All the President’s Men
It’s all about the size of the suit.
All the world leaders gathered in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius for the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, otherwise known as NATO.
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The big discussion at the conference was whether Ukraine would join the organization. NATO holds 31 countries, 29 European and two North American.
Sweden could potentially enter the group after Turkey removed its objections to the Scandinavian country joining.
Ukraine is also on the waiting list as the U.S. and Germany resist it joining until the war is over and the country sorts out some of its other issues, such as past political corruption. It has been given observer status, however.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called the decision not to specify a timetable for Ukraine to join “absurd” and “vague,” given what his country has been through. U.K. defense secretary Ben Wallace said Ukraine needs to show gratitude.
“You know, we’re not Amazon. I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list” of things the country wanted the U.K. to provide, Wallace said in a briefing.
The other thing that Zelensky didn’t agree upon was the dress code.
The Ukrainian president arrived in his full-throttle signature army green Zelensky Warrior uniform consisting of a polo shirt, chinos and running trainers. Meanwhile, 23 world leaders — including U.S. President Joe Biden, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — wore suits with neckties. The five female leaders attending at least went for color — either bright pink or green, or tan.
Trudeau and Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama were the only two wearing gray suits in a sea of black, navy and Biden’s cobalt blue number.
“The uniform is just as political as the conference itself — the way these leaders are dressing is their way of embodying their political standpoint in real terms. In a post-pandemic world, the return to such traditional suits is a way of reassuring the public that things are returning to ‘business as usual’, whilst Zelensky’s khaki gear represents quite the opposite for his country,” said Peter Bevan, a London-based menswear stylist.
Last year at the G7 Summit in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, world leaders ditched their necktie in favor of an open top button — a much needed breather as they battled inflation and crises in their home countries.
However, the lack of professional dressing garnered mixed reviews, which has made world leaders button up again at such functions.
“People don’t like their politicians to be conspicuously wealthy. Diplomatically, it’s better to blend in and try and assimilate with the other politicians,” said writer and stylist Charlie Teasdale.
“Equally, I imagined perhaps earlier in a career, there’s more of a desire to stand out, maybe if you’re younger, then you can kind of push the boundaries a little bit, but I think ultimately, people want their politicians to be dressed with a kind of drab authority,” he said, referring to the official NATO members portrait.
On the second day of the NATO briefings, Biden changed into a black suit with a jazzy yellow gold and purple necktie featuring a thin white stripe. He later gave an address to a much younger audience at the Vilnius University in the same outfit.
As the U.S president is making his round robin trip around Europe to strengthen his ties, he has been rigidly cautious in bringing his A-game.
At the third U.S. Nordic Leaders’ Summit on Thursday, Biden met with the prime ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in Helsinki to discuss security, the environment and technology wearing another black suit with a printed maroon necktie.
On Monday, Biden made a visit to Windsor Castle to meet with King Charles III. And the president and the king got the sartorial memo: Wear shades of blue.
The king was in a pin-striped suit with a blue necktie featuring small icons of the Shetland flag, which is a white Nordic cross on a black background, the same colors used in the flag of Scotland.
This could have been a subtle nod to Biden’s upcoming Nordic visit from the 74-year-old king.
The 80-year-old president wore a navy suit with a light blue tie that featured small white dots.
“There are no rules really, other than those defined by tradition,” said Teasdale about how far men of a certain age can push the fashion limit.
“The question is, ‘can you still have really good taste at that age?’ And of course you can,” he added, explaining that there was a “celebration among menswear dudes” about the length of Biden’s blue swim shorts that he wore recently at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, which “looked to be a five-inch inseam, which is sort of the de facto, officially cool length of shorts at the moment.”
According to Matthew Woodruff, creative director of J. Mueser, a bespoke tailoring label from New York, “the [men over the age of 50] majority know what they want, often seeking someone to make the things they know and love but can no longer find. Whether it’s a conservative gray suit in a now-hard-to-find American style, or eccentric takes on traditional styles that no longer exist in the more ubiquitous retail market.”
“Politics is a business, NATO is a meeting, and the general mode of dress reflects that, but it [political summits] don’t have a large effect on the suit market in general,” added Woodruff.
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