Steve Gilpin is the owner of the High Handsome men's clothing store on High Street.
He grew up in Ashland and graduated from Southern Boone County High School in 1976. After that he was off to Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar followed by Fontbonne University in St. Louis, where he got his master of business administration degree.
"I wound up in Madison, Wisconson, and I found myself going broke buying suits because I had to wear a suit every day of the week," Gilpin said. "So one day I called a bunch of friends and they came over and brought their suits and we traded suits and stuff and still had a pile of suits left, so we decided to open up a store."
Gilpin lived in a 4,000-square-foot loft and turned half of it into a store he called "It suits you," he said. At the time, consignment shops were the big thing, so that was what his shop did. Consignment shops are where someone goes to donate clothes for a percentage of the sale. Gilpin's shop rarely does consignment and mostly works on exchange.
An exchange shop gives cash directly for the clothes. Gilpin's shop also will give the clothing owner double the decided cash price plus $1 all in store credit, he said. There is even a "cheat sheet" on his wall that list the guidelines for the clothing in which he deals.
"There are less than 30 men's-only exchange and consignment stores in the country and the reason for that is because men's stores just don't make the money that the women's stores do," Gilpin said. "We have a lot of British and a lot of Italian designers. We get people all the time from the Lake and Rolla that come in to be fitted, because suit fitting is kind of a lost art and I have worn suits for so long that it has kind of become natural to me."
When he turned 52, Gilpin was working as a health care administrator. He said he was "unceremoniously" dismissed from his job after being informed by the higher-ups that he could be replaced by someone younger who would work for less. After that, he moved back to the Central Missouri area and leased the space where his shop is from former Mayor John Landwehr.
He explained that at his old position he would get 200 to 300 calls a day, and that is why he does not carry a cell phone with him.
"You don't really realize how horrible that is until you are out of it," he said. "Seriously, and it has been over three years and I am still decompressing. ... I cannot stand to hear a phone ring."
He said he enjoys his life more now, providing classic clothes to capital customers. He has some modern-fitting items and new items as well, but mostly, the shop specializes in high-end "preloved," not used, clothes. He explained the previous owners really loved these clothes and took good care of them, as does he, so he does not call them used, but rather preloved.
"What is really important to me is I will tell you what I am going to sell your item for," he said. "We get a lot of repeat customers, and I would never pay someone $2 for a shirt and then try to sell it for $102. We don't do that. ... People say that doesn't matter, but it does matter because we want to be fair."
The shop sells shirts, suits, socks, scarfs, shoes and just about anything else a man will wear from doctors to lawyers, detectives, business owners, representatives or senators, Gilpin said.
"It is not so much setting the tone because it is all classic wear," he said. "Our guys live and die by GQ, and they are showing a lot of '70s stuff and gravitating to the '80s. I rode that train the first time through, so it really does not interest me. Jefferson City is not a really big vintage town. Our thrust is classic, and we have the classic suits."