“Million Dollar Listing New York” is all about flash — flashy apartments, flashy buyers and, of course, the flashy brokers who bring them all together. But the three Manhattan brokers who star on the new Bravo reality show have very different definitions of dressing for success.
NestSeekers’ Ryan Serhant favors classic designer duds while on the job. Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund, a native of Sweden, is less conservative, with bolder colors and more daring styles (he got lots of Internet flak for sporting a sweater embroidered with a reindeer). Elliman’s Michael Lorber, meanwhile, admits to “dressing like a 60-year-old,” with tailor-made suits and pocket squares galore.
Serhant, 27, told The Real Deal that his style inspiration is “James Bond, all the way.” While working, he likes to wear very fitted Tom Ford suits and Louis Vuitton shoes, which he picks up at Jeffrey New York, Barneys or Bergdorf Goodman. (All three brokers said they wear their own clothes on the show.)
Thirty-four-year-old Eklund, by contrast, buys many of his clothes in Stockholm, at the upscale department store NK.
He said his colleagues often poke fun at him for his fashion choices; wearing two different brightly colored socks with suits, for example. But when it comes to style, he prefers to “mix it up,” rather than wearing the same thing as everyone else.
On the show’s first episode, the 6’4″ broker wore the notorious reindeer sweater (from Italian design house Brunello Cucinelli) over a shirt and tie when meeting with a client. That scene was shot on a very cold January day, Eklund noted, adding that he actually thinks the reindeerlike creatures are miniature dachshunds, “but I guess only the designer knows.”
For real estate brokers, dressing well isn’t just about vanity. “We handle multimillion dollar apartments, and we represent the beauty of those apartments in some way,” Eklund said.
Lorber, 32, meanwhile, is a self-proclaimed “clothes horse,” but his old-school style is far different from MDL’s other stars.
“The other guys on the show have style that’s a little younger, hipper,” said Lorber, the son of Elliman chairman Howard Lorber. He prefers three-piece suits, suspenders, monogrammed shirts and French cuffs, and has had a personal shopper at the Madison Avenue Ralph Lauren store since he was 13.
While all three brokers flaunt their fashion, Serhant and Eklund show a bit more, with myriad shirtless shots. Eklund said he didn’t plan to show off his abs quite so much. “I told the producers I wouldn’t go shirtless, go on a date or cry on camera,” he said, “and I ended up doing all three of those things.”
But so far at least, none of those things — or his wardrobe — has hurt his reputation with clients. “My business has been booming since the show aired,” Eklund said.