Channeling his inner James Bond, D’Weston Haywood is traveling through Soviet Russia killing bad guys, launching grenades and shooting down drones, all with an impeccable outfit and dreads down his back. But Haywood is more than just the reigning champ of the Norris Game Room’s GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 tournament (where he lost just one life through four rounds of secret agent operations). Originally from Raleigh, N.C., the 30-year-old has been living in Chicago for eight years and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in 20th-century American history at Northwestern. He will finish his dissertation, “‘Let Us Make Men’: Black Newspapers and a Gendered Vision of Racial Advancement, 1915-1960,” this June. When he’s not schooling gamers, Haywood also teaches at Marquette University, paints, writes poetry and maintains a sartorial taste unrivaled by most graduate students.
How do you define style?
Style is a way of reorienting your reality to make space for an identity and politic that you communicate to the world without any need to say a word. The look should speak for you.
How would you describe your personal style?
I like to think it’s simply classic, though in truth, it’s a happy hybrid of conservative and edgy, able to go easily from the lecture hall to the social scene. I call it “The Polished Professor.”
Does your style correspond to your personality?
It does. I like to think of myself as a serious, detail-oriented and calculated person.
How do you think Chicago or Evanston’s fashion compares to your hometown’s?
In general, I think people dress based on the stores they have access to. The city that I grew up in is smaller than Chicago. Back home, there is no “Mag Mile.” Chicago’s fashion seems both cosmopolitan- like and very neighborhood based. Michigan Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and Cottage Grove offer very different looks all in the same city. Evanston is very much a suburban college town of families and college students, and the city’s fashion reflects this. I think many Northwestern students don’t really become fashion oriented until they are a little older, in their junior and senior years, have joined a few professionally oriented organizations and are on the cusp of joining the work world where fashion—especially the professional look—counts.
What are your favorite clothing brands?
Ralph Lauren, Benjamin Bixby, Cole Haan, Levi’s, Thomas Pink.
What are your favorite pieces?
My favorite pieces out of my entire wardrobe are a collection of small details that really make the look: pocket squares, neckties, patterned socks, scarves, custom elbow patches and buttons, eye glasses, novelty cuff links, shoelaces, week- ender bags and precise tailoring.
What do you wear on a typical day?
It really depends on where I’m going and who I might be seeing. But on a typical day, I’m teaching, and so I’m in a blazer, necktie, dress shirt, dark jeans and a pair of wing tips or two- tone saddle Oxfords.
What are your favorite trends right now?
For women, I really like jeweled collars, stripes and mismatched patterns. For men, I just love that more guys are dressing up now and taking their self-presentation seriously.
What trend needs to stop?
Big, unfitted clothes and boot cut jeans for both men and women.
Is there a celebrity whose style you try to emulate or that you admire?
I admire the styles of André 3000, Ryan Gosling, Raphael Saadiq, Ozwald Boateng, Brad Pitt, David Beckham and Idris Elba. But I really try to emulate the style of my grandfather, the best-dressed man I know.
What style advice do you have for readers?
I suggest what my grandfather told me a long time ago: “Dress your best every day, because you never know who you’re going to meet.”