Your personal Tumblr journey starts here
Concept: Garak meeting Data. At first, Garak is curious about this android Julian speaks so highly of, hoping for some delightful literature debate. The moment Data walks into view, however, and Data says, "I am eager to spend my shore leave here on the station" Garak gets distracted by the fact that Data is spending his shore leave in his uniform. Naturally, Garak invites Data to his shop to find him something a little more casual and fashionable to wear, but that proves an impossible challenge: Data simply does not style. Garak can find clothes that suit him, that accentuate his skin tone (and then de-accentuate it when Data requests so in an effort to look more human), and he can find styles that suit Data's body type... but none of that changes the fact that Data wears clothes the same way the average person chooses a padd to work with: with no regard for aesthetic whatsoever. Being an android, he has no concept of personal style, and is equally comfortable working clothed or nude, and only wears clothes because of social expectation. Therefore, no matter what Garak styles him in, it ends up looking bland and drab, because Data never really feels the clothes he wears or takes pride in the cut or the make or how it looks on him or any of it.
Finally, Data finds something that he wants to wear, and worse, it's not even from his shop (but then, of course not: Garak would die before allowing a fashion monstrosity like that to come into existence with his own hands). The item of clothing in question: The most hideous cat-print breezy beach shirt Garak has even seen, in a horrid kitchen wall yellow that puts all of Julian's fashion crimes to shame. And then, to top it all off, the yellow brings out Data's eyes nicely, and he enjoys wearing it because the cat on the print reminds him of Spot... which means he looks good in it.
Garak visits sickbay with several fractured knuckles on his right hand, and Julian jokingly asks: "Did you punch a bulkhead?" Garak laughs, but Miles mentions having to repair an odd fist-shaped dent in the bulkhead in Garak's shop, and makes the same joking remark: "I didn't take Garak for a punching a bulkhead kind of guy, but I don't know how else it could have happened."
Suddenly, his joke doesn't seem like much of a joke.