Walk, Walk Fashion Baby
“Look, I’m just saying men’s fashion is boring,” Steve tells Natasha. “Women get all these options and men get a suit jacket, and now it’s navy instead of black, and oh look, a white one, and that one is cream, how exciting,” he says sarcastically.
Natasha gives him a bored look. “Its the sacrifice men have to made for actually getting fucking pockets. And comfort. If you ever find the asshole that made fake pockets a thing give me their address because I’d like to murder them.”
Steve sighs because yeah alright, good point. “Will do. But I’m just saying that men need to take notes from like… John Boyega or something. Actually black men have good style in general unless they’re Sam,” he says. Sam is allergic to clothing that isn’t work out gear and its sad because he has a beautiful body and he just desecrates it like that.
But then he could walk around in a paper bag and Bucky wouldn’t give a damn so what’s it matter to him? And Bucky’s fashion, ugh. He’s like cyber punk meets goth meets the raccoon that got into his old neighbors’ meth lab that one time. This is why he’s always preferred hanging out with women, they tend to dress better but then he ended up friends with a bunch of people who’d prefer to rock the homeless look over looking nice. Its a travesty, really.
Natasha snorts, “whatever, Rogers. Men don’t need to look good, no one’s paying attention to what they wear to award shows,” she points out.
Steve rolls his eyes, “aside from the obvious sexism that’s the point. Why aren’t men offended about that? I want to look good and for people to notice, and I don’t want to look like a fucking penguin in the middle of a sea of even more boring penguins. When did men lose their individuality?” he asks, shaking his head.
Most of his classmates wanted to go into women’s fashion thanks to the extra creativity there but Steve wants to introduce men to color again and maybe this time someone will inform men that wearing a nice pair of red pants and a scarf will make you attractive, not gay. And if you’re gay then great, you’re a well dressed gay. God knows he has no idea how gay men looking good became a stereotype when every gay man he knows dresses like a ten dollar hooker on Two Dollar Tuesday. But then the only gay guy he knows is Bucky- the rest are all bisexual or pansexual. But Quill, Sam, and Thor don’t dress any better than Bucky really.
“Died in World War Two,” Nat says and Steve disagrees.
“Actually I think the nineties and early two thousands murdered men’s trends. I mean the seventies and eighties weren’t too great but you had the grunge look, which is hot on the right guy. Then the nineties and early thousands happened and god even know what the hell that was- no one dressed well. Space aged suits? Hello, the sixties called and it wants the Space Race back.” Natasha snorts and leans into his shoulder, looking over his designs, raising an eyebrow at what she sees.
“That’s uh… designed for one very specific kind of guy. Literally one guy,” she says because he uh… well, drew Tony into the suit. But its not his fault, the guy is basically a human peacock, its hard not to take notice and god his wardrobe is drab and Steve just wants to see him in some color okay, he’s weak. And why are men so allergic to color unless they’re brown? Excluding Sam. Bucky wears more color and he’s outright admitted he refuses to wear color except sometimes red.
“Its not my fault he needs the fashion police called on him. And he’s the son of a millionaire, what excuse does he have to look like that?” Steve asks, offended on behalf of men’s fashion everywhere. Tony Stark should be wearing suits that make his personality shine, not that disgusting blue thing he wore last year to that one gala. Its just offensive to the eye for him to dress the way he does.
Natasha rolls her eyes but what the hell does she know, she’s a disaster bisexual trying to court someone named ‘Valkyrie’ and Steve isn’t even certain that’s a real name. In her defense Val is pretty hot though, he’d ignore the fake name and probable alcoholism too.
*
“Ten bucks says he’ll shit his pants,” Natasha says to the group.
“Who cares how Stark reacts, when I asked why he’s never designed anything with me in mind he told me my personality doesn’t lend itself to design and that my reading conspiracy theories would make everything drab,” Bucky says, frowning.
Sam snorts, “well you can’t be mad he told the truth, hon. Last week you came in talking about forests being fake and interdimensional bigfoot. What the hell is he going to make out of that? A Chewbacca costume?” he asks.
Nat can’t help the snort she lets out but Val’s snort trumps her own. “I’ve got twenty for him falling on his ass,” she says.
“Aw, be nice,” Bucky tells her, defending Steve’s honor.
“Just pointing out what I’m seeing,” Val says, gesturing across the court yard. They all turn to find Steve red in the face while Tony flicks through his designs with an obviously critical eye.
*
Tony is going to regret this, he knows he is, but he liked Steve’s designs on paper at least and he’s always been jealous of Pepper’s dresses. How come women get to look nice and men all look the same? Steve had been pleased to finally have someone to agree with him and Tony mostly dealt with it when things went a little weird while Steve waxed poetic about how he has the personality of a peacock and he’s being dressed like a demented pigeon.
When Steve gets him into the suit though he’s shocked. “Damn,” he says, looking over himself. The suit is a bright red with gold on it and he thought he’d kind of look… circus-y but it doesn’t feel that way at all. It feels almost like he’s dressed in fine metals tailored to his shape and wow he looks good. “I hope you know I’m keeping this, I love it and I can’t live without it now.” Steve will have to pry this suit off his cold, dead corpse. Even the shoes he’s wearing tie the whole look together and he’d been pretty worried about a burgundy shoe. That’s bold, even for him. But Steve made it work.
