With his color-coordinated dress shirts, endless drawer of patterned socks and rainbow of Apple Watch wristbands, English teacher Ohad Paran takes on every day in style. Whether he’s sporting his signature red Red Wing boots—only ever acceptably paired with his red, blue and black checkered shirt—or covered head to toe in “traffic-cone” orange, Paran never fails to turn heads with his outfits, always meticulously picked out according to a strict set of rules.

“I have two pairs of glasses—one black, one brown—and I alternate. That defines the color palette; if I’m wearing my black glasses, then I’m wearing blues, purples, greens and a lot of gray. That then dictates the color of my shirt and the color of my pants and the color of my shoes,” he said. “I have about 20 or 30 pairs of laces that are all colored, so I’ll change out the color of the laces of my shoes to go with the shirt of the day.”

Paran’s passion for fashion began when started his first job at age 14 selling shoes at Cupertino’s Vallco Mall. In high school, he worked in sales at Baby Gap and later moved to a lead cashier and manager position at the Gap in San Jose’s Valley Fair. Paran continued his career in clothing while studying at UCSD when he was transferred to a San Diego Banana Republic store, staying with the company until 2006.

“I literally spent 55 hours a week in a closet full of clothes that had to be organized by color, by style, by season. Now in my own home, I keep my closet organized by color, by style, by season,” he said. “When I became a teacher, it became a fun way to differentiate myself from some of my colleagues. Now, it’s a thing where everybody’s like, ‘oh, what ridiculously colorful sweater are you going to be wearing tomorrow?’”

Some of Paran’s outfits are documented by the Instagram account @180_shades_of_ohad, an enterprise started this year by Adyant Kanakamedala (12) after he requested a letter of recommendation from history teacher Julie Wheeler. Wheeler decided to assign him to taking pictures of Paran after discussing the idea with economics teacher Samuel Lepler and history and social science teacher Damon Halback during one of the trio’s trips to the Starbucks across campus.

An avid supporter of American-made products and the United States clothing industry, Paran owns pieces from Woolrich, a Pennsylvania-based outdoor clothing company founded in 1830; Dearborn Denim, a Chicago shop of jeans handmade using 100 percent U.S. materials and Red Wing Shoes, a Minnesota footwear company specializing in leather boots, among other American brands.

“As I got older and I did more research, I realized that there used to be a great tradition of making these amazing things in America—watches, shoes, suits. And it all just started going away with globalization. Companies are shadows of their former selves,” he said. “I’ll pay for craftsmanship. I don’t care what it costs if it’s been well-constructed. But the things that I was buying were not well-constructed. Making boots by hand—who does that still, right? When you think about somebody who tanned the leather and spent time making that, that’s a big deal.”

Paran offers the following advice to anyone looking to update their closet or simply learn a little more about fashion.

“No matter what you choose to wear, be yourself. Trends are great—but for example, I rock a lot of orange. And I do that because it’s funny. And I look good in orange,” he said. “I used to follow the trends and change my style to focus on all that, and I don’t really do that anymore because that’s not necessarily me. Good style is one that reflects your personality.”

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on November 16, 2017.