Suiting up with the help of Sue
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For 22 years, Belk’s Sue Chanthakhot has transformed rough-around-the-edges men into snappy dressers; ‘When Phil walked out, I didn’t know him,’ wife says
Sue Chanthakhot acts as a wise guide, helping men and teen boys through the journey of buying dress clothes at Belk in SouthPark Mall. Her own life’s journey has been a circuitous one since arriving in the U.S. as a refugee from Laos. (Photo by Amber Veverka)
by Amber Veverka
Sue Chanthakhot takes in the bewildered look on the mom’s face and the rabbit-trapped-against-a-fence look on the son’s — and sweeps in to save.
“He has a college interview tomorrow and he needs a suit,” the mom begins, holding up a plastic bag with a pair of black dress shoes. “This is all he has right now.”
“Size 38 jacket,” says Chanthakhot, without stopping her stride, and begins selecting pieces for yet another rescue mission.
Chanthakhot, men’s suit specialist at Belk in Charlotte’s SouthPark Mall, doesn’t need to measure the 18-year-old. In fact, she’s been taking the measure of customers for nearly 22 years — and she knows most teen boys would rather stab out their eyes with a fork than spend an afternoon with their moms, trying on suits.
“We’ll get him ready,” she says. And in less than 30 minutes, she does.
Chanthakhot, 58, is a Belk department store institution — and an artist of transformation. She takes boys and men from their track pants-wearing lives and sends them out into the world as prom dates, job candidates and polished wedding guests — in short, as guys who deservedly get second looks and raised eyebrows of admiration.
Mothers have been known to send their teen boys in to Belk with firm instructions to “see Miss Sue.” Spring brings proms, graduations, weddings — and now, the call of the cubicles. Lately men have been emerging from their Zoom cocoons to return to the office, and in need of Chanthakhot’s help.
A drift toward casual clothing? A culture in which crumpled khakis count as dressing up? These things do not ruffle the serenity of Chanthakhot’s outlook. She knows what customers need, even when they don’t.
“A lot of guys,” she said, pausing slightly for diplomacy’s sake. “They don’t know how to shop.”
But Chanthakhot does, and her mission is simple. “If they don’t look good, I don’t look good,” she said. “We want every customer who walks out that door to look good.”
Chanthakhot’s journey to her role as wise guide of men’s fashion was a circuitous one, and unlikely. In 1975, her family fled Laos after the fall of Saigon in Vietnam ushered in a time of great chaos and violence in former Indochina. Chanthakhot and her family were among hundreds of thousands who escaped Laos after the country’s Communist takeover.
“When we heard the planes come and the bombs, we had to hide. People would have to leave or their throats would be cut,” Chanthakhot recalled. Her parents decided to get their family across the Mekong River to Thailand. “My father came first. He crossed the river on bamboo. It was very dangerous and many people died,” she said. To avoid raising suspicion, her mother brought each of their children in trips separated by weeks.
“My mother paid a man in cash to take us across,” Chanthakhot said. “They put us on a fishing boat, one by one, to get to Thailand," she said.
The family spent five years in a refugee camp in Thailand. Finally, sponsored by a Lutheran church, Chanthakot, 16, and her family were able to emigrate to Minnesota. “We had one (set of) clothing,” she recalled. “The Lutheran church provided for us.”
Learning a new culture and a new language was tough, but Chanthakhot persevered. After high school, she worked as a nursing assistant in Minnesota in a nursing home and in a hospital, as a yarn spinner in a Cherryville textile plant and finally, as a clerk in retail. A single mother of two girls, she had grit and she had hustle — and it paid off.
As her time in retail added up, so did her knowledge. How to coordinate a killer outfit. How to mark up a suit for precision alterations. How to delicately navigate the path between what a customer wants and what a customer needs. Today she offers cheerful, respectful and relentless guidance — and customers seek her out.
Customers like Teresa and Phil Rollins. Once, Chanthakhot helped Phil pick out a suit for a wedding. On a recent weekday, the Rollinses were back in preparation for another wedding. Teresa had remembered Chanthakhot — and she was taking no chances with her husband’s formal attire.
“Sue helped us four years ago,” she said. “We came here and found her and she knew exactly what to do. When Phil walked out, I didn’t know him. He looked like a million bucks.”
Phil Rollins, meanwhile, readily acknowledged he was all too happy to turn the process over to a professional. The couple drove 52 miles from Jefferson, S.C., to put themselves in Chanthakhot’s hands. “I love it,” he said of his latest look — a Ralph Lauren suit, a soft blue shirt and a sharp Michael Kors tie.
During the conversation with the couple, Chanthakhot made a joke about retiring someday. Teresa looked mildly panicked. “I’ll want your number!” she said, laughing.
Ask Chanthakhot what she thinks about her work and the help she provides, and she talks about gratitude. Gratitude to God. Gratitude that her family found a new start in America. Gratitude that she was able to provide for her girls and build a successful career. Gratitude for the customers she sees every week, who sometimes come back to show her the photos of the parties and the weddings they attended as the better selves she helped them discover.
“I want to help people,” she said. “When (you’re) in a nice suit, it makes you look good. It makes you happy.”
Sue’s top tips for buying suits
Chanthakhot offered observations and tips for boys and men trying to suit up — and for the people who love them too much to let them go it alone.
◼️ She always begins with color: “They come in with a hoodie on I say, ‘What color do you like?’ And they say blue. They always say blue.”
Chanthakhot can nudge customers in a slightly more daring direction when it comes to socks and ties. Narrower suit pant legs that show off a patterned sock are a strong look, she said. And she sometimes offers ties in pastels to customers who are surprised with how much they like them. “Soft pink makes most guys look good,” she said.
◼️ Suit choices are overwhelming. But the jacket blazes the trail: “You start with a blazer,” she said. “You can alter pants. Make sure the blazer fits first.” As demonstrated with the teen bound for a college meeting — yes, it was this writer’s son — she can tell a man what size he needs just by looking.
◼️ Buy-in matters: When a customer tells Chanthakhot he needs an outfit for an event he’ll attend with a significant other, she makes sure the outfit the man is trying on is pre-approved. “I say, send a photo to your girlfriend,’” she said.
◼️ She gently discourages aspirational shopping. But in the end, the customer is the boss: “Yesterday I spoke with someone, and I said, ‘a 54 jacket.’ They were going to get a 52. The woman said, ‘he’s going to lose weight.’ I say ‘OK’ and just smile.” When in doubt, she said, buy bigger — and get the piece taken in.
◼️ Still, rules are rules: “I see some people wear brown shoes and a black belt. No.”
◼️ Neckwear can tie it all together: “Bowties are very fresh. They’re a young man’s look,” she said. When helping a man choose a tie to attend a wedding, Chanthakhot asks what his date is wearing, and the members of the wedding party. (She wants him to coordinate with the former, and not inadvertently match the latter.) And for funerals, where suits are simply black or deep charcoal gray, ties mean a lot. “The tie tells the story,” she said. “When people pass away, it can be very important. They say ‘he liked this color,’” and so they choose a tie in that person’s memory.
◼️ Kindness counts: “Always compliment,” she said. “When I’m out and I see someone looking nice, I say, ‘I love your outfit.’ Men like compliments, but they’re shy.”
Amber Veverka is a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached through her website, amberveverka.com.
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