CW = critiques welcome! Moderately busy day, but no time to derive a long back story for the day! Always plenty to do, so let's go, gentleman, and get it done today! • Odd Jacket — DOJ-010 (Ralph Lauren): A classic navy wool blazer from Ralph Lauren, featuring rope and padded shoulders with high armholes for a sharp, athletic silhouette. Full polyester lining with brass/gold buttons and small notch lapels—perfect for projecting executive authority on a client video conference without the full formality of a matched suit. • Slacks — SL-002 (Unnamed): Dark charcoal textured wool slacks with light gray secondary tones, offering subtle visual depth and versatility. The textured weave pairs beautifully with the navy blazer, creating a sophisticated odd-jacket-and-separates look ideal for blending client-facing professionalism with internal meeting practicality. • Shirt — DS-044 (Charles Tyrwhitt): A crisp white non-iron poplin French cuff dress shirt with a semi-spread collar (5" spread, 2.8" height). The medium opacity, soft hand, and square-edge French cuffs elevate the look while remaining comfortable for an all-day wear—a perfect canvas for the navy grenadine tie. • Undershirt — US-003 (Pro Club): Heavy white cotton crew neck undershirt providing excellent coverage under the medium-opacity dress shirt. The substantial weight ensures no show-through while maintaining comfort throughout the day. • Tie — NT-041 (Fort Belvedere): A true navy grenadine silk tie from Fort Belvedere—3-fold construction, untipped, and hand-finished with a rich matte texture. The 3.5" width and 58.5" length tie beautifully in a Half-Windsor, projecting understated executive authority perfect for client-facing video calls. • Vest — VWC-001 (Hugo Boss): A formal black Super 120 worsted wool vest with 4-button front and silver rear buckle. The contrast of black against the navy blazer creates visual depth and adds a layer of executive polish—ideal for elevating the jacket-and-separates look.

I was getting ready for my weekly Wednesday 6:30 AM men’s group while my wife was still sleeping. So as I grabbed 501 Levi’s I wore yesterday and in my dark closet put together my OOTD by iPhone flashlight, I was contemplating my personal style. Over the past couple of day’s I’ve blathered on about the terms old money and preppy and how each is fraught with the danger reducing Classic Timeless Menswear to merely another fashion category. Antonio’s recent video I spoke about yesterday did a brilliant job of describing why “ old money” style is so much more than just a fashion term: https://www.skool.com/rmrs/mia-culpa-antonio?p=9d9bbd8d Rather than create a name for my personal style myself, I choose to borrow from Harold Powell for whom I worked in my 20’s. He private labeled his casual wear Old School and I remember him telling me why that best described what he was doing and how that differed from other stores in the South Central USA. Harold was a product of The University of Oklahoma -Established Dec. 19, 1890 -17 years before statehood. https://journals.shareok.org/soonermagazine/article/download/11147/11146 https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=HA028 Like many other state universities, the school song and school colors were “borrowed” from east coast colleges. (Boomer Sooner is the Yale Boola Boola song for the Bulldogs and OU’s Crimson and Cream are Harvard’s colors). Harold worked for the McCalls brothers ( a firm I worked for before Harold’s ) but his mother owned the building they were in and when they moved he opened his own shop in their old location in 1948 across Boyd Street from the OU campus. He chose to go a different direction in styling than most west coast clothing oriented stores in Oklahoma and focused on the East Coast, a bold and risky move at that time. His philosophy was to adopt styles that were more perpetual and rather than have a vast array of colors and designs (wide and shallow), he would provide an extremely limited design and limited colors with a lot of minute details (narrow and deep) Explained further - all his coats had a 3/2 roll and all his trousers had deep double forward pleates. Beyond the tweeds in fall or shantung silks or seersuckers for summer, every brand was offered in Navy, multiple shades of Grey, tans, and olives. Ties were classic stripes and foulards primarily and shirtings were mainly oxfords with some stripes and tattersalls. Footwear was of very high quality but clearly defined traditional styles.

My son came home from school today - 7th grade - and said that for his school presentation tomorrow, he would get extra points if he wore a suit and tie. So, tonight we put him in one of his older brother’s suits and one of my ties. I showed him how to tie the tie know (half Windsor as I knew I could do that from behind him and still nail it). Once he had it on, he looked in the mirror and said, “Wow! This looks great!” Now he understands. And I was a very happy father.