| By Ramya - Feb 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am EST |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Tags: bravo, candidates, crocs, Fashion, image, politics, project runway, style, tim gunn
As a self-professed Project Runway addict, I was elated to see that Newsweek has an interview up on their site with Tim Gunn, Project Runway's style maven.
They ask him to weigh in on various politicians' fashion decisions, and pop the big question, "how much does image really matter on the campaign trail?"
A few of my favorite bits from the piece:
What would you say a politician should avoid wearing, at all costs?
Well, I hope no one's going out on the campaign trail wearing a pair of Crocs.
I love you. Are you referring to the Bush photo?
Yes. And now you must ask me whether I was surprised, because the answer is no. I will summarize his entire fashion presentation in one phrase: shlumped-over and drooling. I hope I don't end up in some Iraqi prison for saying that.
Is there anything coming out this spring that we should pay attention to?
Well, of course, the skinnier suit is in, but that's not going to happen for any of the candidates, except for maybe [Barack] Obama. But we don't want to see Mike Huckabee in a skinny suit, God knows.
Maybe one day we'll have a gay man in the White House. Now that would change the fashion landscape, no?
I think maybe there already has been! Though not a fashionable one.
And don't forget...you can catch the newest episode of Project Runway at 10 PM EST tonight on Bravo. Will Ricky cry? Will Christian rave about his fast sewing abilities? Will Chris March be forced to run? Will Tim Gunn endorse a candidate? Tune in tonight to find out!
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I wonder what happened to real politics. And I love the Project Runway talk at the end. Kind of reminds me of how I compare everything to ANTM.
I think that in today's society we try not judge people based on the way they look, knowing our mothers' have told us time and again that it is about what is on the inside. However, most of us still do, at least I know I look at people's dress constantly. Unfortunately, I often place people into certain stereotypes based on what they are wearing. It's sometimes even easy to make political assumptions about people based on what they are wearing (and I am not just talking about when they wear blatantly political tee's.)
The catch-22 is that I know that this practice is wrong without a doubt; however, i cannot seem to stop myself from making judgments at first glance. I guess, in the end, we can allow ourselves to evaluate the way people look as long as do not make that our only judgment about them. As long as I get to know a person irregardless of what they are wearing and make my opinion of them based on who they are, than its okay that the original judgment it based on clothes. For, even if it wasn't okay, I do not know how I would stop it.
Related to political candidates then, it is okay to comment on their clothes and even poke fun at them. As long as we make an effort to make sure that good (or poor) dress isn't a factor in our decision, there is nothing wrong with critiquing it.