy just one good suit, spending what you normally would for three inexpensive ones, you will be much better off.

BNET: Let's say you're a young exec and want to impress without appearing to be outrageous or showy, what would your advice be?

Brown: Invest in the staples. Get your blue blazer, get your gray trousers, get your dark suit without patterns, get your white shirts, your light blue shirts, your ecru shirts and get your non-explosive ties. Get the appropriate footwear that's both comfortable and stylish, not reflective of anything that's trendy. Put those things together and you will have a base that allows for often-enough change and tasteful-enough acceptance for almost any circumstance.

BNET: You tend to dress differently for day and for evening. Is that what you would advocate for a young exec?

Brown: Yes, but if you have limited resources, you probably cannot make that switch easily. You can wear lighter-colored clothing in the daylight hours and you can wear different fabrics and relatively bold patterns.

None of that works for the evening hours. You have to be a bit more muted. If you're flush with resources you can make the transition. But if you have limited resources then you probably ought to dress so that you can flow from day into evening more seamlessly.

For example, if you're in a patterned shirt during the day â€" that might not work for the evening. You may need to go with a white shirt. You may also need to make a change if you're wearing something brown or light in color. You may have on brown shoes. Well, you don't go into the evening easily with brown shoes.

BNET: In your new book, "Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times," you talk about dressing for the media. A lot of our executive readers have to "do media." What advice would you offer them?

Brown: There's nothing worse than watching someone being interviewed on television when they are wearing a polka-dot tie, because the camera and the lighting are not complimentary to polka-dots. There's nothing worse than a bold, checkered pattern in a jacket on television, because they waiver on screen and it looks like you need to adjust your TV set. Such patterns also make you look even larger.

The single worst collection of dressers on TV these days are on those Sunday sports shows. You look at guys like Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson â€" they are horrendously dressed. They wear orange ties with red packet squares or they'll have on a shadow print and in some cases they'll have on a contrasting. It just looks awful.

BNET: Can you give us some examples of men who dress well for TV?

Brown: You can pick up ideas about how to dress on screen if you watch David Letterman. He really dresses well for television. And oddly enough, as large and substantial as Jay Leno is, he obviously has the resources for custom tailoring. Every one of his suits is custom tailored and he obviously gets great advice on how best to wear them.

So you do have some places to go if you're looking to get ideas about dressing for the media. You can see what not to do and what not to do. Watch the Sunday morning sports talk shows and you'll know exactly what not to do.

BNET: When a young exec goes into a store like your clothier's, Wilkes Bashford, what should he be asking about?

Brown: First he should do a little bit of due diligence and find out who working in that store has the better sense of style, and the better sense of appropriateness. You get that from calling your friends, and just doing some due diligence before going in yourself. Fact is, sometimes the sales people at a store are more interested in selling a garment than they are in starting a long-term relationship with you. Select the personnel who best suits and fits your personality.

BNET: What kind of time commitment are we looking at?

Brown: Well, you don't go into the store with the idea that it's going to take you 10 or 15 minutes. Go in and spend an hour or two walking through and listening and getting direction. Have them lay things out for you. If they know what they're doing they will lay it out for you in such a way that it will make a great portrait.

BNET: Do you have any parting thoughts about dressing for success?

I would emphasize the fit. You can have the best looking clothing in the world but if they do not fit you it's a waste of money. And you can't just go in and buy the suit. You've got to buy the whole package and make sure all the elements work together â€" the suit, the shirt, even the watch.

For more on style, see "What to Wear to Work."

(Image of Willie Brown in his Ferry Building office, courtesy The Willie L. Brown, Jr. Institute on Politics & Public Service; Image of Willie Brown in summer togs, courtesy Thomas Hawk. Used by permission.)