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    Tattoo fixers on removing Nazi symbols: ‘You don’t know if they’re changing or hiding’

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    Last week, Graham Platner, a progressive Democrat running for the US Senate in Maine, responded to a burst of online criticism by doing something few candidates for high office are ever required to do: he posted a topless photo of himself on the internet.It was an unusual moment in a campaign that had so far gone his way. Platner had won praise from progressives and secured the backing of Bernie Sanders. But his campaign came unstuck when a video surfaced of him dancing in his underwear at his brother’s wedding – and revealing a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest. The design, known as the Totenkopf, is widely recognised as a Nazi symbol.Platner insists he had no idea of its associations when he got the tattoo, drunk, while stationed in Croatia during his 20s as a marine. After learning of its meaning, he says, he covered it with a new design – a Celtic cross and a dog – and released the topless photo to prove it.It’s a strange campaign story, but not all that uncommon. Across the country, tattoo artists and laser removal technicians regularly see clients who are trying to erase far-right symbols from their bodies.There a number of national non-profits that help people remove their hate-based tattoos. The California-based Jails to Jobs, for example, helps formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives. The group maintains a directory of more than 300 free or low-cost tattoo removal programs across 45 states and several countries and publishes a how-to manual for communities hoping to start their own.Not everyone who seeks their services has tattoos linked to white supremacy. Some are survivors of trafficking, domestic violence or gang coercion. But many prison tattoos still bear the marks of racist ideology: swastikas, lightning bolts or coded runes that declare allegiance to neo-Nazi groups.View image in fullscreenThe Anti-Defamation League has catalogued hate symbols since 2000 through its Hate on Display database, which is now more than 50 pages long.Kate Widener, an advanced esthetician and owner of Undo Tattoo and Laser in Gresham, Oregon, averages about 70 tattoo removals a week. Of these, she wagers “25%” are part of her free removal program. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “I’ve seen it all, including some pretty bad ones. But they just pop in, pop out, and soon it’s gone.”Some of Widener’s clients say they are coming in only out of discretion – they are still racist, but don’t want their co-workers to know. “I have one guy who comes in only for the tattoos on his face, and he’s keeping the rest from his neck down,” she says. “Thirty-plus [swastikas] on his neck all the way down. So there are a lot of people hiding who they really are.”“There’s a big concern of: [are they] changing or hiding?” said Dustin Ortel, who oversees the free Ink-nitiative program at Removery, another national tattoo-removing chain. Since 2020, people every year submit applications – bolstered by letters of recommendations from parole officers or counselors – and about 300 are chosen for the procedure.Ortel says he is a good judge of character and helps people who are genuinely changing. “I have a great gut feeling, and going through our paperwork and seeing the advocate letters, you really get to see where the person is coming from compared to the markings on their skin.”Before each session, Ortel listens to a person’s story, what led them to get the tattoo and how they changed their mind. These conversations are always emotional: “I cry with people.”Widener, in Oregon, does not require people to apply for her free removal. “It’s invasive, and I don’t like that,” she says. “I’m confidential and judgment-free. As long as you say, ‘Please help me,’ I’ll talk.” That makes her pretty popular, with people driving hours to see her, coming form as far away as Idaho or Seattle.Removing or covering up someone’s tattoos is always an intimate process. It requires close contact. “A lot of people talk about themselves,” Widener said. “I’ll get a vibe if they’re doing this for the right reasons, or maybe not the right reasons, and that makes me more leery of them.”View image in fullscreenStill, most people are “pretty nice” and many are grateful. And, ultimately, Widener is in control during the experience: “They know that I control a laser that can cause a lot of harm to them.”What makes people change their beliefs? “Sometimes, it’s because they fall in love,” Widener said. “I have clients who were white supremacists and then they fall for a person of color.” One of her clients was brought up in a racist family and never questioned their beliefs – until he began an interracial relationship.“She kind of opened his eyes to other things,” Widener said. “He’s my favorite. He comes every six weeks like clockwork to get his tattoo removed, and he cries at every point to tell me how it changed his life. He has a child now, and he would like to put something over that to honor his mixed son.”After the white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, interest in hate tattoo-removing services rose, with some people who had previously been affiliated with far-right groups wanting to distance themselves as the groups became emboldened. Three years later, after the murder of George Floyd and international protests against police violence, NPR pointed to an increased interest in tattoo removal. For some, the ebb-and-flow popularity of these services shows a pattern: when hate crimes hit the headlines, more people who have left a racist past behind urgently feel the need to rid themselves of such reminders.But lately, Widener says interest in her free program among people with hate tattoos has cooled. She blames the Trump administration. Before Donald Trump was in office, Widener had “a lot more people” coming in to erase a white supremacist past. “Then once [Trump was re-elected], I had someone who called me and told me they no longer need to remove it.” (Still, Undo Tattoo’s free removal program is fully booked until December.)Three other people involved in free tattoo removal or cover-up programs said they had not noticed a decline in clients due to Trump’s administration. Lorenzo Diaz, an artist at Ruby Tattoo in Marine City, Michigan, has covered up hateful ink for the past 17 years. “I have at least three, maybe four a week. They’re usually pretty big, dark pieces.”So far, Widener does not turn away clients – but she could change her mind in the future. “I thought about certain situations, because at some point, ICE officers are going to start throwing little symbols around,” she said. “I’ve personally seen in my own neighborhood how they hurt people. I’m still judgment-free, letting everyone come in, but I don’t know what the future holds.” More

