Style Placeholder Data

[James]

I have a Kendo UI datepicker with placeholder data. Here is the HTML:

<input type="text" class="datepicker"' placeholder="yyyy-mm-dd" />

Here is the JavaScript:

var start = $(".datepicker").kendoDatePicker({
        format: "yyyy-MM-dd",
        parseFormats: ["MM/dd/yyyy"],
        change: startChange
    }).data("kendoDatePicker");

The Kendo UI datepicker displays the placeholder data in the same style as user entered data. I would like to style the placeholder data differently. Specifically, I would like the text to be gray and italicized. When user enters data, the style changes to solid black (non-italicized). Any thoughts on how to do this?