Do you think that kind of classic American style (the Ralph Lauren, the Oxford shirt) will be MAGA’s purview forever or do you think that will change?
However, I don’t think the classic American aesthetic is strictly MAGA. I think a Brooks Brothers look is like the ABCs of men’s fashion; It’s like a very classic American tailored style. In the postwar period, just after the end of World War II, there was a culture clash between the establishment lifestyle: the man in a gray flannel suit, who works in a company and has a conventional nuclear family, and a white fence home—and the counterculture. That was this kind of liberal side of the political spectrum. They wore work clothes and chambray shirts, hippie clothes and motorcycle jackets. All of this became counterculture.
But if you go back further, everyone wore tailored clothing, from criminals to CEOs, liberals to Republicans. Ralph Lauren couldn’t have built his empire if button-down shirts and loafers were exclusively conservative pieces of clothing.
I think it’s interesting that the current state of Republican politics is trying to marry the Brooks Brothers aesthetic with gold sneakers. Do you see them come together?
I think that’s the strange dichotomy right now, because the MAGA movement and Republicans in general have always been looking backwards toward some idea of America. Although not all men wore suits in the 1950s, the suit has historically been associated with the bourgeois lifestyle. And much of conservatism in general has to do with defending bourgeois lifestyles, morals, identity, politics, etc.
There is now a populist sector of the Republican Party that does not care about Reaganism or Bush. It’s a lot about Trump. And its aesthetic is very different from what William Buckley would have worn. William Buckley would not have worn gold slippers.
I think they are different and contradictory, but people can have contradictory ideas in their heads. We are in a time when politics is very tribal. And as long as it fits our tribe’s narrative, I think it will be consistent for that group. For Republicans, I think those two very contradictory aesthetics are now within the party.
Tech men are new to the MAGA crowd, but many people have noticed a significant change in their appearance, particularly that of Mark Zuckerberg. Can you talk about what they are trying to point out and to whom?
I heard through the rumor mill within my industry that (Elon Musk) used to have a stylist. I don’t think I have a stylist anymore. Mark Zuckerberg denies having a stylist, but I don’t believe him. He’s certainly going through a style transformation in the last year and three months, I’d say. Jeff Bezos obviously has a stylist. I don’t think what they are doing has anything to do with politics. I think Jeff Bezos went through a style change after his divorce. And I suspect Mark Zuckerberg simply got tired of dressing like a college student. Elon has clearly given up on his stylist and doesn’t dress very well.
(Zuckerberg) dresses more like an MMA guy. He wears the square shirts and the gold chain. But he looks like someone who updated his appearance to be more fashionable. There are a lot of guys who wear that kind of silhouette and gold chain and I don’t know if that says anything about their politics.
We saw a lot of “spaghetti western” type of atmosphere. What is your opinion on that?
As a fashion trend, Western style is actually leaning more liberal right now, because it is popular in big cities. Conservatives now dress like early 2000s metrosexuals and liberals dress like Bush-era conservatives. Conservatives wear tight suits or tailored suits and liberals are like Carhartt double knees, western shirts and cowboy boots. There’s some of this inherently right-wing because it’s a Midwestern view.
But Elon Musk wears cowboy boots quite often, as does Jeff Bezos.