In a white walk-in closet five days a week at 5:45 in the morning, stands a fashionable young man by the name of Eugene R. McKenzie II. Each morning the junior dresses to impress.

“Over my years at Southfield High, I’ve gone from preppy to a more professional look,” McKenzie said. Inspired by his fashionable father (Eugene, Sr.) and hip hop artist Kanye West; McKenzie loves to wear buttoned up collared shirts, polos, dress pants, and dress shoes, in and out of school.

McKenzie says the school’s dress code policy doesn’t bother him at all because it’s similar to his personal everyday style. However, at home he goes with the laid back look, wearing sweatpants and white tees.

According to McKenzie, on a scale from one to 10; the importance of his style of dress is an off-the-charts 25. Although he places a high importance of his fashion, he still puts school first, he says.

His favorite shoes are by designers Giorgio Brutinis and Robert Wayne. “I don’t have a job, and I don’t pay for my clothes; my mommy keeps me fresh to death,” McKenzie said. In fact, he goes shopping approximately four times a month, often at Nordstroms at Somerset Collection in Troy.

In the future, McKenzie says he plans to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. He says that he hopes his broadcasting career will bring him enough money so that he can keep himself as fresh as his mother keeps him now.