How much better than a spanking new suit, the OML advises, to have Dad’s old sharkskin double-breasted one altered a bit, recondition the ancient Peal brogues, and turn the collars on the eternal Brooks button-downs. No nouvelle cuisine of fashion here, lad. The only proper answer to the tasteless inquiry “Where do you buy your suits?” is the lockjawed “I don’t buy suits. I have suits.” If you must buy a new jacket, fill the pockets with small stones and hang it out in the rain for a few days, just to teach it who’s boss. Best to wear it around the house for the first year or two, to take the starch out of it and have it start forming its own patina. Cheap tricks like sewing leather elbow patches on a new tweed jacket brands one as a parvenu, possibly a bookmaker.