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      The not-so secret language of fascist fashion

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      Fascism is back in style. Forget the old symbols: swastikas, nooses, Confederate flags, skinheads’ shaved heads and combat boots. Extremism has a new look, and it is as fashionable as ever.Today’s extremist styles are more diverse and more subtle. Beyond T-shirts that advertise blatant racism, polo shirts with coded symbols create a shared in-group identity and signal support of violence to other believers. Tradwife-style prairie dresses and beauty regimens promote conservative visions of family. Clothing is a powerful tool to spread fascist ideas to promote authoritarianism and recruit new members to this cause.The far right’s weaponization of fashion to advance hateful ideas is not new. Fascist movements have long understood the power of aesthetics. In 1920s Italy, Benito Mussolini harnessed black shirts and the ancient Roman symbol of the fasces (a bundle of sticks with an axe, which stands for power and authority) to build his power and his brand. German clothier Hugo Boss, a card-carrying Nazi, produced the uniforms of the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary and the Hitler Youth. Hate came with a slick, tailored look. In the US, the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan and burning crosses have long been trademarks of white supremacy. In the 1980s, the original fascists’ skinhead successors appropriated and repurposed bomber jackets, shaved heads and combat boots as their distinct form of military-ish chic.View image in fullscreenNow, welcome to fascist fashion 3.0. The aesthetics of modern-day extremists are far reaching and mainstream. Even more so since 2017 and the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, fascist fashion – or fascion (an amalgam of “fashion” and “fascism”) – is now at your fingertips. Right-wing groups have their own labels, co-opt pre-existing fashion brands and hawk their wares online via TikTok and eBay.Much of this ideological apparel can evade notice – if you are not in the know. Instead of blunt hate-filled slogans, the far right uses language like “my favorite color is white” and “defending our culture” – vague messages that could be interpreted in different ways and offer plausible deniability (however tenuously, because who is the “we” and what “culture” is under siege and in need of protection? And nationalist rhetoric has long been a favorite tool of the right).Coded visual elements and references are instrumental to conveying the message, to those who know how to read it. Use of specific fonts associated with the Nazi regime or those that look faintly Germanic – with dark, peaked letters – help groups to embed their ideology in what seems like innocent slogans or visual cues.Sometimes, the references come from other cultures or subcultures; today’s reactionaries reference Nordic symbols and imagery of “Valhalla”, as a nod to an imaginary past of white, hypermasculine Europe (FBI director Kash Patel’s recent promise to see slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Valhalla raised eyebrows). Gaming memes such as “Pepe the Frog”, which the alt-right has appropriated to convey antisemitic sentiments, also find their way into clothing.Sometimes the messages are even more coded. A T-shirt at a Nationals game with the number 88 and the word “nationalist” above it might not draw attention, but the combination is a celebration of a neo-Nazi sentiment (88 is a well-known white supremacist numerical code for “Heil Hitler”; the letter “h” is the eighth letter of the English alphabet, and repeating it twice references the infamous salute).This new fashion no longer seeks to shock or to antagonize, but to appeal to a sense of identity and belonging, said Monica Sklar, associate professor of textiles, merchandising and interiors and curator of the Anne Barge Historic Clothing and Textiles Collection at the University of Georgia. “The idea is not being quite a subculture but to be embedded in the power structure. Instead of coding things to move away from the masses, this fashion is coding things to move into the masses,” and this is a purposeful shift.View image in fullscreenTake, for example, a black polo shirt with white stripes at the hems of the sleeves and collar from the activewear brand Will2Rise. It is sold under the name “3.0 Perry Polo”, a reference to the famous British brand Fred Perry, whose black and yellow design was “hijacked” by the far-right group Proud Boys since its founding in 2016. (In 2020, Fred Perry discontinued the model as a result). In the Will2Rise version, Fred Perry’s logo of golden laurels is replaced with a modern design of the white supremacist Patriot Front logo, which depicts an upright fasces surrounded by a circle.While valorization of masculine power and fitness is an important part of this new aesthetics, women – who are traditionally associated with fashion and adornment – also have a role in shaping the look. Adhering to traditional ideas of gender, the new Republican look of extreme plastic surgery and heavy makeup combines with tradwives’ 1950s dress silhouettes of cinched waists and flowery patterns to celebrate hyperfemininity.These styles not only allow their wearers to blend in, but they also play a role in normalizing an aesthetics of radicalism and violence. Sociologist and American University professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who studies extremism and polarization, has written that “it is simply much harder to recognize ideas as hateful when they come in an aesthetic package that doesn’t fit the image people hold in their heads about what white supremacists look like”. When the radical right looks like the mythical boy and girl next door, it’s hard to know who can be a threat.View image in fullscreenBut it is exactly this quality that enables extremist fashion to glide into the mainstream. Slogans like “White Life Matters” and other iconography found today on clothing and bumper stickers are reflecting sentiments that started much further to the right. Some of the symbols we see, like an image of a US flag where the stripes are made of machine guns, originated in the militia movement. By the time these items are circulating in the market, the message has been repackaged and toned down by a hair, but the ideas behind the symbols are the same.This is all part of the fashion cycle.To be sure, not every conservative or offensive outfit is fascist. Indeed, the lines between hate speech and hyperpatriotism can be blurry. As Sklar points out, “in the US, subcultural dress is much subdued, much more piecemeal,” and thus harder to define or recognize. Moreover, the wearer of these more mainstream, watered-down versions of fascist messages is not always aware of their extreme origins. However, sometimes, this fashionable choice is deliberate, and the decision of whether to expose it as such can entail great risks.To make things more complicated, as more extreme fashions migrate into the mainstream, we are becoming more desensitized to the ideas they represent. Fascism becomes a selling point with a commercial value. The Florida GOP is selling “Alligator Alcatraz” merch without fear of censure. If only a few years ago appealing to racist sentiments might have brought serious public backlash, today campaigns such as Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans promotion only bring more attention to the company. Even Charlie Kirk’s death became an opportunity; some companies are branding his assassin’s T-shirt as the “Charlie Kirk Land of the Free T-Shirt.”View image in fullscreenFashion is not static. It changes all the time. What used to be in the margins a few years ago are now on trend. Brand identity can also shift. While in 2020, a Maga hat or a tradwife aesthetics would not be registered as fascist, by 2025, with Trump’s actions and statements becoming increasingly more authoritarian, those styles gain new meaning.Moreover, the Trump administration’s adoption of not only the Maga styles but those of the far right, aids in the shifting of the brand. Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, wears tattoos that are associated with white supremacy. When Ice agents storm the streets of big cities with their ski masks, bullet-proof vests, and khakis, they often look more like the Patriot Front or the Three Percenters militia than representatives of the government.View image in fullscreenBut this new visibility also makes it easier to expose the fascism and contradictions behind all the freedom talk. Kristi Noem’s impeccable curly hair extensions and heavy makeup has earned the homeland security secretary the nickname “Ice Barbie”. Her appearance came to define the cruelty of the administration’s immigration policies. As more people associate certain fashions and symbols with actions and policies they oppose, the less appealing they become.Like we learned to recognize the more traditional fascist symbols, we are now learning to identify the new visual language of the right. In 1935, Sinclair Lewis warned in his novel, It Can’t Happen Here, that when fascism comes to the US it won’t look like the European brand. Instead, it would be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. In 2025, we also know that it wears a Maga hat and an Ice vest. More

