My First OPRAH Moment
I call this my "First OPRAH Moment" because I am open to unlimited possibilities - something I have taken from OPRAH herself (actually, "I am open, willing, and ready to receive all my good"). As a matter of fact, I have little sayings she has said throughout the years in little places tucked away - the one on my mirror in my bedroom says, "Don't think you are, know you are".
A couple of weeks ago, I received a telephone call from Nordstrom on MIchigan Avenue informing me Project Runway's Tim Gunn was doing a men's makeover show for The Oprah Winfrey Show and a Zaharoff suit was chosen for the makeover. It didn't quite register with me, but the first thing I thought was "who's the lucky gent?"
Les Hale, Zaharoff's chief of sales, managed to take a snapshot on his iPhone sent it over to me via e-mail. The lucky gent, Russell Davenport, looked like a million bucks even though it was just a fitting. My first thought about Russell, "he's a good-looking guy and I'm so happy he looks great."
Nordstrom passed me his telephone number and I gave Russell a telephone call; I just wanted to reach out to him. I wanted to thank him for picking my suit for his makeover and then told him how much love went into making his suit. He told me picked it out himself and he really happy with it.
I am very grateful to Oprah, Tim Gunn, Russell, and the Nordstrom team. So much love goes into every creation and I hope Russell has many opportunities to wear his new Zaharoff suit!
Here is the story from the Chicago Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/
Oprah tries again with local man's makeover
It’s not often that America’s reigning daytime talk show queenissues a mea culpa, but that’s just what Oprah Winfrey does on her show Thursday.
Bolingbrook resident Russell Davenport (no relation to this reporter) first appeared on the “Oprah” show 19 years ago as part of that show’s popular annual “Oprah! Make Over My Man!” segment.
“There were four other guys on the show with me and they all got to pick out suits, but the guy doing the makeovers put me in sportswear,” Davenport recalls. “I figured I couldn’t be choosy, I was on the show and had to wear what they wanted me to wear.”
To call the look “dated” now would be an understatement. Winfrey’s staff put Davenport in a pair of black pants that they tucked into his socks and a black sweater worn over both a red shirt and a yellow one. A murse — or man purse — completed the look.
“This was a time when we clearly were still working out the kinks in our makeover department,” Winfrey says on the show. “I don’t know —what on earth were we thinking?”
Fearful that the 47-year-old would be reluctant to subject himself to another makeover on national TV, Davenport’s wife and the staff of the show created a ruse to get him back to Harpo Studios for a second makeover.
“My wife has been out of a job for about a year and she told me they invited us down for a segment with Suze Orman,” he says. “The next thing I know, Oprah comes out and says ‘Is Russell Davenport here?’ and she has me stand up and walk down to her. My face says it all. I was overwhelmed, happy with joy and didn’t really know what was going on.”
“Project Runway” guru Tim Gunn tackled Davenport’s makeover this time.
“He gave me the option of several suits and I picked one from George Zaharoff,” Davenport says. “I heard from Zaharoff afterwards and he thanked me for picking his suit.”
Winfrey gives Davenport a personal apology — “for the layers, the socks, the rolled-up thing, the man purse ...”
Davenport, who works as a foreman in public works for the Village of La Grange, is expecting to catch a bit of ribbing from fellow city works after the show airs today.
“Guys from the police department, the fire department, and streets and sanitation all know it’s airing,” he says. “Anyone who has seen the original photo tells me, ‘Yeah, they needed to give you another makeover.’ ”
Categories: Zaharoff, About Me
Tags: gunn runway oprah measure made davenport suits nordstrom zaharoff russell project designer to tim makeover
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