Do you think that kind of classic American look – the Ralph Lauren, the Oxford shirt – will it be sort of MAGA’s purview forever, or do you see that changing?
However, I don’t think the classic American aesthetic is strictly MAGA. I think a Brooks Brothers look is like the ABCs of menswear; it’s like a very classic American tailored look. In the post-war period, just after the end of World War II, there was a cultural clash between the establishment lifestyle – the man in the gray flannel suit who works in a corporation and has a sort of conventional nuclear family and the white picket – fence house – and the counterculture. It was that kind of liberal side of the political spectrum. They wore work clothes and chambray shirts, hippie clothes and motorcycle jackets. All of this has become a counterculture.
But if you go back further, everyone wore tailored clothes, from criminals to CEOs to liberals to Republicans. Ralph Lauren couldn’t have built his empire if button-down shirts and loafers were exclusively conservative clothing items.
I think it’s interesting that the current state of Republican politics is trying to unite the Brooks Brothers aesthetic with gold sneakers. Do you see them coming together?
I think it’s the strange dichotomy of the moment, because the MAGA movement and Republicans in general have always looked back toward a certain idea of America. Although not all men wore suits in the 1950s, the suit has always been associated with the middle-class lifestyle. And a lot of conservatism in general is about defending bourgeois lifestyles, morality, identity, politics, etc.
There is now a populist section of the Republican Party that is not interested in Reaganism or Bush. It’s basically about Trump. And its aesthetic is very different from what William Buckley would have worn. William Buckley wouldn’t have worn gold sneakers.
I think they are distinct and contradictory, but people can have conflicting ideas in their heads. We are in a time where politics is very tribal. And as long as it fits the narrative of our tribe, then I think it’s consistent for this group. For Republicans, I think these two very contradictory aesthetics currently exist within the party.
Tech guys are new to the MAGA group, but many people have noticed a significant change in their appearance, including that of Mark Zuckerberg. Can you talk about what they are trying to report and to whom?
I heard within my industry that Elon Musk has a stylist. I don’t think he has a stylist anymore. Mark Zuckerberg denies having a stylist, but I don’t believe him. He’s definitely undergoing a style transformation over the last three months, I’d say. Jeff Bezos obviously has a stylist. I don’t think what they’re doing has anything to do with politics. I think Jeff Bezos had a makeover after his divorce. And I suspect Mark Zuckerberg is just tired of dressing like a college student. Elon has clearly abandoned his stylist and doesn’t dress very well.
(Zuckerberg) dresses more like an MMA guy. He wears the square t-shirts and the gold chain. But he looks like someone who updated his look 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 atmospheres. What do you think of this?
As a fashion trend, the Western look is definitely more liberal right now, as it is popular in big cities. Conservatives now dress like the metrosexuals of the early 2000s, and liberals dress like Bush-era conservatives. Conservatives wear tailored suits or tailored suits, and liberals are like Carhartt double knees, western shirts, and cowboy boots. There’s some of that inherently right-wing because it’s a Midwestern look.
But Elon Musk wears cowboy boots quite frequently, as does Jeff Bezos.