eddie  –  it was weird but true  –  had grown up to look quite a little bit like anthony perkins.  his face was prematurely lined   (  although in his movements he seemed somehow younger than either richie or ben  )   and made older still by the rimless spectacles he wore   –  spectacles you would imagine a british barrister wearing as he approached the bench or leafed through a legal brief.  his hair was short,  worn in an out-of-date style that had been known as ivy league in the late fifties and early sixties.  he was wearing a loud checked sport coat that looked like something grabbed from the distress sale rack of a men’s clothing store that would shortly be out of business…  but the watch on one wrist was a patek philippe,  and the ring on the little finger of his right hand was a ruby.  the stone was too hugely vulgar and too ostentatious to be anything but real.

( FIG 1 )  glasses.   eddie doesn’t require glasses in his day to day,  but he has yet to leave his house without a pair in his inside breast pocket in addition to the extra pairs he keeps in the center console of his cars.  with age,  eddie has become farsighted.  his glasses are primarily reading glasses,  drawn out to read the morning paper or to inspect the increasingly minuscule text on pill bottles.  his frames are exclusively designer and are usually ray-ban, gucci, or bulgari.  in modern verses or in aus where he lives into the 90s,  he’s very fond of tom ford.

( FIG 2 )  business casual wear.   when not dressed in his usual black suits for driving,  eddie wears what he remembers was cool,  what men with status and wealth and education wore when he was growing up.  he is not a strictly fashionable man,  but he is an admirer of fashion and of those who wear their clothes with power and pride.  standing amongst the rest of 1980s new york,  eddie appears dated and out-of-touch.   (  in modern verses,  these clean and classic lines simply look timeless,  though a touch dowdy,  and he oddly seems to be more fashionably in the know.  )   he sticks to the color palettes and patterns of the late-50s and 60s,  but has a penchant for loud colors for his accent or center pieces,  such as a checked sport coat or a bright emerald tie.  his clothes are tailored   (  though not to the degree and expense of hollywood-elite rich tozier  )  and well-pressed if not well-worn.  in fact,  most of his clothes are well-worn,  though never to the point of being shabby or overly obvious,  as eddie believes in getting his full use out of a piece and is overly keen on keeping things around that are just comfortable,  even if they are no longer what’s best for him.

( FIG 3 )  hair.   eddie keeps his dark brown hair neatly combed and trimmed in an ivy league style.  he’s gone grey at his temples and he worries that he’ll start going grey elsewhere and worries that worrying will make it happen sooner.  despite king’s earlier description,  my eddie has kept all his hair though he does keep it on the shorter side and neat.

( FIG 4 )  accessories.   it’s in his accessories that eddie truly wears his wealth.  he likes designer,  he likes flashy,  he likes expensive.  it gives him great joy to meticulously care for his collection of watches,  the patek phillippe being his favorite,  and he’s proud that he not only owns them but has educated himself on their history and construction,  enjoying his watchmaker’s lectures as he repairs or resizes eddie’s watches.

( FIG 5 )  rings.   eddie wears two rings,  the large, eye-catching ruby ring on his right pinky finger and his unfashionably thin gold wedding band on his left ring finger.  this,  he would need a shrink to inform him what it reveals.  he could not quite tell you why he wears the ruby ring other than that he likes the familiar weight and finds it attractive.   (  look, ma.  i’ve made it.  i would have bought this for you if you hadn’t eaten yourself to death.  now would you please shut up.  )   perhaps it’s a lingering association with power,  forgotten memories of men who wore pinky rings and confidence with ease in movies like the godfather,  or simply an untapped and unexamined instinct for camp.  it certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with the victorian and now culturally irrelevant context of wearing a pinky ring to signify a disinterest in marriage or,  on the other side of things,  an interest in the same sex.

( FIG 6 )  shoes.  he wouldn’t easily admit to it,  but eddie loves shoes.  he doesn’t care for women’s fashions or for shoes that are too,  in his words,  much,  but he loves a nice pair of loafers,  the kind you might have seen on ed sullivan.  he wears exclusively black leather gucci on the job,  frequently buying new pairs to complete the expected image of a driver without so much as a scuff or a tear on him.  but,  in the comfort of his home,  eddie wears a wider,  and more gaudily decorated,  variety of loafers and wears them till the soles grow thin and his cobbler refuses to resole them again.  he only buys a pair if he loves them and he’s loathe to part with them if they’ve still have use left.  in modern verses,  eddie is a bit of a sneakerhead.

( FIG 7 )  casual wear.   on the off chance that you catch eddie in a relaxed state,  you’ll find his casual, off-the-clock looks to still adhere to the preppy, somewhat old-fashioned ivy league style that dominates the rest of his wardrobe.  he enjoys layers and comfortable fabrics,  particularly a knit pullover or button-up sweater,  though still structured with a collared shirt or polo underneath.  in his outerwear,  eddie mimics the cool silhouettes from his youth in bomber jackets,  its lines softened in a quilted fabric in autumn reds, greens, blues, and tans,  and collared trenches.  he switches between slacks and dark denim jeans,  but can often be caught in calvin kleins after brooke shields’ infamous commercial airs.