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      in US Politics

      JD Vance threatened to deport him. The ‘menswear guy’ is posting through it

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      Derek Guy was a relatively unknown menswear writer with 25,000 followers on Twitter in 2022. Now, in 2025, Guy has 1.3 million followers on the platform, now called X, where this week both the vice-president of the United States and the Department of Homeland Security posted threats to deport him from the US – the country he has called home since he was a baby.“Honestly didn’t expect this is what would happen when I joined a menswear forum 15 years ago,” Guy quipped on X on Monday. “Was originally trying to look nice for someone else’s wedding.”The threats targeted at Guy, a fashion writer known for lampooning the sartorial decisions of rightwing figures, including JD Vance, marked another alarming escalation in the White House’s ongoing project to mass deport millions of immigrants – raising the prospect of an administration wielding deportation as a weapon of retribution against its critics.But Guy’s story also laid bare the transformation of X. In a few short years, the platform has become a place where Maga and other far-right influencers not only rule the roost, but can see their trollish posts perhaps dictate policy. X may now be a sincerely dangerous place for some users to post their thoughts.It all started with Elon Musk. After taking over Twitter in 2022, the world’s richest man oversaw the implementation of an algorithmic “for you” tab that pushed content from a bizarre array of influencers on users. Through a fateful quirk in the algorithm, Guy was among the platform’s new main characters, his incisive commentary about men’s fashion suddenly ubiquitous on people’s feeds. Guy, who got his start years earlier commenting in menswear forums before launching a blog called Die, Workwear!, was suddenly being profiled in GQ and interviewed by Slate. Everyone started calling him the “menswear guy”.Musk later rechristened Twitter as X, further loosening moderation on the platform, and restoring the accounts of users previously banned for bigotry or harassment. X became even more of a far-right haven, with white supremacist and neo-Nazi accounts risen from the dead. Meanwhile Guy was frequently going viral, namely for posts teasing prominent Maga figures for their ill-fitting suits – bringing attention to the wrinkles on Trump’s trousers, and the “collar gaps” on Stephen Miller’s suit jackets.By 2025, of course, Trump and Miller were back in the White House, pursuing a campaign promise to “remigrate” millions of everyday people out of America. In recent weeks they appeared to ramp up this ethno-nationalist project, with disturbing footage emerging online of masked, heavily armed Ice and DHS agents abducting Latino people from schools and courthouses, or kidnapping them off the streets, often separating them from their children.Guy felt compelled to stand up and be counted.In a long post on X, he recounted his family’s harrowing story of escaping war in Vietnam, a journey that ended with his mom carrying him across the US border while he was still an infant. Guy revealed that he was one of millions of undocumented people living in the US.“The lack of legal immigration has totally shaped my life,” he wrote. “It has made every interaction with the law much scarier. It has shaped which opportunities I could or could not get. It has taken an emotional toll, as this legal issue hangs over your head like a black cloud.”He was sharing his story to “push back against the idea that all undocumented immigrants are MS-13 members”, he wrote. “I know many people in my position and they are all like your neighbors.”Guy’s post sent far-right influencers on X into a feeding frenzy. “JD Vance I know you’re reading this and you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever,” a user named @growing_daniel wrote about Guy’s announcement. (@Growing_Daniel appears to be the founder of a tech startup called Abel, that uses artificial intelligence to help police write up crime reports.)Vance did see the post, replying with a gif of Jack Nicholson from the movie Anger Management, slowly nodding his head with an intense, menacing look. A short time later, the official account of the Department of Homeland Security joined the fray. The federal agency quote-tweeted a post from another far-right account, which noted Guy’s undocumented status, with a gif from the movie Spy Kids, showing a character with futuristic glasses that can zoom in on a subject from a great distance.The message to Guy was clear: we’re watching you. Vance and DHS did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment about the posts.Prominent far-right figures were ecstatic. “IT’S HABBENING,” posted Jack Posobiec, a Maga operative with more than 3 million followers on X. Michael Knowles, the prominent Daily Wire pundit, posted a photo of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, wearing a blue-and-white sash over his suit jacket. “Hey @dieworkwear,” Knowles wrote to his one million followers, “what are your thoughts on this outfit?” The subtext of Knowles’s tweet was also clear: Bukele has partnered with the Trump administration to hold immigrants deported from America, with no due process, in El Salvador’s most notorious gulag.Guy was aghast at the response. “The cruelty in today’s politics feels horribly corrosive,” he wrote. “Bringing up that hard-working immigrant families — undocumented, yes, but not violent criminals — are being ripped apart based on immigration status doesn’t bring compassion or even pause, but gleeful cheers.”Longtime critics of X pointed to the deportation threats as evidence of the platform’s perils. “…It’s been turned into a political weapon for people who wish to use it to harm others,” noted journalist Charlie Warzel, the author of a recent Atlantic essay arguing for people to abandon X. “It’s not the marketplace of ideas – you do not have to participate in this project! very simple!”For now, Guy – who politely declined to comment to the Guardian about this week’s saga – is still on X, using all of this week’s attention for what he sees as good causes.“ICE raided a downtown LA garment warehouse, arresting fourteen garment workers,” he wrote. “Many of those detained were the primary breadwinner for young children and elderly relatives. Would you consider donating to help these families?”He also took time to taunt those calling for his deportation. When an account belonging to a luxury wristwatch dealer chastised him for “disrespecting” immigration laws, Guy responded with a one-thousand word history of how the flow of immigrants and refugees across borders over the past two centuries led to the creation of Rolex, among other luxury watch brands.He also replied directly to Vance’s post threatening to deport him. “i think i can outrun you in these clothes,” Guy wrote, posting a photo of the vice-president seated at a political conference, his ill-fitting suit pants riding up to his calves. “you are tweeting for likes. im tweeting to be mentioned in the National Archives and Records,” Guy added.Guy then told the vice-president where immigration agents could find him: “Here is my house,” the “menswear guy” wrote, posting an image of a Men’s Wearhouse storefront.

