To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time an active U.S. military officer has been photographed for a streetstyle blog! Master Sgt. Alberto Betancourt was in Chicago today as the public relations officer in charge of Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta’s Medal of Honor tour. Master Sgt. Betancourt works for the U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs Operations Branch. I ran into him on State Street while scouting for streetstyle photos. Luckily he was super nice and willing to pose for a photo!
I adore military uniforms for their professionalism, symbolism, and sartorial drama. More than any other form of dress, a military uniform conveys a sense of authority and power. I am fascinated by the intersection of self-concept, semiotics, and society within the realm of fashion, so having the opportunity to photograph an active army officer in full military dress with tons of decorations, symbols, and patches is pretty much the greatest thing ever.
Amy: I have a quick question for you, I’m Amy Creyer from Chicago Street Style Scene. First of all, congratulations on your excellent earnings report.
Terry: Thank you.
Amy: I know in retail it’s been very difficult with the recession.
Terry: Thank you, thank you. Thank you for knowing that.
Amy: I just read your 10Q last night.
Terry: Oh ok, great!
Amy: My brother is an investment banker and he insisted I read it before meeting you. So I wanted to ask you how GLAMORAMA fits in with your market localization efforts, especially here in the Midwest.
Terry: It fits in very well, because we only do this size of an event in four cities in America. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicago. We try to tailor this exactly to the Chicago consumer, and I hope that you’ll see tonight that there’s something on this runway for everyone. I mean it’s a very wide and broad selection, and it’s very wide and broad price points. So I think you’re going to see all of that tonight. That’s the big picture of this, the show.
If you go into our stores, any of our stores, you will find products for you. You’ll find products that are specifically for you. And you’ll find that what’s on State Street is even different from what you’ll find at Water Tower. What you find at Water Tower is different than what you’ll find at Northbrook. We’re really trying very hard to tailor the assortments to the specific customers living and shopping in each one of our stores. Now that’s something that I don’t think can be done by almost any national retailer. The specialty stores do that well, if they have one or two stores with buyers living in the market, but it’s very hard for big companies to do that, and I think that’s why we’re winning.
Amy: Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Terry: You’re welcome.
