Profile: Aaron Marino, image consultant

When he’s not busy appearing on reality television or writing style and grooming advice for the masses, Atlanta's Aaron Marino can be found saving fashion-challenged men across the country, one computer programmer at a time.

How did you get involved in your line of work?

I used to own a fitness center, and I had a male client that came up to me one day and was like, “Hey, I don’t know what to wear on a date.” And I said, “Well, why don’t I come over and we’ll go through your closet? By the way you need a haircut, so let my take you to my stylist. You also need to trim your nose hair.” I had no idea that I was setting the groundwork for an actual career.

Describe a typical day as an image consultant. What is it that you do?

I meet somebody at their house, and from that point we start going through all their old clothes. The idea is to create the best possible picture of somebody. It’s basically fashion smoke and mirrors. We take a gentleman’s best attributes and maximize them while simultaneously minimizing the negatives.

Where do you think your sense of style comes from?

I’m Italian, baby. One of my earliest memories was taping the end of my pants going to kindergarten, because I didn’t like the way they flared out. My wife likes to joke that I’m a gay man with a straight penis.