Using Ted Danson in ‘A Man on the Inside’ as Fashion Inspiration

Kirston wore YMC jeans, loafers from The Row, a red shirt from Everlane and a tan jacket from Marni. This outfit, it turned out, was selected to get me to mimic her style. When she shops with actors, she not only invents a back story for each piece of clothing (“Your character’s wife got you this for Christmas”), but also wears items that would work on their characters.

Our first stop was Buck Mason, where Kirston suggested a dark navy herdsman shawl cardigan ($298) and tan chinos ($158). “You can just upgrade your look,” Kirston suggested, which I immediately rejected. She had me slip on a $498 black corduroy jacket, but it still was not Charles enough. “You don’t want to feel like you’re in a costume,” she warned.

Yes, I assured her, I did. I wanted to wear the costume of a grown-up man.

We stopped next door at J. Crew, where she suggested I look at some less crucial items for a reasonable price, such as a blue button-down. But before we committed, she wanted to take me to Ralph Lauren. It’s where, along with Ted Baker and Paul Smith, she and Ted Danson bought a lot of his character’s clothes.

Immediately, the store felt right. It’s less a store than an adulthood theme park, where, within a few steps, I could go from dining with Graydon Carter to horseback riding with Graydon Carter to teaching a literature class with Graydon Carter.

In the more formal, more expensive, Purple Label section of the store, Kirston picked up a gray-blue blazer and light gray flannel pants that she said she would buy for Ted Danson. But when I put them on, she said I looked like a “P.E. teacher at graduation.”