Danbury Dad is Fashion’s Most In Demand Fit Model

Meet the father of two who has the power to determine what you're going to look like when you get dressed in the morning.

His name is John Gallagher from Danbury, and he is the most in demand fit model in the fashion industry today. What is a fit model, well according to nytimes.com a fit model is a living mannequin, someone who tries on clothes so that designers can evaluate their shapes and cuts before runway models introduce them to the world.

But he is also more than a fit model; he is "the" fit model, an expert consultant recruited by companies including Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren and Thom Browne,  to articulate how much further up a waistband should hang on the hips, or how much deeper a pocket needs to be.

Gallagher, who is 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, maintains his 32-inch waist through regular training and a low-carb diet. At many of the American clothing lines, there is no small or large fit model, just Gallagher; other sizes are graded up or down based on his measurements.

Since he can’t always attend an appointment, he struck a licensing deal with the fit-consultancy firm Alvanon, which scanned his body to create more than a thousand mannequins that are now used to tailor clothing around the world.

Where did the road start for Gallagher, well in 1985, after graduating from Central Connecticut State University, Gallagher started working as a model for department store catalogs such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. Within five years, his all-American looks had caught the attention of Banana Republic, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger.

During a good year John goes to roughly 1,400 fittings which means charging around $300 dollars an hour. So it's worth staying fit to be a Fit Model. He doesn't feel he missed out just because he's never appeared in one of the hip magazines or on the cover of Vogue or GQ. There are so  many other needs in fashion and he is definitely an in need kinda guy.