Outfit Of The Week 2/8/26 – 2/14/26

For this week’s “OOTW”, I wanted to share an outfit I wore to the office recently.

For office visits, I like to stick to my Perfect Business Casual Uniform.

This variation consists of the tweed jacket from my 3-piece suit from House Of Bruar, a white-and-blue striped OCBD from Brooks Brothers, and chocolate brown flannel trousers, also from Brooks Brothers.

The trousers are the highlight here, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of their drape. Fortunately, I wore a very similar outfit a little over a year ago and you can view the pants here.

When I purchased them many years ago, the waist was a little large. They were also a very roomy, classic fit at a time when that wasn’t fashionable. I had them taken in at the waist, but decided to keep the fullness of the legs.

I’m happy I did. These pants are incredibly flowy and comfortable! I wear them with suspenders as they tend to slip down and look a little sloppy if I wear them with a belt.

That’s another point I want to make. Nowadays everyone is all about the larger, roomier fits. With full-cut pants, what looks elegant one minute will quickly look sloppy and baggy if you’re not wearing suspenders.

My shoes were my Beckett Simonon Dunham Derbies. I knew NYC was still covered in snow, so I decided to go with a shoe with a rubber sole.

My watch was my Lorier Zephyr, which is just about a perfect dress watch.

My last point regarding this outfit is about contrast.

I love these pants, but they are very dark-colored. That makes them a little harder to pair with some of my jackets, since my jackets are usually dark-colored, too. The jacket I wore in this instance was one of my lighter-colored sport coats, so there was sufficient contrast between my top half and my bottom half.

Now, you guys know I am not a stickler for “rules” when it comes to menswear. Honestly, a lot of those rules are stupid, anyway. But there are some general guidelines that help make an outfit look better than it would otherwise. The concept of contrast is one of those guidelines.

You don’t absolutely NEED high contrast in an outfit of separates (especially if the jacket and pants are of obviously different fabrics, for example), but it hardly ever hurts.

That’s all for now. I am looking forward to a restful weekend after this long week of work!