My Style

May 25, 2005

Shock waves reverberated through Northern Michigan’s style community recently when Keith Schwartz had his pants confiscated by the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Department.
Keith, a five-year employee of the Sight & Sound room at the Traverse City Area District Library, was at the post office mailing a package when he noticed himself under surveillance. Outside the P.O., he was approached by an officer of the Sheriff’s Department who asked him for his I.D.
His crime? Wearing a pair of used police officer pants -- tan with brown stripes down the side -- with a t-shirt and leather jacket.
“Where did you get those pants?” the officer asked.
“Okay, I thought, where’s the Punk’d camera?” Schwartz said.
Schwartz had purchased the $3 cop pants four months earlier at Grand Traverse Goodwill, never imagining that his funky striped trousers could land him under suspicion for impersonating an officer.
“Two days later they came to my house and confiscated my pants,” he says. “I wasn’t home at the time but my wife Kathy was there and she was dumbfounded. I called the Sheriff and told him I want to see the law where it says they can take away my pants.”
For what it’s worth, Schwartz notes that the cops offered to pay for his pants, but the incident was so wacky that he’s waiting for it to turn up on Jay Leno or David Letterman.
“Since when does wearing a pair of striped pants constitute impersonating an officer?” he wonders.
Schwartz says fashion runs in his family. “It’s an adopted interest. I got a lot of it from my father who was an incredibly dapper dresser, and my grandfather dressed very well also.”
He definitely has an eye for quality and knows how to work eBay and local thrift shops for expensive apparel at a fraction of the original cost. His Turnbull & Asser shirt, for instance, is handmade of brushed Egyptian cotton in London and is preferred by U.S. presidents and Prince Charles. He’s found two of the shirts worth hundreds of dollars at Goodwill over the past five years.

Following is the rundown on what Keith is wearing and where from:
Tie (“Countess Mara acetate” - retail $70, Salvation Army)...................$2
Tie pin & cufflinks set (“Siam silver,” eBay)..........................................$12
Coat (“Gene Meyer” - retail $300, eBay)...........................................$40
Shirt (handmade “Turnbull & Asser” - retail $250, Goodwill)................$3.50
Belt (“Perry Ellis,” Salvation Army)......................................................$2
Suit (“King Bros. Hong-Kong” sharkskin gaberdine & silk mix --
retails for at least $800, Goodwill).....................................................$11.75
Boots (“Vintage Kenneth Cole” wingtip boots, pre-Nike buyout, eBay)....$20

Total...................$71.25
Retail..................$1,500+