How Do You Dress?

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You'll find varying degrees of dress - or dressiness, if you like - on the political Right. 

Claremont fellow, Michael Anton, I am told, is a fastidious dresser. This is evidenced, not just by anecdotes I've heard from colleagues, but by pictures of the man himself.


He looks more a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, than a conservative academic. 

Similarly, Roger Stone, a beyond-eccentric fellow, with his rather unsettling back tattoo of Richard Nixon, has always been something of a men's fashion influencer. His - what looks to be defunct - fashion blog, Stone on Style, used to feature an annual "Best and Worst Dressed" list, wherein Stone, with what appears to be a well-trained eye for classy dress, celebrates and lambastes the looks of contemporary stars and television personalities. 


Some on the Right, however, prefer a more relaxed, or rather, shabby look.

I was intrigued by one of Jude Russo's blog posts for The Lamp titled New Pants. In it, Russo walks us through his rather limited and quickly fraying wardrobe, which he is more or less unbothered by. "Shabbiness," he explains, "isn’t exactly a choice so much as a comfortable and habitual way of life." Interesting... He goes on to say that "there is nothing softer than a pair of chinos that is about to disintegrate."

I'm thinking of one particular blazer that I own. A blue one. It's comfortable and well-worn, though the inside pocket isn't a pocket at all; it's a hole. I sometimes forget this, only to lose my pens in the abyss of the fabric. 

One of my work colleagues, who is something of a William F. Buckley Jr. expert, tells me that Buckley would throw a blazer over just about anything. He also told me that, as the years went on, the knot on his ties got looser and looser. 

Personally, I quite like the blazer-over-anything approach. It reminds me of Hugh Laurie in House.


Of course, what we wear and how we present ourselves is the first thing that people pick up on when they scan your person. So, even a fraying blazer over a schleppy shirt looks better than the schleppy shirt by itself. 

Anyway, I'm curious: how do you dress?

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2024 at 7:53 AM

    As the old saying goes: “Clothes make the man.”

    ReplyDelete

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