'Unorthodox, unique' fashion sense
OK, so now that O'Neal has somewhere to go, he has to get all dressed up, right? Problem is, even some big and tall shops have a vertical limit. Many cater to men up to about 6-9.
"I do 95 percent of his clothing, if not 99," says Lamar R. Gayles Sr., CEO of Chicago-based Phenomenal Designs by Lamar Inc. The process is simple: O'Neal's assistant gives Gayles a list of his appearances and Gayles comes up with the threads.
"He allows me to be creative," Gayles says. "That's one of the things I love about him most."
Gayles had O'Neal hooked the first time they met. Gayles showed up with a leather jacket "that symbolized everything that Shaquille represented at the time," including the Lakers, his college fraternity and Superman.
"When I gave it to him, he flipped," Gayles says. "He was like: 'Who made this? This is crazy! Oh my God.' He jumped like a kid, like a person who won the lottery."
Gayles' largest assignment was O'Neal's wedding.
"It was crazy because he had me flying all over the United States, measuring different people that were part of the wedding, and it was a really secret situation," Gayles says. "So I'm really working and I can't tell anybody what I'm working for. The wedding was awesome. We complemented the work that was done on the ladies' dresses very well. The suit we made him for his wedding, of course you've seen everywhere — InStyle, Celebrity Weddings . . . "
Gayles describes O'Neal's taste thusly: "He has a Shaq-a-style. That's what we call it. It's all his own look. He's conservative yet contemporary yet fashionable yet trendy yet Shaquille-o-tized."
Uh, OK. So is he ready for South Beach?
"South Beach is going to get ready for him," Gayles says. "He's really going to set the mark this year."
Gayles says how many pieces of clothing he supplies to O'Neal is top secret. "Put it this way: You won't see Mr. O'Neal in duplicates. Ever."
O'Neal says his style is "unorthodox, unique. I like doing stuff that people are scared to do. I wear real loud colors. But now, ever since I've come down here, all my clothes are real light colored. Real cool. Real breezy."
