Wayne Rigsby from 'The Mentalist'

Dressing well in law enforcement isn't easy.

Once cops are out of uniform, most departments require men to wear a new sort of uniform - a jacket and tie. The trick for a character is to dress professionally without looking shabby or too fashionable.

"If you dressed characters on TV the way real people dressed it would be not really interesting," says Shelly Levine, costume designer for CBS' Thursday hit The Mentalist. "Sometimes you have to take liberties. TV is an amazing creature; so much of it is visual. If you are looking at boring people wearing boring clothes then everything becomes boring. You don't want it to become a costume. You don't want it to take away from the story."

With that in mind, Levine creates the wardrobe for Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman). At nearly 6 feet 4 inches, Yeoman towers over his co-stars, and Levine is careful to dress him accordingly.

"When you are tall and thin, and you wear pants almost pegged at bottom, it's not a good look," Levine says. "People may like it in private, but the look is a little too contemporary. Actors want to dress like themselves in real life, and unfortunately they're not playing themselves in real life."

Levine makes sure jackets are long enough and that sleeves don't flash too much cuff. "I am just trying to make him look as law enforcement as possible," Levine says.

"Wayne was conceived as the jock cop," according to Yeoman.

"He is a guy. I have 100 friends I could liken him to, all of whom are called Chuck," Yeoman says. "And everything that comes with it. His look has always been as far as you can go on TV; everyone always looks like a slightly better version of self. We always wanted it to look like maybe he was piecing together the best of what he could."

Levine selects a lot of Hugo Boss for Rigsby.

"They have a nice contemporary look," he says. "The lapels are not too narrow, and the pant leg is not too narrow. There are very few manufacturers that do two-button, single-breasted, with a single vent."

For shirts, Levine has them made by the show's tailor or uses Hugo Boss. He favors matted fabric for ties and buys Armani and Macy's Alfani.

For shoes, Levine picks Ecco.

"It's a very comfortable shoe, an ankle boot," he says. "It gives him a little more support because he is running around."

When Rigsby goes casual, he's in Diesel shirts and Abercrombie jeans.

Moving into the second season, Rigsby's wardrobe will change a bit.

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