When Anil Jethmal was 6 years old and attending the Campion
School in Mumbai, India, he wore a tie to school. The tie was part of the school uniform for 1st
grader Anil.
At age 10, Anil Jethmal and his family moved back to New
York permanently. For his first day of 5th
grade at the Browning School, located on Park Avenue in Manhattan, Anil again
wore a tie, this time with his three-piece suit. The suit had a decorative pocket square in
the breast pocket. He carried his books
to school in a brief case.
While many consider Anil’s attire to be unusually formal for
a 10 year-old schoolboy, The Browning School felt otherwise. Founded in 1888 by John D Rockefeller,
Browning’s stated goal since inception was not only to educate, but also to
foster an atmosphere where boys grew up to be gentlemen. The clothing was just a part of that
endeavor.
However, something interesting happened along the way. After several years of wearing a suit to
school every day, Anil began to psychologically associate dressing up with
working. Four decades later, even when
working from home, Anil Jethmal still finds a need to dress up in order to be
productive. And while he does not wear a suit and tie when working from home,
he comes pretty close….always a professionally pressed collared shirt
and creased pants.
Moreover, in an age when technology is insidiously blurring the line
between work and leisure, Anil, now more than ever, feels the need to delineate
the two---what better way, then, than dressing for success…and equally
important, dressing for leisure and family time.