“After I hand it in for my project,” Steve tells him. “And there’s a few alterations I’d need to make to it anyways. I only guessed your measurements.”
He guessed fucking well then because its a perfect fit. “I have no idea what you’d have to change about it,” he says and Steve opens his mouth, eyes roaming over the suit and then he sighs.
“You wouldn’t even understand the terminology, no offense, its not like I’d expect you to. But the measurements are a little off and there’s some more gold detailing I need to add. I just… wanted to see what it’d look like on its inspiration,” he says.
Tony turns and examines himself from behind and wow, his ass looks fabulous in red. Hmm. “I hope this thing gets graded some time in the next two weeks because I have an event to wear this to,” he says.
Steve smiles a little, “I’ll do my best.”
*
To say Steve is lucky, and it turns out its not even luck since Natasha sent Tony his way, is an understatement. Tony ends up wearing his suit and people fucking love it. Tony loves it too and because he’s rich and presumably has a lot of money to throw at people he throws a lot of money at Steve for the suit and something to wear for some rich people Pride event. Lucky for him Steve has been dreaming up dressing Tony in pride flags for well over a year and already has a jacket half made. Though with his newfound cash he buys nicer materials and half scraps his original design for something new.
When Tony sees it he raises an eyebrow, which might worry Steve if he hadn’t done the same thing with the red suit before he got it on. “Just go put it on,” Steve tells him, picking up the clothing and handing it to Tony.
“Hmm. Never really saw myself as a white guy but I’ll have some faith in you,” he says and Steve snorts.
“Hate to break it to you, honey, but you’re pretty white. Beautiful olive undertone thanks to your Italian heritage but white as hell,” he says.
Tony laughs, “I mean clothing, not skin tone,” he says, shaking his head and walking off with the suit. When he returns to look in the mirror he looks impressed.
“I wasn’t sure about these sequins but these actually look good, expensive too. And I know you’re working on a budget,” he says, turning a little and catching the light beautifully. The sequins cascade down the jacket in pride colors and, because maybe Steve is a little bit of a shit disturber, he put in a few black and brown lines too. They’re almost well hidden, but they’re there. The sequins fade out in an uneven line about halfway down Tony’s back and arms into a crisp white, which continues on the pant and Steve gave him black shoes. Its a bold look, but one Tony can carry well with his personality.
“If anyone can pull of so many sparkles its you,” he says. All those sequins had been a fucking bitch to sew on individually, not to mention in a short amount of time, and he has school. He ended up sewing those bitches on in class too. But the end result is Tony in a beautiful sparkling pride flag looking like he’s prepared to walk into the room like he owns it. That just makes the suit look that much better.
“I’ve always wanted to wear sparkles but couldn’t really find any I liked. I have to admit I was a little worried when you said you were going to go full out with the flag. I kind of expected to look like a rainbow threw up on me- you know, like obnoxious stripes and shit, but the sequins are inspired,” he says. And it helps that each stripe is only two sequins wide, which makes it looks a hell of a lot less blocky. The colors fading into each other plus the occasional break of black and brown make it look less ostentatious than it could have been. And, of course, the fact that Tony has a big enough and bright enough personality to make it work without overpowering him helps.
“Also,” Tony adds, undoing the jacket, “I’m fond of the lining and impressed you got my sexuality right,” he says, revealing the bisexual pride flag that lines it. That had been last minute and Steve had considered just going with white but he changed his mind last minute because the inside of the jacket probably won’t be seen much or at all anyways. It’d be a fun little treat for Tony.
Steve grins, “well, you know the old saying. Takes one to know one. And I thought it’d be fun.”
*
Its not really how Tony imagined his public coming out to go but the jacket is stunning and Steve’s work should be shown off, really. He was easily the best dressed and also basically the only one who looked like he was at a charity event for LGBT+ people too. Of course he hardly expects him and Steve to be at the front of men’s fashion the next day and Steve just about shits, but hey, Tony is a beautiful peacock and he’s been done the disservice of being dressed like a demented pigeon.
*
“I just…” Steve says slowly, reading his name off the magazine again. “I just thought you were too stunning to be dressing like a peasant,” he murmurs.
Yeah, and he’s one to talk. Not only is Steve hot, like really hot, but he can pull off that beard and make it look nice with a suit. That’s goals that Tony will never achieve without looking like one of those Duck Dynasty shitheads squeezed into another of Steve’s beautiful designs.
He grins, “think you can make flowers work on me? I’ve always wanted to try something floral,” he says. But whatever he finds is usually hideous or just something he doesn’t like even if it is nice.
Steve drops the magazine and looks over, “oh honey, I can make you look like the damn king of flowers. I should go fairy themed, you have the face for it. Sharp features, but whimsical. Stunning, I have ideas,” he says, all but launching himself off the couch and into his fresh new design palace, designed by Tony because Steve might know clothes but Tony knows space almost as well as he knows machines.
And if he’s going to have a personal designer he’d rather like to sleep with he should shower him with gifts for his pretty suits. That friend of his, the slippery redhead, says that seducing him should be easy and Tony’s hoping it’ll take less effort than her attempts with the alcoholic with an attitude problem. Tony had decided that he loved her on the spot.
Steve though, Tony has plans for him.