      This article was updated on 14 June 2025 to correct that the movie the gif of Jack Nicholson was from was Anger Management, not The Departed. More

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in US Politics

      What Elon Musk wore to the White House foreshadowed his downfall

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      In case you missed it, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have fallen out.For some – and in particular anyone looking at the tech billionaire’s White House wardrobe – this will come as little surprise. Long before anyone hit send on those inflammatory tweets, or tensions spilled out over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB), Musk’s political downfall was written in the stitching.During his time in the White House, Musk shunned the sartorial rulebook of someone at the shoulder of a president, where suits and ties are the common code. He wore dark Maga baseball caps at the Oval Office and told a rally in New York: “I’m not just Maga, I’m dark gothic Maga.” Then there were the T-shirts with slogans such as “Occupy Mars”, “Tech Support” and “Dogefather”. At campaign rallies, commentators noted he looked “more like he belonged at a Magic: The Gathering tournament than a political event”, his dress sense the style equivalent of the k-holes that it is claimed Musk frequently disappeared into.The more casual styles of Musk and his Silicon Valley tech bros – where stiff collars are eschewed in favour or crewnecks, tailored jackets softly pushed out the door by padded gilets – are light years away from those of the suited-and-booted US Capitol.But if Musk’s clobber signalled a new DC power shift, it also spoke to different norms. “Disruption might be a badge of honour in the tech space,” says DC-based image coach and style strategist Lauren A Rothman, “but in politics, chaos has a much shorter runway. The White House has been around for a long time. We’re not going to stop wearing suits … This is the uniform.”View image in fullscreenAll of this dressing down, dressing objectively badly and dressing “inappropriately” has form. Consider, if you can bear to, the case of Dominic Cummings. The former Boris Johnson aide subjected Westminster to dishevelment, Joules gilets, beanies, Billabong T-shirts and tote bags advertising the 1983 gothic-inspired horror novel The Woman in Black. He wasn’t just a Tory, he was a gothic horror Tory.As Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian columnist and host of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, notes: “Dressing down is usually a power move in politics, just as it is in the boardroom: only the most powerful can get away with it.” That was, he says, the message Cummings sent “when he roamed Number 10 in a gilet: ‘You lot are worker bees who have to wear a uniform, whereas I’m so indispensable to the man at the top, I can wear what I like’.”It was the same with Musk, whose threads were a flipped bird to all those Oval Office stiffs in suits. As Rothman puts it: “His uniform of casual defiance stands in sharp contrast to that traditionally suited corridor of political power.” And that contrast screams out his different, special status.Before him, there was “Sloppy Steve” Bannon, a man never knowingly under-shirted. On this side of the Atlantic, Freedland points to former David Cameron adviser Steve Hilton and his penchant for turning up to meetings barefoot: “ditching the shoes was an instant way of signalling his membership of the inner circle”.It’s that age-old question: who has the privilege to be scruffy? As Freedland puts it: “Musk was happy to stand next to the Resolute desk of the president looking like he was dressed for a gamers’ convention. That was his way of reminding everyone of his superior wealth and unique status, outside conventional politics.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionView image in fullscreenBut what Cummings and Musk share in sartorial disorder, they also share in political trajectories. Scruffy Icaruses who flew too close to the sun; their clothes a foreshadowing of their fall. Trump might talk about draining the swamp, but his Brioni suits are very much swamp-coded – plus, while Johnson might have had strategically unruly hair and ill-fitting suits as crumpled as a chip wrapper, suits they still were.Ultimately, nobody likes a bragger. Because dressing in a way in which your privilege is omnipresent if not outright stated, is a surefire way to piss people off. Not least Trump, who noted that Musk had “some very brilliant young people working for him that dress much worse than him, actually”, in an interview on Fox in February.“The contrast between Musk’s garb and Trump’s cabinet,” according to Freedland, “made them look and seem inferior: servants of the president rather than his equal. It was one more reason why more than a few in Trumpworld are glad to see the (poorly tailored) back of Elon Musk.”To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday. More

