They Really Want to be Like Mike

When Michael Jordan arrived at the Culver City studio on Thursday morning, he was not preceded by his usual handlers to keep away a crush of fans.

Instead, leading the way was his wife, Juanita, stylishly dressed in a black pinstripe pantsuit. She greeted everyone on hand for the photo shoot with a warm hug. Right behind her was her husband, Michael, smoking a cigar, wearing an oversized striped sports jacket and brown pants.

They were in town to film an advertising campaign for a new Bijan fragrance--Jordan by Michael. The couple was right at home with Mr. Bijan and the rest of the crew who worked with Jordan on his first fragrance for Bijan of Beverly Hills.

The retired Chicago Bulls star is happy these days. Life, he says, is now about simple pleasures. “This is such a pleasurable time.”

In this relaxed atmosphere, it’s clear that the basketball legend connects well with people.

It’s that Jordan style--a combination of personal charm, good looks and incredible presence--that creates an aura around the sports star who doesn’t take his image too seriously.

His Appeal Transcends

Sex, Age, Income, Sports

Athletes traditionally have a narrow niche in the advertising world, says menswear analyst Tom Julian of New York firm Fallon McElligott. They can sell athletic equipment and food products.

Jordan’s appeal, however transcends sex, age, income and sports. He can sell Wheaties and telephone service, cologne and underwear. He easily graces the covers of People, Gentleman’s Quarterly, Fortune and, of course, Sports Illustrated.

Jordan’s style is part street--shaved head, earring and remember those baggy basketball shorts. The rest is simple elegance off court--classic lines and impeccable tailoring whether on the golf course or in suits.

It is a personal style that even the picky fashion arbiter Mr. Blackwell praises.

“He’s got a great sense of his own image, his own fashion,” says Mr. Blackwell, who puts the athlete in the same fashion realm as Cary Grant. “He’s a very class act. From one to 10, I’d give him an 11.”

“He is without a doubt, in his way, the Duke of Windsor,” says Mr. Blackwell. That’s the late Duke of Windsor, known for his natty attire and getting a generation of men to wear tweed jackets and berets.

“Like Coco Chanel said, she loves the word ‘fashionable’ and not the words ‘in fashion’ and Michael Jordan is an extraordinarily fashionable man,” Mr. Blackwell says.

“That’s a little bit before my time,” says Jordan.

His real fashion role models, he insists, were his parents. In fact, Thursday he was almost cleanshaven, having shaved all but a tiny patch of hair under his lower lip. “That was my father’s trait,” he says.

His style mentors include his coach at University of North Carolina, Dean Smith, and Dr. J. He would ask Smith, for example, when should a man wear cuff links? “When you feel comfortable wearing them,” was Smith’s answer.

The two still discuss clothes, Jordan says. “He calls me today and asks me about my outfits, where do I get my clothes?”

Jordan has a regular makeup artist and clothing stylist he uses only for advertisements. The rest of the time, says his stylist, “He dresses himself.”

Jordan knows how to dress, keeping the lines simple so people won’t be overwhelmed by his 6-foot, 6-inch height. Says analyst Julian, “When I think of him, he’s a big guy. He never looks out of place in what he wears. It definitely is a softer look. It’s subtle, and I think there’s a friendliness in that.”

“He is a 30-something phenomenon. He is a father, he is an athlete, he represents the modern man,” says Julian.

Like another sports style icon, Joe DiMaggio, Jordan carefully controls his image and the products he will endorse. So while everyone knows of the basketball star, Jordan, the person, remains elusive. He has shielded his family and private life from the media glare.

Juanita is joining her husband for the first time in an advertising campaign for the new Bijan fragrance. But she was not talking to the press at the photo shoot Thursday.

Three years ago, when fashion and fragrance designer Bijan and Jordan collaborated on their first cologne called Michael Jordan, the fashion industry met it with great guffaws: Who, after all, wanted to smell like a big, sweaty athlete?

More than $200 million worth of the fragrance has sold, at $23 a bottle. His Jordan Brand of apparel and shoes for Nike rings ups sales of $350 million to $400 million a year.

Involved With

Bijan ‘110%’

The same dedication Jordan brought to the basketball court he brings to his fashion projects. Bijan says he was surprised at how hard Jordan works on a project. “His involvement with me was 110%.”

“I had to talk him into the Carolina Blue bottle,” Jordan says of the container for the new fragrance.

Bijan nods. He wanted something more Mediterranean.

Jordan and Bijan have an easy rapport characteristic of close friends, which both say they have become.

“Except he won’t let me borrow his car,” says Jordan.

“That’s because it’s too yellow for him,” Bijan retorts.

Their new cologne, which will be in stores in November, befits Jordan’s new role as a stylish executive. It is more subtle than his first fragrance, Michael Jordan, and will be marketed more exclusively (one department store chain an area) and cost more ($35 for a 1.7-ounce spray bottle).

Bijan employees, too, came to appreciate Jordan’s presence when he came to work with the company. Many of them well up with tears when they describe what a wonderful person and hard worker he is.

And that, says Erin Patton, spokesman for Nike’s Jordan Brand, is the core of Jordan’s charm. “He has sort of a halo effect of coolness.”

In his initial meeting with Nike, “the first thing that he wanted to do was meet his designer,” says Patton. After the successful launch of Jordan Brand shoes, Nike wanted to do an apparel line.

But it took 13 years to introduce the clothing line because Jordan wanted to first study the apparel industry before he put his name on a product.

Some analysts speculate that Jordan made as much as $45 million in endorsements (among them Ballpark Franks, MCI and, McDonald’s) last year alone. His agent, David Falk, won’t confirm these numbers.

And neither Nike nor Bijan worry about the fact he won’t be playing ball anymore.

He will continue to hold the public’s interest in ways that only a rare athlete, a Joe Namath, DiMaggio or Muhammad Ali, have.

Jordan is fast becoming an American classic, says Sally Yeh, president of Bijan Fragrances Inc. “I think when he plays basketball his movements are comparable to Fred Astaire.”

And yet, she says, “He has the confidence of a Sean Connery.”

When Bijan wanted to honor Jordan’s basketball uniform No. 23, they included a subtle “0023” on the bottle to remind people of 007, a fictitious, but nonetheless, powerful style icon, James Bond.

Jordan laughs at this praise. He had a goal for dressing well, he says “Initially, I wanted to project some positive things about myself.”

What will matter to him is that at the end of his days, he can turn to his grandchildren and say, “These are the things they said about grandpa.”