“I come from that era where guys used to change four times a day,” Darryl Solomon, 69, said when we crossed paths on Prince Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood on a Tuesday in September. “When you walk into a place, you want to look sharp. You want your clothes to speak. You don’t have to speak.”
Dapperly dressed from head to toe, he was sporting a straw skimmer hat, a mustardy velvet blazer and a ruby-red bow tie that brought out the color of his seersucker shirt and pants — and matched his bright Bally shoes. “I love to look dandy,” he said. “I always had a love for clothes. Even as a kid, my mother put the clothes on the bed, and I said, Wow. I’m the type of person that, I get something new, I’ve got to put it on.”
As a retired school safety agent for the New York Police Department, he explained that casual strolls through the city were now part of his daily routine. How did he feel about the fact that few people these days would get so dressed up for a walk? “If you don’t want to dress, then I’m going to dress,” he said, without missing a beat. “My legacy is at stake.”
Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world.
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