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      in US Politics

      Is ‘chic’ political? In Trump 2.0, the word stands for conservative femininity

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      The idea of “chic” is a fashion-world cliche. At best it is a know-it-when-you-see-it vibe, at worst a lazy adjective chosen by a writer to describe something that reminds her of Jane Birkin. It feels inoffensive enough. But now, “chic” has become something of a lightning rod online – a shorthand for a type of conservative-coded aesthetic.It began last month, when a creator named Tara Langdale posted a video to her TikTok following of just over 30,000 in which she sipped from a long-stemmed wine glass and read off a list of things she finds “incredibly UN-chic”. Wearing stacks of gold bracelets and a ballet-pink manicure, Langdale called out fashion choices like tattoos, Lululemon, visible panty lines, baggy denim and hunting camouflage as unchic, because, to her, these choices seemed “cheap”.“Remember, money talks, wealth whispers,” Langdale said.The not-entirely-serious video racked up views and sparked a conversation about how style preferences can carry political baggage. “This is giving mean girl,” one user wrote in the comments. “Classism isn’t chic, hope this helps,” wrote another. “Voting for Trump is unchic,” went a third. Many took particular issue with Langdale’s anti-tattoo stance, which they saw as stuffy or downright rude.View image in fullscreenSuch comments came with a strong dose of projection: Langdale, a lifestyle influencer, does not post about politics, sticking to fashion, makeup or motherhood. Nevertheless, many in the fashion TikTok community felt her commentary on “chic” aligned with the feminine aesthetic of Trump 2.0, where the rigid and airbrushed beauty standards of Maga officials such as Karoline Leavitt, Kristi Noem and Nancy Mace are celebrated.“Chic is starting to feel like a conservative dogwhistle that polices women’s looks,” said Elysia Berman, a creative director and content creator based in New York who posted a takedown of Langdale’s unchic list. “What chic has come to mean to a lot of people is a very narrow definition of elegance. It’s this thin, white, blonde woman who speaks softly and is basically Grace Kelly.”The ideal vision of womanhood from Donald Trump’s first term was caked foundation and clumpy mascara, as seen on the likes of Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lara Trump. But the facial augmentation and overly sexy aesthetic tied to the president’s inner circle – see “Ice Barbie” Noem, who posts full glam videos while deporting immigrants – does not necessarily match that of the president’s more social media savvy supporters, many of whom are now opting for a sleeker presentation.Momfluencers and tradwives celebrate RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” policies while wearing breezy milkmaid dresses. Evie Magazine, a politically conservative version of Cosmo, appropriates the trending visuals of feminist magazines with headlines that decry body positivity and promote vaccine skepticism. As the New York Magazine writer Brock Colyar described young Republicans at a post-election night party: “Many are hot enough to be extras in the upcoming American Psycho remake.”The word “chic” has always been tied to a French, or francophile, sense of femininity, usually in reference to a woman who subscribes to Vogue and innately understands how to look good. But those turning it into a dirty word on TikTok, taking note of how it aligns with a changing conservative aesthetic, see it as having a more prescriptive, even oppressive, meaning for women’s fashion.Suzanne Lambert, a DC-based comedian whose “conservative girl” mock makeup tutorials went viral earlier this year, described the right’s obsession with all things ultra-feminine as “just this soulless, boring kind of fashion”.“Republicans are more focused on assimilating than we are on the left, so it makes sense that they all end up looking the same,” Lambert said.Ultimately, anyone who’s attempting to look chic – or wealthy – is probably neither of those things. Those TikTok imitators who equate chicness with pearls and a Leavitt-esque tweed shift dress? “They think it’s giving Reagan, but it’s really giving Shein,” said Lambert.(Ironically, some of the unchic pieces on Langdale’s list – Lululemon leggings, Golden Goose sneakers, a Louis Vuitton carryall bag – come with hefty price tags and could connote liberal elitism.)In an email, Langdale said that her definition of chic had nothing to do with politics. “Chic by definition means simplicity and timelessness,” she wrote. “Reading a neutral palette as ‘conservative’ conflates style choice with ideology. Conservatism as a moral or political stance varies widely across cultures and religious communities, so tagging a fitting tank top and trousers as ‘Republican’ is lazy stereotyping.”Langdale called chic “this year’s version” of “old money” dressing, a TikTok trend that prioritized subdued, luxury items over the loud, brash and individualistic. “You can own every item on my unchic list and still be considered chic,” she wrote. “Labeling an item chic or unchic speaks only to its aesthetic, not a person’s style or worth.The conversation around chic is ongoing. Other creators, inspired by Langdale’s video, posted about what they considered chic in their niches. A medical student said it was “incredibly chic” to color coordinate scrubs with personal accessories; an office worker considered not letting colleagues in on their personal lives the height of chicness.Kat Brown, a 25-year-old New Yorker who works in fashion PR, made a video talking about how it’s “not chic” to be overly trendy, with chicness coming from a more sustainable wardrobe. “Smart consumption is chic,” Brown said. “Chicness is more reflective of your resourcefulness and creativity, rather than any sort of socioeconomic element.”For all the angst on chic-Tok, true insiders probably aren’t paying much attention. Fashion editors often make lists of words they consider so dull and unspecific that they prohibit writers from using them in copy; “chic” is usually right at the top. And when a word like chic is so bland to begin with, who cares if its wielded as an insult? As a British couturier played by Daniel Day-Lewis in the 2017 period drama Phantom Thread bemoaned of “chic”: “That filthy little word. Whoever invented that ought to be spanked in public. I don’t even know what that word means.” More

