Do What You Love: The Men Who Dress Hollywood

By: Jeanette Mulvey

Ever dream about finding a way to do what you love for a living? In my “Do What You Love” column, I ask people who’ve done it to tell me their secrets. Here’s hoping they inspire you to do the same.

Jimmy Au’s For Men 5’8″ and Under is the nation’s leader and pioneer in the design and development of short men’s clothing. Founded in Au’s his car in Hawaii, Jimmy Au’s has now evolved into the largest short men’s clothing stored in the nation.

Jimmy Au’s has outfitted stars for major film and television projects over the last 20 years. Dressing everyone from Al Pacino to Dick Clark and  Michael J. Fox to Mel Brooks.

Alan Au, who now runs the business with his dad, tells BusinessNewsDaily how he ended up doing what he loves for a living and how you can, too.

BusinessNewsDaily: Explain you what you do for a living.

Alan Au: I offer shorter men a way to look as fashionable and stylish as their taller colleagues and friends by designing and developing a clothing collection exclusively for men under 5’8” and offering it at our retail store.

BND: How did you end up doing this for a living?

A.A.: I grew up in the business, literally. When I was born, my parents (Jimmy and Nora) only had a little retail shop and couldn’t afford a nanny, so I was in a play pen in the tailor shop at the back of the store. By the time I was in high school, I was a full-fledged band-geek and proud of it. I felt certain I was going to be a music major. All this time I continued to develop my skills as a disc jockey . But as I got close to graduating, my father reminded me to remain practical. At this point I was doing quite well as a DJ. During my sophomore year I decided to change majors and what always felt comfortable was fashion. There was only one thing I could do that incorporated fashion, business and music… fashion show production. I pretty much abandoned my family’s clothing business in pursuit of building my DJ business while in school. I eventually sold my DJ business and went back to my family’s clothing business full-time. I help in all aspects, in particular, the marketing and production development.  Fast forward to today. I now co-design the collection with my father. I continue to love dance music and DJ for the youth at my church in a charitable capacity. I know where my heart is with this thing my dad started almost by accident so many years ago. I plan to take this to another level and expand and grow, so shorter men everywhere will have a chance to wear clothes that are proportioned, fit and stylish.

Read the rest of the interview at BusinessNewsDaily