LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Jamie Davidson was not one to blend in with his peers during his days at McCallie School, a private boys boarding and day school in Chattanooga. Uh-uh.
Davidson jazzed up his sober uniform by accessorizing it … with a Razorback hog hat, no less.
McCallie School graduate James Hale “Jamie” Davidson, the creative director of Strong Suit, says he wanted the brand to be classic, sophisticated and modern. “I kind of have this feeling that guys don’t really want to dress like their dads, but they kind of want to dress like their granddads. My grandfather never left the house without a sport coat on.” (Photo by John Sykes Jr./Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)“He would wear that around campus with chaps and [fake] six-shooters,” recalls Davidson’s friend, Joseph Wingfield. “He accomplished the dress code, with coat, tie, dress shoes, socks, dress pants, collared shirt, your haircut [that] had to be over your eyebrows, off your ear, off your collar.” But then he added those distinctive accoutrements.
“It wasn’t like you had to work hard to notice him. He was very noticeable,” Wingfield assures.
Since those days, Davidson has continued to make himself noticeable on a wider scale as a fashion designer whose vocabulary doesn’t include the words “no” and “can’t” – and who is by no means intimidated by the words “it’s never been done.”