by Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
If poise was a brand, it might belong to Tim Rose.
Sporting a navy pinstripe suit and Kenneth Cole eyeglasses, he looks like a man whose name could be on the inside of his collar.
Rose owns The Rose Agency, a personal image consulting firm and custom clothier on Laura Street. Through the doors of his small shop, walk pro football players, preachers and business owners – all looking to Rose to help them keep themselves together.
A “Newsweek” with Barack Obama on the cover and an issue of Gentleman’s Quarterly sit on an end table near a dog-eared copy of “Your Executive Image,” which Rose calls “essential reading” for his clients.
The book has entries on posture, the art of good conversation and tipping.
“It gives my clients the wherewithal of how to maintain a functional wardrobe,” said Rose.
Rose works very closely with his clients. When the owner of a local mortgage company comes in to finalize an order for a suit, Rose tells him he will call him for approval before it is cut.
“He knows you can’t go to the next level without looking the part,” said Rose. “You can’t go to the bank if you don’t have that executive attitude.”
One wall of the shop is lined with shirts, ties and designer shoes. Another has women’s dresses. Nothing has a price tag. There is almost no walk-in traffic, except for the occasional visitor.
The agency does not advertise; in fact, it has operated for seven years on word of mouth, he said.
“The culture of my business is not driven by pedestrian traffic,” said Rose.
Thirty years ago, Rose said Downtown Jacksonville had many retail anchor stores, but the emergence of the malls ended that.
“I would love to see an anchor tenant come into this community,” said Rose. “It’s going to take that to establish a corridor with retail, movie theaters, drugstores and restaurants. It’s going to take a tenant like that for people to say ‘Now we can really go downtown and get a shopping experience.’ ”
Rose said Jacksonville should follow the example of Atlanta and Cleveland, which spent millions on downtown revitalization projects.
“They have redefined urban living,” he said. “When you visit those cities, it’s happening downtown.”
Still, Rose said his consulting services are not just for the rich.
“We want to serve people regardless of socioeconomic class,” he said. “We want to be able to serve those on a fixed budget and have them get the same process that a (Jaguars quarterback) David Garrard would get.”
His agency’s services include education on personal hygiene, eating well and exercise. He calls dressing his clients “the finale” of the experience.
Rose said he would like to focus on working more with women, whom he catered to when he first opened the store.
“We’re also going to open up a new store in (Washington) D.C. within the next 18-24 months,” he said. “The bottom line is to grow, to impact the bottom line of your company and feel good about who you are.”
Rose, who was raised in Jacksonville, is not a trained image consultant. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in public administration. After college, he worked for an Atlanta radio station as a sports producer. He contemplated careers in communication, teaching or fashion nearly a decade ago, but he said his final choice was easy.
“Once you study something, once it’s in you, it never leaves you,” said Rose. “But I believe, in life, you have to narrow things down. For me, it came down to sports, fashion or being a professor. Out of those three, I said ‘Which one would I do for free?’ With fashion, I wake up in the morning and never second guess my choice.”