Classic Apparel

David Bostick helps prevent the professional men of Birmingham from looking like schlubs.

As a personal clothier, Bostick (Rhetoric & Communication Studies ’88) goes to the offices and homes of Birmingham’s attorneys and businessmen, offering them advice on what kind of striped suit, patterned tie or collared shirt they should wear. (For the fashion-challenged: There’s a difference.)

It’s a job that’s part private fashion consultant, part salesman. For the busy guys of Alabama who’d rather spend their limited free time with their friends or family than at the mall, Bostick offers a rare but increasingly popular service as men learn more about fashion — and have less time on their hands.

“You’ve got to figure if a 40-year-old attorney has three or four kids, works 12 hours a day, he probably doesn’t want to spend a weeknight going out looking for clothes,” he says.

Then there’s the client who just loves clothes and wouldn’t necessarily find the specialty imported fabric or fancy silk tie he desires at the local chain menswear shop. Bostick works with tailors and importers from all over the world to find what a client needs.

“Some people collect wine, some people collect cars. Some people, frankly, collect clothes,” he says.

While many of Bostick’s clients favor dark suits with white shirts, he sometimes steers the men to more adventurous styles. We’re not talking purple polka dots here, but when it comes to traditional menswear, subtle differences in the number of buttons on a suit jacket or how a shirt collar hangs can very much change the overall look of a suit.

Some guys only like button-down collars — a style Bostick tries to steer professionals away from. For the uninitiated, button-down collars are more casual than other styles. They’re the kind of shirts you’re most likely to spot men wearing at Scott Stadium with a blazer and a pair of khakis — you know, before U.Va. football fans went casual.

Instead, he tries to direct them to a spread collar with a French cuff. Or perhaps a straight-collar shirt, which also is a notch classier than the button-down style.

Then there’s the tie. Manly men can wear pinks, oranges and lime greens without reservation these days.

“Pink’s a great color,” Bostick says. “I had on a pink tie yesterday.” At the University, Bostick, now 40, dressed up with the other guys when the occasion arose, but he wasn’t necessarily more into fashion than his friends. What became clear, however, was that he was a good salesman.

The summer after his third year, he worked for CUTCO, the national kitchen cutlery company that often enlists college students to sell its wares. It’s a tough, commission-based job that relies on personal contacts and word of mouth for success. Bostick came away from that summer several thousand dollars richer, with a buzz for sales.

After graduation, he moved to Birmingham to work for Procter & Gamble, where he also worked in their sales department. He eventually left that job, became involved in real estate sales and moved back to his native Baltimore.

Before he left, though, a friend hooked him up with a clothier to have him fitted for a suit. It was a nice suit, and the guy selling it seemed happy in his job. It piqued Bostick’s interest.

“Is this what you do all day?” he remembers asking him.

And so it began. Bostick took a job as a clothier for a large company in Baltimore and, after a few years there, moved back to Birmingham, where he eventually went into business for himself. He calls his business Classic Apparel.

But classic doesn’t have to mean boring. That’s what he tells his clients.
“You don’t have to wear a blue suit with a red tie and a white shirt.”