CHAPEL HILL, N.C. _ The jacket is five or six years old now, and it's the one piece Roy Williams wears that elicits the strongest reactions. Some people love it, the boldness, and others who say they love it might be lying. Williams has heard both sides, and at first he wasn't even all that sure what to think of it.
"He didn't wear it much in the beginning," said Alexander Julian, who designed the jacket, and many others that Williams often wears. "I'm not sure he even wore it the first year he had it. And then he wore it and he got a lot of compliments. And he won."
Williams, the North Carolina coach, wore it on Monday night during the Tar Heels' 85-68 victory against Syracuse. It was his 800th victory as a Division I coach _ a milestone victory _ and as he's known to do he picked out something special for the occasion.
The jacket he wore _ "strong jacket," Julian, 68, said _ is made from custom English fabric, and is a gingham plaid lambswool. Streaks of Carolina blue intersect, leaving dark gray squares. At Julian's on Franklin Street, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, a swatch of the fabric sits out on a table near the back.
The fabric, cut into a small square, is next to a picture of Williams wearing the jacket during a game. Nearby is a larger spool of the fabric, and if a customer is so inclined he can be fitted, the way Williams was, and own the same custom jacket for $2,000.
The fabric is so popular _ so much the subject of questions, and curiosity _ it stays out in view.
"Enough people ask about that, that I have to keep it handy," said Bart Fox, the store's men's manager. Fox is Julian's nephew and the grandson of Maurice Julian, who opened this store, originally on the other side of Franklin, as a small haberdashery in 1942.
When Williams wore the coat the night of his 800th victory, Julian took notice. He felt prideful.
"I loved it," he said.
Then again, he feels such a connection with a lot of what Williams, 66, wears, because he is responsible for perhaps as much as half of Williams' game day wardrobe. Williams' relationship with Julian's, the store, dates to when Williams was a student at UNC. He at least knew of it back then.
His relationship with Julian, the designer, dates to when Williams was an assistant coach under Dean Smith in the late 1970s and '80s. Julian remembers meeting Williams in his days as an assistant, and when Williams coached at Kansas he bought suits from one of Julian's friends in Lawrence.
Williams returned to UNC in 2003 to become the Tar Heels' head coach and he and Julian, the father of UNC's argyle design, grew closer. In the years since, Williams has become one of the most stylish college basketball coaches in the country, what with his affinity for plaids and pastels.
Julian isn't behind all of Williams' outfits, but he's behind many of them _ if not most of them. These days, he visits with Williams before every season. He brings garment bags filled with suits and jackets, shirts. He brings ties and accessories.
He brings, Fox, too, and he handles the measurements and makes sure everything fits to Williams' liking. Williams has his preferences _ the pants pleated, for instance, and the jackets with enough room for him to pace the sideline, or stomp around it, as it were, in comfort.
Julian likes to say that "Roy knows what he likes." But Julian knows what Williams likes, too, even before Williams might realize that he agrees. Take the jacket Williams wore the night of his 800th victory, for instance.
"If I believe in it and I want to push him, he'll listen," Julian said. "He knows. He's an expert on himself, and he knows what he likes and what he doesn't like, and he makes a quick decision."