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      in US Politics

      Price hike on Shein? How Trump tariffs could shift the US’s love of fast fashion

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      After a chaotic week of flip-flopping tariff policies, cheap clothes from China are nearly certain to face a steep price hike soon – prompting concern among fast fashion retailers and potentially pushing consumers to look for other alternatives.As part of a package of global tariff policies announced on “liberation day” last week, Donald Trump signed an executive order that ended a duty-free exemption for low-priced goods to enter the US from China and Hong Kong. Known as the “de-minimis” rule, packages under $800 do not qualify for any taxes or tariffs on the goods and are inspected minimally at the border.Conceived as a means to allow Americans to bring back low-cost goods to the US from abroad, fast fashion giants including Shein and Temu have used the rule to send low-cost e-commerce purchases to the US with few expenses.Alon Rotem, the chief strategy officer for ThredUp, an online thrift store, welcomed the executive order.“With the proliferation of fast fashion, this is something we’ve really supported because it creates an unfair competitive advantage,” he said.Ending the de-minimis rule has been a target of bipartisan legislators in recent years as the value of goods entering the US under the rule soared from about $5.5bn in 2018 to $66bn in 2023, according to a congressional report. Nearly two-thirds of packages under the rule were shipped from China and Hong Kong, said a US International Trade Commission briefing.ThredUp has pushed for legislation to end the de-minimis rule through the American Circular Textiles, a trade group it helped found that advocates for strengthening domestic supply chains. Other members include the RealReal, Reformation and H&M.“This change was coming,” said Derek Lossing, the founder of Cirrus Global Advisors, a global logistics firm. “Maybe it’ll catch consumers by surprise, but it’s ultimately not catching the brands significantly by surprise.”Some companies have already begun diversifying their production outside of China. Others have evolved their business model to begin stocking more inventory in the US as well as moving some production here and then fulfilling orders domestically, Lossing added.Trump first announced the rule change in February, but then recanted in order to give border agents time to figure out how to address an influx of so many packages that will require more extensive inspection.It is currently expected to take effect 2 May. After that, the packages will be subject to a tariff rate of 30% or $25 an item, rising to $50 an item on 1 June. When China responded with retaliatory tariffs this week, Trump hit back and then tripled the rates for previously exempt packages to 90% or $75 an item, rising to $150 on 1 June.“Everyone’s just pulling up their pants and bracing for impact,” said Jason Wong, who works in product logistics for Temu in Hong Kong. “We know it’s going to be a mess.”Wong said one plan is to make more of a push into Europe as well as Australia, which has its own de-minimis rule that goods under $1,000 can enter the country without taxes or tariffs.“We know for a fact that the demand from the US and North America will significantly decrease,” he said.Shein and Temu did not respond to requests for comment about any shifts to their business model in response to the forthcoming rule change.Rotem, the ThredUp executive, said the rule change creates an opening for consumers to consider other options, including buying secondhand clothes. While he acknowledged that shoppers care about sustainability, he said it’s a secondary decision of consumers to price.“All of a sudden, if ultra fast fashion is now 30% or so more expensive, it really does make the value proposition that much more compelling for resale,” he said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSome retail experts cautioned that the rule change may not deter consumers from options like Shein or Temu, because many of their items are so inexpensive to begin with.“Americans’ love affair with cheap goods is not over,” said Jason Goldberd, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, a global communications firm. “Even with the tariffs, the products still may be attractively priced.”Rotem said he saw promise in the shift: “We’re never going to get this thing perfect, but the progress with public policy to encourage resale is something that we’re going to support.”While the de-minimis rule change remains intact for now, anxiety and confusion is also high amid a whiplash in policies and wild market swings. On Wednesday, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on tariffs, though kept a 10% flat rate tariff intact and then raised tariff rates for China.“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump wrote.On Friday, China responded by raising its tariff rate to 125% as well. An official said it would not raise the tariff rate any further than that.Wong, who works in Temu logistics, said that there have been so many changes to the policies, that partly the move will be to simply keep watching for now.“We don’t know how long this de-minimis thing is going to last,” he said, adding that backlash from consumers could lead to yet another policy shift.Goldberg echoed that sentiment, calling it “a dynamic situation”.“It may be different tomorrow,” he said. More

