“This is not an outstanding field of stylish men.”
This is how Joseph Abboud sums up the men in the presidential election campaign – or in the case of the Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris, her husband.
Much like his campaign mantra, “Make America Great Again,” former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump’s fashion tastes hark back to the supposedly golden days of the mid-1980s, when he believed the country was great and began donning what has become his fashion uniform. A red tie – always a red tie, and always more like a red scarf disguised as a tie – white shirts, and a very baggy two-piece suit define his style. He is a typical businessman or candidate. He could be running for president again, or he could be on his way to the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan to talk a real estate deal. You can never be quite sure.
In his free time, he can often be found on a golf course wearing a polo shirt with plain pants and a red MAGA hat. Think Ted Knight in “Caddyshack,” but without the hat.
“I’ve never been a fan of red ties,” Abboud said. “They always reminded me of politicians and pilots. But they can be effective. You just have to look at Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky affair – navy suit, white shirt, red tie with a huge American flag in the background. A very presidential image. Trump did exactly the same thing: predictable and consistent, a non-issue.”
While his running mate, JD Vance, may be best known for his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” and the subsequent Netflix film, he now dresses like the Yale graduate and former private equity investor he has become. He reportedly has his suits custom-made by an Italian tailor in Cincinnati, which is pretty much a non sequitur if there ever was one. Since entering politics in 2021, Vance has adopted the Esquire gentleman look: neatly trimmed beard, single-breasted dark suits, and ties in navy or gray. He’s straight out of the Yale Club.
But since Trump was nominated as vice presidential candidate, he has at least dared to wear light blue suits and paler ties, which, in contrast to his boss’s old real estate establishment, exude youth and power.
And Vance has at least learned something from his work in Silicon Valley: When he’s not campaigning, the 39-year-old senator from Ohio prefers to wear jeans, polo shirts, button-down shirts with open collars, dress pants, quarter-zip sweaters, chinos and the occasional hoodie – the everyday wardrobe of a tech geek, but downright revolutionary for a politician.
Abboud described Vance as a “fashionable utilitarian with a touch of military background and a kind of pragmatic approach.”
And then there’s Tim Walz, Harris’s vice presidential candidate, who makes everything he wears seem rumpled. Walz, as he has done his entire career, unashamedly channels the charisma of his Midwestern father and former football coach, wearing LL Bean or Carhartt work jackets, camouflage hats, plaid flannel shirts and chinos when he’s out in the woods hunting small game or turkey. In fact, within hours of the news that he had been named the Democratic vice presidential nominee, an official Harris-Walz camouflage hat hit the market and quickly sold out.
For more official appearances, the governor of Minnesota opts for a two-piece suit, the ubiquitous white button-down shirt and matching tie.
No matter what position he’s in, you just want to run up to him and say, “Put me in, coach.”
“What can I say stylistically?” said Abboud. “Completely undefined, just covering the body – and maybe that’s OK.”
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, has been told he needs to up his style game if he wants to take on the role of the country’s first first gentleman. His daughter, Ella, may know his way around fashion, but she clearly doesn’t give her father any tips: he opts for understated navy suits with white or blue button-down shirts and a tie you forget at first sight. Occasionally, he’ll pull on – horror – a windowpane check sport jacket over dress pants – a step above a used-car salesman’s.
Emhoff could definitely use some advice on what to wear in his free time too—he did the yoga tree pose in a sport jacket and grey dress pants, and somehow thought it would be casual to throw on one of his navy suit jackets over a Pride t-shirt and jeans. Not so much.
Finally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was in the race until Friday and then suspended his campaign, could teach the other candidates a thing or two about fashion. Apparently RFK Jr. has studied the style of his father and uncle – or it’s simply genetic. Oxford shirts with rolled-up sleeves, skinny ties and dress pants are reminiscent of the Kennedy style of the 1960s.
“There’s a certain mystique about the Kennedy family,” Abboud said, adding that he is a longtime friend of his neighbor RFK Jr. “He’s in great shape and carries himself well. It’s in his DNA.”
Kennedy mystique aside, for Abboud, men’s style in politics will always take a back seat to women’s. But maybe that’s not a bad thing.
“There are downsides to overdressing as a politician,” Abboud said, referring to Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, who is regularly “reprimanded” for his over-the-top fashion choices. “Fit and body type have a lot to do with projecting a stylish and appropriate image of our politicians,” Abboud said. “But I think more attention should be paid to the motto ‘first impressions count,’ and that has a lot to do with the clothes they wear and how they fit.”
After all, presidents shouldn’t be a fashion statement, but style exudes power.
