Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Do you think that kind of classic American look—the Ralph Lauren, the Oxford shirt—will sort of be MAGA’s goal forever or do you see that changing?
I don’t think the classic American aesthetic is strictly MAGA, though. I think a Brooks Brothers look is like the ABC of menswear; it’s like a very classic American look. In the post-war period, immediately following the end of World War II, there was a culture clash between the establishment lifestyle – the man in a gray flannel suit, working in a corporate job and has a conventional type of nuclear family and a white fence. home-and the counterculture. It was this kind of liberal side of the political spectrum. They wore work clothes and chambray shirts, hippie clothes, motorcycle jackets. That everything has become counterculture.
But if you go back further, everyone wore tailored suits, from criminals to CEOs to liberals and Republicans. Ralph Lauren could not have built his empire if button-down shirts and penny loafers were exclusively conservative clothing.
I think it’s interesting that the current state of Republican politics is trying to combine the Brooks Brothers aesthetic with gold sneakers. Do you see them together?
I think that’s the strange dichotomy at the moment, because the MAGA movement and Republicans in general have always looked back toward an idea of America. Although not every man wore a suit in the 1950s, the suit has historically been associated with the bourgeois type of lifestyle. And a lot of conservatism in general is to maintain the bourgeois lifestyle, morality, identity, politics and so on.
There is now a populist section of the Republican Party that is not about Reaganism or Bush. That’s a lot of Trump. And his aesthetic is very different from what William Buckley would have worn. William Buckley would not have worn gold sneakers.
I think they are distinct and contradictory, but people can hold contradictory ideas in their heads. We are in an age where politics is very tribal. And as long as it fits the narrative of our tribe, then I think it’s consistent for that group. For Republicans, I think these two very contradictory 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 Mark Zuckerberg. Can you talk about what they are trying to report and to whom?
I heard through the grapevine in my industry that (Elon Musk) had a stylist. I don’t think she has a stylist anymore. Mark Zuckerberg denies having a stylist, but I don’t believe him. It’s definitely going through a style transformation in the last year and three months, I’d say. Jeff Bezos most obviously has a stylist. I think what they do has nothing to do with politics. I think Jeff Bezos went through a style change after his divorce. And I suspect Mark Zuckerberg is tired of dressing like a college student. Elon has clearly given up on his stylist and doesn’t dress well.
(Zuckerberg) dresses more like an MMA guy. Wear the boxy tees and the gold chain. But he looks like someone who has updated his look to be more fashionable. There are a lot of guys who wear this kind of silhouette and gold chains and I don’t know if this says anything about their politics.
We see a lot of the “spaghetti Western” kind of vibe going on. What is your opinion on this?
As a fashion trend, the western look is actually more liberal, now, because it is popular in big cities. Conservatives now dress like metrosexuals in the early 2000s and liberals dress like Bush-era conservatives. The conservatives are in slim-tight suits or slim-fit suits and then the liberals are like Carhartt double-knees, western shirts, cowboy boots. There’s a little bit of it inherently on the right because it’s a Midwestern look.
But Elon Musk wears cowboy boots quite often, as does Jeff Bezos.