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      Hiding in plain sight: Americans’ obsession with camouflage is a sign of paranoid times

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      It’s become an inescapable pop culture touchstone. A pattern of crispy brown leaves interspersed with twigs and moss darting around like advancing thickets, peeking out from underneath jackets, plastered on oversize pants and trucker hats.Hunting camouflage, a tactical pattern designed to resemble forest undergrowth to disguise hunters during deer season, is seen everywhere from Chappell Roan’s Midwestern Princess hat (and its ill-fated Harris-Walz dupe), to Lana Del Rey’s gator-wrangling husband, to Sweetgreen’s kale-themed camo merchandise, to lacy thong underwear sold by Bass Pro Shops that promises “a look that’s as thrilling as the hunt itself”.While we live in an age of ephemeral trends – anyone remember mob wife? What about grandpacore? – the recent rise of hunting camo outside hunting culture has been a slow burn.In 2021, the clothing brand Online Ceramics released a foliage-covered baseball hat. Later that year, GQ called Realtree camouflage “a cool-kid essential”. The designer Marine Serre released a fall 2022 collection featuring a glitchy camo pattern worthy of Elmer Fudd, and an $85 “God’s Favorite” cap became available via the luxury retailer SSENSE. The pattern has found itself increasingly in the closets of urban tastemakers, as likely to see the inside of a coffee shop as the muzzle of a gun. Even prior to this demographic expansion, Realtree, one of the most popular hunting camo licensors, estimated licensed partners sold $4bn in branded products each year.View image in fullscreenIt is also one of the few current fashion objects that could be considered truly democratic, accessible to all: you can buy a woody khaki denim maxi skirt for $300 or a hat with identical print at Walmart for $5.97.However, hunting camo’s creeping pervasiveness mirrors the rise of populism in the United States and a wholesale rejection of the “elite class”. During the most recent election, the Democratic party abandoned its core voters on the left by swinging rightwards with a bloodless campaign designed to capture centrist and undecided voters. (See: Kamala Harris palling around with Liz Cheney, and the refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.)Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz hunting camo hat was a doomed attempt to court young, hyper-online voters through an extremely shallow campaign based on fleeting internet parlance over addressing progressive voters’ real needs. As a result, the political system is thoroughly despised by many on the left and the right.View image in fullscreenAccording to Sarah Scaturro, chief conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, whose master’s thesis traced the evolution of camo in fashion, the pattern tends to appear outside military contexts during periods of political instability. During the Vietnam war, the military’s US woodland print was defaced and subverted by protesters as a form of dissent. It ascended again around the late 1990s and early 2000s, a time of unease over Y2K and the contested election of George W Bush. “[The current revival suggests] we’re really in an insecure moment where we don’t really know what will happen,” Scaturro says.Hunting camo, as worn by the denizens of Duck Dynasty, symbolizes autonomy, self-sufficiency and a rigid belief in personal liberties. “When that survivalist look becomes desirable, to me that reflects that we’re experiencing anxiety as a society,” says Louisa Rogers, an assistant professor of fashion communications at Northumbria University. A recent survey found that gen Z feels the need to make $587,000 a year to consider themselves financially successful; economic unease is being felt across the US.In 2024, hunting camo reflects our culture’s growing individualism, and a desire to arm oneself in the face of great uncertainty. As opposed to military camo, which can symbolize faith in or a direct criticism of our military institutions, hunting camo brings to mind the second amendment. Increasingly, we live in a sick society that forces people to fend for themselves, and what more poignant symbol do we have than the gun enthusiast? The pattern has been co-opted by libertarian self-determinists who reject government in all its forms, so it makes sense that such a paranoid archetype resonates widely in an era where neighbourly trust in one another has all but eroded away. Ironically, the widespread embrace of hunting camo could be the closest we have come to bipartisanship in a long time.View image in fullscreenRogers suggests that some of the appeal of hunting camo to non-hunters might also rest in its inherent taboo. At times, it can be difficult to tell whether it’s worn in earnest; meme accounts like Pathetic Fashion and Doomscroll Forever point out the aesthetic homogeneity – Realtree camo hat, white tank and New Balances – that now exists between the political poles. While some may be wearing the pattern to subvert its rightwing associations, others wear it cloaked under several levels of brain-fried irony to the point where they may actually be embracing the outlaw symbolism (like rightwing-coded “it” girls such as Red Scare’s Dasha Nekrasova). Others still, including the midwest musicians Ethel Cain and Chappell Roan, might see it as a way of reclaiming their rural roots.What do actual hunters make of the broad adoption of their hobby gear? Is it stolen valor? “I don’t think I’ve ever heard another hunter complain about it,” says Lindsay Thomas Jr, chief communications officer of the National Deer Association. “National surveys show a large majority of the public supports hunting, and if the non-hunting public is adopting camo for their own fashion, I think it’s symbolic of that support.” (According to a June survey, public support for legal hunting shooting is 76%, a figure that has been declining since 2021.)In the end, we’re left with a paradox. “Camouflage is a protective pattern. It’s meant to protect us, conceal us, save us from danger,” says Scaturro.But wearing camo in the city doesn’t offer protection, literally. What it does offer is a way to blend in, especially now that Donald Trump is about to enter office once again. It’s about “becoming part of a whole”, says Rogers. “There is a sense of community creation there, a leveling out between the people the pattern resonates with and the leftwing consciousness.” In this way, Realtree is the perfect pattern for these anxious times. More

