Best dressed US president?

Reagan.

Originally Posted by rgoldstein

Click to expand...

He said his father.

He's alive too.

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

Early SF MC forvm style:

- B

You know, if Mr Sam was still around, he would have put Binge's head and his scotch over this and we all would have rolled.

This is a boring question to be honest. Our leaders have always dressed with a somber and dull style so often, and for so long, that the question doesn't seem fit for this forum. I mean how many different ways can you wear a Navy Suit and White Dress Shirt? (cue vox photo-essay). What's next? Which Office Space character is the best dressed?

Post JFK, I guess Reagan, just on the fact that he wore brown a lot...

Same uniform. Different interpretation.

^ bush still looks so awkward to me.

Reagan... heck there is a reason he was a movie star -- he looks great.

Bush 1 and JFK very good prep trad and he had maybe the best casual stuff... he wore the stuff comfortably.



Bush 2 never looked comfortable in a suit.

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Click to expand...

This is a boring question to be honest. Our leaders have always dressed with a somber and dull style so often, and for so long, that the question doesn't seem fit for this forum. I mean how many different ways can you wear a Navy Suit and White Dress Shirt? (cue vox photo-essay).

This really was kicked off by (President) Nixon. Candidate Nixon remembered getting the snot kicked out of him by the more-photogenic JFK. Photographs and television were increasingly in color by the late 1960s, and the color palate for Nixon (and then everyone else) was dramatically toned down.

Boyer describes it as the 'mid-western grain salesman' look; dark navy suit, white shirt, black lace ups, and a navy or red tie with small geometric patterns.

Chester Arthur, to celebrating being elected, went on the (inflation adjusted) equivalent of a $16,000 shopping spree at Brooks Brothers in Manhattan.

^^^That coat looks great. I'd like to have one like it.

Originally Posted by brianoh

Click to expand...

^ bush still looks so awkward to me.

Originally Posted by wmb

Click to expand...

Bush 2 never looked comfortable in a suit.

To the contrary: I always thought that GWB looked like a guy who knew he had the coolest job possible, that he was likely unqualified for it, and was just having a ball.

The original question was since Kennedy, so we are down to comparing LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan, HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, and Obama. From this group, I will stick with HW Bush, but I can see why some say Regan (second place for me) -- despite all the brown suits, the guy looked good in his clothes and knew a thing or two about fit and carrying himself when in public. If we are to expand this to the period that American presidents began wearing what would be considered modern clothes (about 1900??), the top five would likely be (in no particular order) Kennedy (enough pics already posted) Truman (ditto) FDR TR (I couldn't resist this picture) And George HW Bush (my original choice for post Kennedy)

Originally Posted by mack11211

Click to expand...

Note also that this is a f*cking painting.



I will defend this fat bastard until the day I die.

DIG

Originally Posted by Roguls

Click to expand...

Best dressed pol right now is Willie Brown (ex SF mayor). One of the blogs has an interview with him (read it recently).

Good call.

Originally Posted by Roguls

Click to expand...

J. Edgar Hoover was supposed to be a dandy.

Unelected officials don't count, because it's much easier to dress well if you don't have to worry about what the voters will think of you for it, and about rival politicians making an issue of it. Or so I claim.

~K

I think the big problem here is that style now has true negative connotations for most American politicians (WLB excepted, of course). To dress in a stylish manner is seen as untrustworthy and putting on airs. Combine this with the general decline in knowledge about how to dress and, well, there you have the Great Collapse; and it's even worse for politicians.

Most politicians are happy to have a uniform--gets rid of a wildcard element. My wife has political ambitions and one of the first things she did when she realized this was go down to Ann Taylor and buy a cheap plain-colored suit. Quite a change from the Vivienne Westwood or CdG, but certain things require certain trade-offs. My Brother-In-Law is a litigator for a top DC firm and all he ever wears is head-to-toe JAB. Getting dressed has gone from being an aesthetic act that well-executed might please people to a highly-charged act that risks alienation and resentment.

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Click to expand...

This really was kicked off by (President) Nixon. Candidate Nixon remembered getting the snot kicked out of him by the more-photogenic JFK. Photographs and television were increasingly in color by the late 1960s, and the color palate for Nixon (and then everyone else) was dramatically toned down.

This is interesting, but puzzling. Why would the politicians' response to color TV be to tone down their color palette? Is it because color TV made colors look more garish than they were in real life? Otherwise it makes no sense: if the pre-color TV palette was somehow offensive, color TV would not have been necessary to bring it into disfavor.

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Click to expand...

Boyer describes it as the 'mid-western grain salesman' look; dark navy suit, white shirt, black lace ups, and a navy or red tie with small geometric patterns.



http://www.ivy-style.com/bruce-almighty.html

~K