Every month, SLUG Style features a distinct and unique member of the community and asks them why they do what they do. Exploring more than just clothing, SLUG Style is an attempt to feature the people who give Salt Lake City flavor through personality and panache.
Doug Fabrizio is a nice guy, first and foremost, but he is also the host and executive producer of KUER’s RadioWest. Readers may know that he has a smooth, inquisitive voice, but may not know that he is also as dapper as they come. He has interviewed the Dalai Lama—is it any wonder he has learned to dress himself? Although his voice is heard across the valley, many of his listeners might not even know what he looks like. We here at SLUG think it’s time to pull the off the wraps and unmask the man behind the mic.
Thanks to Publik Coffee Roasters for letting us use their beautiful building for these photos.
“I should say I don’t feel terribly comfortable in my skin,” says Fabrizio. “I want to get there with the way I dress. I’m still very much self-aware and really self-conscious. You fine tune and you fine tune and, at some point, you can just let it go. I’m not a young man anymore, and I still don’t quite feel that I am to the point where I am settled on my sense of style.” Photo: Tyson Call
“I am in awe of people who pay attention to their craft—fine watches, fine shoes—that’s the thing I like about people who do bespoke tailoring and, even now, the guys who are making artisanal denim and bags. They care deeply about their craft and I have to say, on some level, that is what I feel I did with radio,” says Fabrizio. “I learned everything I could about radio and would take stories and break them down. This was in the days before you could go online and buy a transcript. I would transcribe the story and I would look at it and see how it worked. I like that idea of craft. I like it in furniture, I like it in clothing—I like that people took the care. I would rather spend more on one really great item than a little bit on a bunch of crap.” Photo: Tyson Call
“It really wasn’t until I married my wife that I started to be—I won’t say bold, because I don’t even think I am—but a little more brave in terms of the stuff that I wore,” says Fabrizio. “I think it’s because she is my fashion icon in some way, because even when she was in high school, she was completely brave about the clothing she would wear, and she wanted to be distinct, whereas I wanted to fade into the background—even though I was the class clown.” Photo: Tyson Call
“I’ve always been kind of fastidious about certain things,” says Fabrizio, “and I feel this way about radio and about cutting a story. I feel very much like a perfectionist about it, so I’m aware if something is tight or if something is untucked or when there is something untidy in a piece that doesn’t fit … I’m very, very, very particular—to the endless annoyance of my wife—because I want to get it right.” Photo: Tyson Call
“I like the intersection of workwear,” says Fabrizio, “and I know there are some people that don’t like it—you know, chambray and denim and work shirts and stuff like that. I like the contrast with a pair of pants that are a little bit more tailored. I like that idea.” Photo: Tyson Call
“[In high school], I was kind of ordinary,” says Fabrizio. “I mean, I was a theatre kid. Early ’80s—new Wave music was big in those days. There was a lot of that really constructed hair—big hair—Flock of Seagulls. I had friends who were in theatre and friends who were jocks, and I had a hard time finding a niche, so I didn’t really settle into one for a long time. I was conscious of style and fashion, but I felt so self-conscious about it that I tended to go along with what everyone else was doing.” Photo: Tyson Call
“I like things that endure,” says Fabrizio. “I think that that’s why I like old clunky [Florsheim] shoes—the clunkier, the better. My image for these shoes is the Albert and David Maysles film Salesman. It was in 1968. They follow four or five bible salesmen around in New England, and I don’t know what brand they were wearing, but that’s my image of them—that they were wearing these shoes that had thick leather soles that were really well made that they would wear for 30 years or whatever—get ’em re-soled. They are clunky—nothing terribly sleek about them. They just have this kind of blue-collar sensibility.” Photo: Tyson Call
“I think style is not supposed to oppress you,” says Fabrizio. “You are not supposed to feel confined by something. You are supposed to feel free. By the same token, I’m as bitchy as the next person about people who dress slovenly on an airplane. I don’t think that you have to wear a jacket and a tie, but I like it when people make an effort. There’s a great David Sedaris quote where he says, ‘I should be used to the way Americans dress when traveling, yet it still manages to amaze me. It’s as if the person next to you had been washing shoe polish off a pig, then suddenly threw down his sponge saying, “Fuck this. I’m going to Los Angeles!”’ So, I feel conflicted on one hand, but I like that people are taking more care with menswear these days.” Photo: Tyson Call
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