Even if you don’t know Colorado-native Marshall Simone ’16, you probably know Marshall Simone. He’s that guy wearing a full suit and tie in class. He’s the guy wearing a full suit and tie in Cafe Mac. He’s that guy wearing a full suit and tie, and top coat, even when it’s -9°F outside. The Mac Weekly caught up with, and felt severely underdressed in the presence of, Simone as we talked de-suiting, tasteful Italians, and lime green suits.

How would you describe your style?

I’d have to say semi-modern, conservative-ish—it’s hard to put these in general categories. I’d say natural. That’s because I just kind of go with it and react to how I’m feeling on that particular day.

How do you think who you are comes across in the way you dress?

Basically taking my internal drive for success and turning it into dress for success. I always joke with people “You know, if you look like you know what you’re doing, people tend to think you do.” Believe it or not, opportunities opened themselves up to me: people would ask me to help them, adults. I worked on [school district accountability] committee meetings, and they took me seriously as a teenager, which is an amazing thing that doesn’t happen very often.

On that, people always say dress for the job that you want. Is there a job you want and are dressing for?

I’m not really sure which direction I want to go in, if I want to pursue lobbying and political consulting and that kind of field or if I want to go practice law and be an attorney. Either way, both are suited positions.

When did you start dressing like this?

I started wearing suits when I was halfway through eighth grade, so I wasn’t even in high school yet. It just kind of came on a whim. It was basically, now looking back on it, a desire to separate myself from the mass of teenagers and the traditional teenage garb during that time, and still so today, with the low-hanging trousers and sweatshirts. As time went on it became that “dress for success” mentality.

What are some influences on your style?

There’s professional wear—the suit and tie, it’s a reality— but [style] also can be something that’s very distinguished and beyond that. Nobody has to wear a black suit every single day, and that unfortunately is kind of the norm, at least in America. In Europe it’s different; particularly Italians, they’re a little more adventurous with what they wear.

Do you dress this formally all the time? Are you ever in jeans and a t-shirt?

At school Monday through Friday; any time I have to interact publicly with people, teachers and other professionals—I will wear a suit and tie. However, on the weekends, or when I’m going to have fun or going to a restaurant—depending on the restaurant—I’ll be more casual. Still, I never go beyond a certain point. I very rarely untuck my shirt.

Do you think the clothes make the man or the man makes the clothes?

The man makes the clothes, absolutely, or that’s the way it should be. I try really hard to wear the suit, and I’ve gotten to the point where I think I wear it. When I started the suit wore me, but now I’ve created enough of an image that I wear the suit.

In general, what do you think of our generation’s style?

For our generation, there’s two things: one, they don’t recognize the importance of being able to put yourself together. They say, “Oh, that’s stuffy. It’s for old people. Why do you wear a suit and tie?” So they don’t do it at all and go way too casual. The other is that when they do dress up, they don’t really dress up. I have issues with the boldly colored dress shirts and very flashy ties, think prom. Lime green? As cool as you might think it is, it doesn’t look good.