Knot your ordinary tie
[INTERNATIONAL DESIGNER DISHES ON BR STYLE]
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
If you’ve worn a tie from Martinez Custom Clothiers on Corporate Boulevard, chances are you’ve worn a Venanzi. Gene Venanzi flies in from New York every few years to co-host fashion showcases and parties in Baton Rouge. The 62-year-old veteran of Christian Dior and Leo Cerruti fashion houses is luxury suit master Manuel Martinez’s go-to guy for quality neckwear, sweaters and anything else Martinez does not produce himself.
No wardrobe malfunction
Some of Gene Venanzi’s favorite work has been as a wardrobe consultant for feature films. He has dressed two Oscar-winning performances: Al Pacino’s blind veteran in Scent of A Woman and Michael Douglas’ heartless yuppie in Wall Street. Here Venanzi tells 225 how he used style to turn an everyman like Michael Douglas into slithering stockbroker Gordon Gekko: “Oliver Stone wanted this guy to look like he was 6 feet 10 inches, and the most powerful guy in the world. Michael Douglas is about 5 feet 6 inches, so it was a challenge. We created horizontal striped shirts that have a way of broadening the body. We created a very wide collar. We accentuated the double-breasted suits with stripes and put him in a wide-knotted tie. He always had those braces [suspenders], if you remember. These were power symbols that signified individualism…someone who had the confidence to dress as an individual and couldn’t care less what the world thought. That’s what they were trying to project in the movie—Michael Douglas playing this ruthless guy who only cares about how much money he can make.”
Venanzi, a Ralph Lauren-mentor, categorizes local businessmen and women as lovers of color and individuality. “Peacocks,” he calls them—those not afraid to try something new while still acquiescing to the traditional mores scripted by gentlemen tailors on London’s Saville Row.
“People here are not afraid of mixing and matching different colors and patterns,” Venanzi says. “And I think an open mind is very important for making people look special and different.”
As the number of buyers has grown with each Venanzi pilgrimage, this city’s grassroots movement toward high-end fashion is now sprouting a few buds. More and more, progressive Baton Rouge men are clamoring for dress suits and ties with an international, cosmopolitan feel. From his cozy new location near Towne Center, Martinez is reaping the benefits.
Now, we all had the Crayola eight-pack in elementary school. But remember that one kid who would gleefully whip out a breadbox-sized crayon carton with 128 colors? Your tie rack is the eight-pack. The Venanzi display at Martinez is the big box. But where Venanzi-designed ties are bold and broad in material and color, they are classic and simple in pattern.
“I only use two or three colors most of the time,” Venanzi says. “Clothes should not overpower the person. I like to say that the shirt and the suit are the palette to a painting, and the tie becomes the paint, the brushstroke.”
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