Twenty Something at Trout

BY WALLY NAYMON SHOPKEEPER

I may regret sharing this photo, but it’s especially fitting to include it in this issue as a reminder that at one time or another, we were all new kids on the block. I was just 19 when Diamond’s Men’s Store hired me as a stockboy and, unwittingly, introduced me to what would become my career and passion. A few years later, I modeled this very-60s satin dinner jacket for a Cleveland Tux ad, looking mature beyond my years but still wet behind the ears. Though my modeling career was short-lived and the pinky ring eventually went out of style, the idea of providing unhurried and uncommon service and building relationships based on trust and knowledgeable advice continued to grow. And thanks to patient mentors and great customers, I fell in love with the business of dressing guys to look and feel their best—and simply put, that’s what our profession is all about.

Later in this magazine, you’ll read about our Twenty Somethings, a group of Kilgore Trout associates just beginning to make their mark while learning from our seasoned pros. These new faces, along with our more familiar ones, are introducing the art of modern dressing to a new generation of Kilgore Trout customers in both our men’s and women’s departments and helping us to offer a multi-generational shopping destination where young designers like Billy Reid and Strong Suit effortlessly share the racks with well-respected names like Ermenegildo Zegna, Etro and Samuelsohn. From the flappers of the Roaring ’20s to British Mods of the ’60s (the youth movements of their times), it’s the 20-somethings of the world who so often influence fashion and culture of an era. We look forward to seeing where this generation (my daughters included) takes us. If we’re lucky, they’ll run the world and I can return to being the stockboy.

PERFORMANCE. COLLECTION. SOFT.