Meet Boston's best-dressed man
Gary Croteau's friends wait patiently to shop at the store they refer to as Gmart. Hours at this boutique are erratic at best. The store opens to a limited public twice a year, primarily when Croteau can no longer close his closet door. The store, where all the merchandise is free, recently opened when the bar in Croteau's closet could no longer stand the strain exerted by hundreds of pounds of Armani, Etro, and Christian Dior. When the rail snapped and the couture hit the floor, Croteau's friends snapped up last season's excesses.
``He gets rid of garbage bags full of clothes," says co-worker and friend Salvatore Malafronte . ``Some of it still has the tags on it. I've picked up some great stuff."
Lately, not even the opening of Gmart has reduced the strain on Croteau's closets. He's now looking for a larger condo, or, more specifically, a condo with larger closets.
``It was the first requirement we gave the real estate agent," says Croteau over chicken stew and Diet Coke at Restaurant L.
These are the dilemmas encountered by a life-long fashionista and the man who was crowned Boston's Best-Dressed Real Man by Esquire magazine last month. Beating out 50 other men who considered themselves to be Boston's best dressed man, Croteau, who showed up at the men's department at Macy's for the contest looking eerily like David Bowie in a European-cut pinstripe suit by Etro, competed against men from nine other cities for the title of Best Dressed Man in America. The winner will be announced in September.
The 39-year-old, who grew up in a small New Hampshire town and works as a stylist at Salon Mario Russo, was prodded by co-workers to enter the contest last year, but decided that ``It wasn't really the kind of thing that I do."
``I thought that no one ever wins those things," he says. ``But I saw the winner on the `Today' show after last year's contest, so I thought I'd check it out. It's not like I had any other plans that night."
A serious shopper who hits the stores at least once a week, Croteau found three potential outfits worthy of the Esquire competition. He decided on a dark suit with aquamarine green pinstripes.
``I figured that guys in Boston would be wearing dark suits with a colorful shirt," he says. ``So I was a little nervous about wearing a suit and a tie. But I knew that no one would be wearing that suit and that tie."
His devotion to fashion is not limited to magazine-sponsored challenges. He generally stays a year ahead of trends, which means his friends first question his outfits, but end up duplicating them. Sadly, Croteau's devotion to couture was not enough. He wasn't among the five finalists announced this week.
``There's no question to me that Gary [deserved] to win," says Malafronte. ``I have the hand-me-downs to prove it." 