Erik Sale went to a party Wednesday night thinking he would meet the best-dressed man in Denver.
Instead, the 31-year-old real estate entrepreneur won the fashion nod.
Sale now will compete with nine other guys across the country for the title of Esquire magazine’s Best Dressed Real Man in America, as well as a car, clothes and other prizes.
Sale, a strapping 6-foot-2 blond who likes to wear jeans and snow clogs in the winter and shorts and flip-flops in the summer, says he met friend and Realtor Rollie Jordan at Andrisen Morton on Wednesday for what he thought would be a drink before the two went to dinner in Cherry Creek North.
He knew a party was going on at the upscale menswear retailer that teamed up with Esquire to host the search, but entered the contest only after he was encouraged to do so by Jordan and the registration clerks.
Wearing faded blue jeans, a red striped button-front shirt and brown leather jacket, Sale got in line with the other 20 candidates and waited his turn, mustering the guts to model before four male judges and a largely female audience scrutinizing every sartorial detail.
Among his competitors were an anesthesiologist and a wedding planner, a wine steward and a college student. They gave a short spiel about themselves and their sense of style before modeling sleek suits and beaded jeans, starched shirts and scruffy Converse sneakers.
As contestant No. 17, Sale was near the end.
“I’m from Vail, I work in Denver, and I’m a real estate investor and developer,” he said when it was his turn to face the judges. “My sense of style is something like mountain passion meets city spontaneity, similar to my participation in this competition. I sort of play it by ear. I don’t have specific labels. I like to do what comes naturally.”
Sale and four others were chosen as semi-finalists by a panel that included store owners Craig Andrisen and Dave Morton, nightclub entertainment director Kostas Kouremenos and Esquire’s senior fashion editor, Wendell Brown.
Sale earned the winning position because he “was casual, but he definitely cared about his appearance,” Brown said.
“He was extremely confident but he wasn’t arrogant,” the fashion editor said. “He had a nice sort of clean-cut, wholesome, out-West look. It’s something we haven’t really picked up on so far on this search – a little rugged and casual, but pulled together.”
Posing for photos, Sale said he felt “a little giddy” and was waiting for the reality to sink in.
Not as much of a fashion hound as some of the other contestants, Sale shops for clothes only a couple of times a year. The pants and shirt he was wearing came from Riga, Latvia, where he recently visited with family members.
When asked to pick a favorite designer, Sale said he likes Giorgio Armani but is more likely to wear sportswear than a suit. The Oregon native also has clothing specific to such favorite sports as skiing, white-water kayaking and fly-fishing.
The Esquire team will visit 10 cities in all, picking one semi-finalist from each. Esquire’s editors will narrow that list to five, who will be featured in the magazine’s September issue. The five will participate in a last round in which viewers of “The Today Show” will make the final choice. The winner will get a new Chrysler Crossfire and a $2,000 shopping spree at Macy’s.
So how would that car fit in with his other vehicles, a 1992 Ford F-150 pickup truck and a 2002 Land Rover Discovery?
“It would be sort of fun,” Sale said. “I’ve never really been a fast car kind of a guy.”
Staff writer Suzanne S. Brown can be reached at 303-820-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com.
