Gold sneakers and too-tight suits: Menswear weighs in on Inauguration weekend

Do you think that classic American look – the Ralph Lauren, the Oxford shirt – that’s going to be sort of a MAGA range forever, or do you see that changing?

I don’t think the classic American aesthetic is strictly MAGA, though. I think the Brooks Brothers look is like the ABC of menswear; it’s like a very classic American look. In the postwar period, immediately after the end of World War II, there was a culture clash between the establishment lifestyle—the man in the gray flannel suit who works in a corporate job and has the conventional look of the nuclear family and the white-picketed house—and the counterculture. It was this kind of liberal side of the political spectrum. They wore work clothes and chambray shirts, hippie gear, motorcycle jackets. All this has become a counterculture.

But if you go back further than that, everyone wore tailored clothing, from criminals to CEOs to liberals to Republicans. Ralph Lauren couldn’t have built his empire if button-down shirts and penny loafers were ultra-conservative attire.

I think it’s interesting that the current status of Republican politics is trying to merge the Brooks Brothers aesthetic with the gold sneakers. Do you see them coming together?

I think that’s the weird dichotomy right now because the MAGA movement and Republicans in general have always looked back to some idea of ​​America. Although not every man wore a suit in the 1950s, the suit was historically associated with a bourgeois lifestyle. And much of conservatism in general is about maintaining a bourgeois way of life, morality, identity, politics, and so on.

Now there is a populist part of the Republican Party that is not for Reaganism or Bush. It’s very much about Trump. And its aesthetic is very different from what William Buckley would wear. William Buckley would not wear gold sneakers.

I think they are different and conflicting, but people can hold conflicting ideas in their heads. We are in an age where politics is very tribal. And while it fits our tribe’s narrative, I think it’s consistent for this group. For Republicans, I think these two very conflicting aesthetics are right now in the party.

The men of technology are new to the MAGA crowd, but many people have noticed a significant change in their appearance, especially that of Mark Zuckerberg. Can you talk about what they are trying to signal and to whom?

I heard through the grapevine in my industry that (Elon Musk) had a stylist. I think he doesn’t have a stylist anymore. Mark Zuckerberg denies having a stylist, but I don’t believe him. He’s certainly been going through a style transformation in the last year and three months, I’d say. Jeff Bezos apparently 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 just got tired of dressing like a college student. Elon has apparently given up on his stylist and doesn’t dress very well.

(Zuckerberg) dresses more like an MMA guy. He wears square t-shirts and a gold chain. But he looks like someone who has updated his look to be more modern. There are a lot of guys who wear that silhouette and a gold chain, and I don’t know that that says anything about their politics.

We’ve seen a lot of “spaghetti western” stuff happen. What do you think about it?

As a fashion trend, the western look is really leaning towards more liberal right now because it’s popular in big cities. Now, conservatives dress like metrosexuals in the early 2000s, and liberals dress like Bush-era conservatives. Conservatives are in skinny suits or skinny suits and liberals are like Carhartt with double knees, western shirts, cowboy boots. There’s some of that right-wing because it’s kind of Midwestern.

But Elon Musk wears cowboy boots quite often, and so does Jeff Bezos.