A customer walks into Chrome looking for an outfit, and two men see the customer differently.
Tom Ankoo is already sizing them in his head: height, skin tone, what will work and what won't. If what they try on is wrong, he'll say it’s wrong, and he doesn't care if that costs him the sale.
Chris Miller has a different approach. He's waiting to find out what the customer likes. And if what they like isn't what he'd have chosen, that's information, not a mistake to fix.
Tom and Chris have been offering their contrasting versions of honesty for twenty-two years. And they’ve been friends for over thirty — almost as long as Tom’s been in the clothing business (he started in 1990 at Oakland Mall). In 2004 the two decided to open something together: Chrome. That's CHR from Chris, OM from Tom, plus an E to make it a word.
When asked what Tom brings to the floor, Chris says, "He's a natural. I could never do what he does.”. Chris came from restaurants and landscaping, and he runs the business end: the books, the billing. Tom trained Chris on the floor, and Chris readily — and honestly — admits: Tom has the eye.
Tom also has an unflinching version of what it means to be honest with a person — and he believes it's part of the store's success.
He once fired an employee for telling a customer she looked good in a two-thousand-dollar gown that she didn't look good in. The employee's defense was that she was trying to make the sale. "That's not business," Tom says. "You'd rather lose the sale than your reputation."
He applies the same ethical standard to bodies. A friend of his, a former competitive bodybuilder now in his sixties, kept wearing the spandex shirts he'd worn at thirty. Tom told him to stop. "You don't have the body we used to have. Face reality."
Then the second half, which is just as important… and much easier to hear: "That doesn't mean you're not going to look good."
Chris is honest too, just in a different way. He had a customer who came in regularly and bought things Chris thought were too tight and not his style. Chris told him so, because he asked. The man bought what he'd chosen anyway. That's the way I dress. That's what I like.
"And so after that," Chris says, "I knew that you just have to get to know the customers."
He let it go. The man's been coming for years.
Tom corrects people. Chris concedes to them. Ask them if they fight about it and Chris says, flatly, that they don't. "We really don't have disagreements, to be honest with you. That's why we're still here."
Tom refuses to follow the color of the year. "There is no color that goes out," he says. "Whatever looks good on your skin, that's what you wear." He also isn't interested in what's in: "Trend goes out before it starts.”
Chris keeps loud seventies shirts in stock, next to more conservative offerings… just in case someone walks in wanting both.
The store carries more than clothing now too. It began with a painting of a Spanish dancer, hung behind the register, that customers wouldn't stop trying to buy. Now Chrome offers art, sculpture, and custom furniture built in the U.S. and Italy. It also runs a thriving interior design and consulting service: Tom works on homes, lofts, and penthouses, locally and now nationally.
"I design your home according to your personality," Tom says. "You live there, I don't live there."
Every January, Tom cleans out his own closet. Whether he's gained weight or lost it, the garments get donated. He tells clients the same thing, and he isn't gentle about it: “Let go of the past. Move on."
On breaks, Chris sits on the bench out front and watches the passersby on Fourth Street, still wanting to know more about them, to understand them.
One will tell you to let it go. The other will wait to hear why you kept it.
That's how it works at Chrome. And maybe, that’s why it works.
CHROME is at 120 W. Fourth Street in downtown Royal Oak. The store carries men's and women's designer and one-of-a-kind clothing, art, sculpture, and custom furniture, and offers interior design services by appointment. Call (248) 399-1689 or find them on Instagram and Facebook: @chromeclothing