For this TYG, fashion runs in the family | Features | MYQ2 | KMYQ TV

From Orlando Sentinel

STYLE & TRENDS HOW THEY DO IT

For this TYG, fashion runs in the family

Jean Patteson, Sentinel Staff Writer

May 1, 2008

Several years ago, Austin Walker's parents sent him a photograph of his grandfather. This, they told him, is probably where you get your sense of style from.

"He had a very aristocratic look, with an ascot and shiny cuff links," recalls Walker, a 19-year-old marketing student who has just completed his freshman year at the University of Central Florida. "It was a timeless, classic look. I thought, why not jump on the bandwagon."

He started searching on eBay and in the local thrift stores for vintage ascots to wear with his suits. He has been a trendy young guy -- TYG -- ever since.

A football jock in high school, he also was fascinated by the fabrics in his mother's interior-design studio. That led to jobs in several fashion stores, including the Ralph Lauren store in his native Charleston, S.C., where he also joined the production crew for the first Charleston Fashion Week.

"I came down here to Florida thinking my fashion life was over," he says. "Then I discovered Park Avenue Fashion Week. I helped out with the runway show, and this year I'll be producing it. I've also started my own events-planning company."

Along the way, he has developed his distinctive TYG style, which he describes as "contemporary classic with a touch of preppy."

He'll team a blazer with a dress shirt, blue jeans and driving mocs, then add an ascot and Ralph Lauren ribbon belt.

Or he'll throw a vest over a T-shirt, add tweed trousers, dress shoes and blazer, then knot a lightweight, fringed scarf around his neck.

The scarf is a $3 prize he purchased at H&M during a recent trip to New York. "I'm spellbound by the stuff in that store. It's great fashion on a budget. Everybody loves my scarf. They ask, 'Is that Balenciaga?' "

He picks up fashion tips off style Web sites such as thesartorialist.com, and by studying the dress quirks of designers Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs and Steven Stolman. He also is intrigued by the style of actor Russell Crowe, rap artist Kanye West and the young guys on The CW's Gossip Girl.

"They do polos under Oxford shirts, cool blazers with jeans. The stylist on that show is doing a bang-up job," says Walker.

"I keep a file in my computer: men of style. It's a folder of all the cool looks that inspire me."

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