RFK has a very athletic build, which may account for why his jacket's collar often lifts from his neck. It's fine for a jacket's collar to sometimes lift off your neck — be realistic — but RFK's collar gap is so bad that you know it's an issue of fit.
It's possible to get tailoring that fits an athletic figure well. But depending on the extremeness of your "drop" (difference between chest and waist measurement), you may need custom. Key is to get something that doesn't fit like saran wrap. This is good:
Another issue regards understanding the language of formality. RFK's black dress belt, which is 1.25" in width, is too dressy for his jeans. He needs a much more casual belt, such as something 1.5" in width. Dress belts are for tailored trousers; jeans require something casual
Finally, there's the issue of proportions. Tiny shirt collars, such as the one on the left, should never be worn with a tie (ideally, they should never be worn at all, but certainly not with neckwear). RFK should stick to the bigger collars seen on the right.
The charm of a button-down collar is entirely in the way the collar rolls when the points are fastened to the body. This forms an S-shape like a floating angel's wings. Tiny collars suffocate this effect and look like they're apologizing for even existing.
Finally, my guess is that RFK likes wearing these skinny ties because they were popular in the 1960s, when people such as John and Bobby Kennedy were style icons. A bit of family style history, which is admirable.
But RFK's ties lack the sleek, modish look of those 1960s designs. Instead, he wears skinny polyester ties from Otaa. They have little quirky designs, which feels more twee than cool.
Crucially, his ties are too skinny for his lapels. The best of those 1960s ensembles worked when they paired skinny ties with skinny lapels. When choosing a tie, try to get a width that's roughly the same width as your lapels to keep proper proportions.
Personally don't think you need to obsessively work out to look good at age 70 (or any age). Here's Yukio Akamine, who's older than RFK Jr. I think he looks great because he knows a few things about dress and has good taste.
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Not true. Both Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom wear ready-to-wear or factor-made clothes produced on a block pattern.
I'll show you how I know. 🧵
First, what do you notice about this jacket?
For me, the glaring issue is how far the sleeve comes down.
In a 1966 essay titled "The Secret Vice," Tom Wolfe wrote about men obsessed with custom tailoring. He talked about "marginal differences" such as working buttonholes.
On first glance, you may be impressed but not know why.
The reason is deceptively simple: they hang pin straight. This is more obvious when you compare them to trousers that don't hang so cleanly.
It's not easy to get trousers to hang this straight. There are a few reasons for this.
First, if you were to take off all your clothes and look in the mirror (do this privately, not on the internet), you'll notice your body is not perfectly symmetrical.
As some may know, my family is from Vietnam. My parents fled Saigon shortly after the Tet Offensive, as bombs were falling around them and they weren't sure what was going to happen once the North Vietnamese took over the city.
When my dad left Vietnam, he wasn't able to take much with him — just some family photos of life back home, some clothes, and a 1960s Rolex Datejust he bought as a present for himself. Growing up, I always saw my dad wear this watch. It was basically part of his body.
Earlier this year, it was reported that JD Vance has a tailor in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a charming story about an Italian immigrant named Romualdo Pelle, who has worked as a tailor since he immigrated to the US in 1960.
Watch the story very closely. What do you notice?
Those familiar with tailoring will see something very peculiar:
In the 19th century, gentlemen wore black frock coats or tailcoats with a white shirt and dark waistcoat. As the frock coat gave way to the suit, the white linen shirt — a mark of respectability and propriety — remained.
For much of the 20th century, this was the standard uniform of the American male that sat at any social station above blue collar. And even then, blue collar people often wore these clothes to churches and weddings.
A couple of weeks ago, Trump struggled with a broken umbrella as he boarded Air Force One.
Let me tell you how we got to this point — and the tragic downfall of the noble umbrella. 🧵
It's hard to imagine now, but it was once controversial for a man to carry an umbrella. The modern umbrella's progenitor, of course, is the parasol, which 18th century French women carried to preserve their light-colored skin (at the time, a mark of class and status).
British men considered the accessory too French, too foreign, and most importantly, too effeminate. That was until 1756, when Jonas Hanway, an upper-class philanthropist, started to carry a waterproofed version around London to protect himself from the rain.