The friend zone
Robert James and Ricardo Sparks were strutting downtown on their way to grab drinks. They looked ripe for a fashion editorial—or at least a selfie Instagram post. Both aspire to work in the fashion industry: James plans to launch a T-shirt collection, and Sparks aims to open a fashion school. Sporting a silk robe in broad daylight, James, who describes himself as a trendsetter in his Englewood neighborhood, seems to live by his most common bit of sartorial advice: “Fitting in is standing out.”
Originally published in the Chicago Reader.
