“Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don’t know where I’m goin’ to
Silk suit, black tie (black tie)
I don’t need a reason why” – ZZ Top
In the words of ZZ Top, “every girl crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man”. Some men simply know how to dress and how to carry themselves to maximize the effect. Cary Grant, Sidney Poitier, and Steve McQueen are among the stars who epitomized masculine elegance, wore a suit like they were born in it, and set the standard for classic chic.
Over the years, I’ve met a few men who seemed to have this knack. In particular, I recall two – both were pastors; both had an eye for detail; both had “perfect pitch” when it came to matching colors; both could pull it together, and both could wear it well. One of these men was Pastor Jay Pollan from the Texas Piney Woods town of Hughes Spring and the other was my father-in-law C Bill Voss.
When I first met Bill Voss, I had just started dating his youngest daughter whom I adored. Not wanting to misstep, I asked her if there were any unspoken “rules” around the Voss house. I still recall her quickly replying, “Don’t mess up my Daddy’s hair!” I thought it was an odd “rule” until I met Bro. Voss. His hair was jet black in a slicked-back pompadour without a single hair out of place. In the day, he could be, and likely was, mistaken from time to time for the Country singer Conway Twitty. I soon discovered his dress was equally precise. His suits were tailored to perfection, his shirts were stiffly starched, and his tie and handkerchief in the chest pocket caused the suit to pop! He always had his shoes polished to a mirror finish and hidden beneath the cuffed pants were some CrAzY socks! I thought to myself, I can learn a lot from this man from a spiritual and a fashion standpoint.
On one occasion, we went to the local mall on a family outing. Bro. Voss said he wanted to step into a menswear store and look around. He quickly spotted a smartly tailored suit in his size on the discount rack. Not wanting to miss out on this bargain, he began to put together an entire outfit – suit, shirt, and tie. He had found a perfect shirt to match the suit when the store manager had joined us. With the suit and shirt lying beside a display of silk ties arranged across all the color palettes, the manager began trying a number of ties in the general color scheme as the suit, but nothing really sparked. After a bit, Bro. Voss reached nearly to the other end of the display and selected a contrasting, but complimentary, colored tie. When he placed the tie on the suit and shirt, it popped! “What do you think about this combination?” he asked the store manager. To which, the store manager replied, “Would you like a job?” Bro. Voss chuckled and told him he had enough irons in the fire and didn’t need another job.
Years later, I began to recognize that his daughter had the same eye for color and detail as her Daddy. When we built our retirement home, I drove her to the store to select paint, carpet, tile, and flooring colors and textures. She met the store designer and politely told me that she “could handle it from there”. I wisely left the selections to her and the designer. When the house was completed, we had an Open House for friends and neighbors. One person asked Pam, “Did you have a professional designer or did you do it yourself?” Pam was too modest to take the credit she truly deserved and said that “a designer helped with the selections”, but I knew that it was Pam’s design and I also knew how much she appreciated the affirmation. This compliment was only surpassed when her Daddy walked into the house for the first time and told her that she “had done a great job with the design”.
I am still learning from Brother Voss about fashion . . . and about spiritual matters. Seeing how his daughter relished her Daddy’s affirmation gave me a new appreciation for how much it must have meant to Jesus when His Father said “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”
Every girl . . . and this son-in-law . . . is crazy about the sharp dressed man that I have the privilege of calling my father-in-law.
Bradley Roberts Wyatt 