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      in US Politics

      What does the American dream mean in 2024? New York fashion week had thoughts

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      I’m writing this as New York fashion week comes to a close, and it’s been a whirlwind six days of shows and antics. Rihanna kept everyone waiting for almost an hour at Alaïa. Wu-Tang Clan popped up with a surprise performance onboard the Tommy Hilfiger ferry and Luar closed out the week with a front-row appearance by Madonna. As for the catwalks? There was one dominant theme that you couldn’t miss, from chinos to varsity jackets and knitted sweaters: preppy is well and truly back.This way of dressing originally took its inspiration from Ivy League sports clubs and campuses. It is a trend that is heavily rooted in class and identity and it comes at a time when these issues are at the forefront of American politics, with the 2024 presidential election less than two months away. Politics was also, naturally, a hot topic on and off the catwalks. Prabal Gurung took his post-show bow in a T-shirt emblazoned with “VOTE” on the front and “Harris/Walz” on the back. Anna Wintour and Jill Biden hit the streets of Manhattan alongside designers including Thom Browne, Michael Kors and Tory Burch as part of a non-partisan voting awareness march organised by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue. And fresh from her appearance at the DNC, Ella Emhoff, the 25-year-old stepdaughter of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, was the model and front-row guest of choice for a string of designers including Burch and Coach.But the preppy trend provided the most food for thought. It feeds into a wider commentary from designers on the American dream and what that concept means and looks like in 2024. Immigration is a key part of the notion, and it also happens to be one of the crucial policies that both US parties are grappling with.Ralph Lauren, the son of Jewish immigrants who grew up in the Bronx and now has a reported net worth of £5.3bn, is often held up as the embodiment of the term. His picture-perfect spectacle on Thursday night in the Hamptons oozed an old-money lifestyle that is certainly one version of the dream. Speaking at a reception before the show, where waiters clad in white RL polo tops handed out champagne and miniature lobster rolls, the actor Laura Dern mused on Lauren’s version of preppy. “There is always deep iconography connected to America,” she said. “He loves American traditions and family has always been embedded in his stories. It’s always playful and hopeful. With everything going on, to feel hopeful is a nice feeling.”View image in fullscreenIf Lauren’s world is a version of the American dream as lived by the 1%, Willy Chavarria’s commentary was a little more democratic. Chavarria, who was born in California near the Mexican border, is the son of an Irish-American mother and Mexican-American father. The designer said he wanted to “celebrate immigration and those people who have built the country and are still the backbone of the country”. His show was held in a disused bank on Wall Street, and guests arrived to find a giant US flag hoisted above them and a copy of the American constitution on their seats. Chavarria said he added the accent to the show’s name, América, because this is how the word “is heard through the voice of an immigrant or the child of an immigrant”. The clothes riffed on uniforms – cargo pants and neat button-down shirts – and were said to be a celebration of the workforce. In a nod to farm workers, some wore bandanas wrapped around their faces. “The collection is a story of empowerment,” the designer said. And while Chavarria’s price point is out of reach for most blue-collar workers (trousers cost about £600), it did feel as if he was planting the seed for a new type of American style. “It’s really about the fact that all of us belong, all of us have purpose, and all of us have the ability to make change in this country, especially starting with the vote.”With an invitation that mirrored the American green card, Off-White’s Ib Kamara was also thinking about immigration. Kamara said he had decided to show in New York rather than the brand’s usual slot at Paris because he wanted to bring the brand, which was founded by the late American designer Virgil Abloh, “home”. Kamara explained that, growing up in Sierra Leone, “America was a dream”. “If you want luxury, you come to America. It’s a dream place. You feel hopeful when you come.”Stuart Vevers, the British designer and creative director of Coach, who sent Emhoff down the catwalk wearing an “I heart NY” T-shirt, also spoke about hope. “There’s a sense of optimism in the next generation,” Vevers said. “There’s a lot of hope. They’re going to change things.”To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday. More

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      Model candidate: the style lesson Kamala Harris can learn from Shirley Chisholm

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      The energy that Kamala Harris’s candidacy has injected into the Democratic party has taken over the election. With standing-room only rallies that have rock concert vibes, Harris has not only sharpened her rhetoric and message since her 2020 bid for the presidency, but she has also brought new spirit for the campaign.However, Harris’s style – which could be employed as a political tool to aid her candidacy and connection with voters – has shifted only slightly. Despite wearing a few outfits that have more color than her usual choice of navy and black, Harris has so far shied away from bold fashion statements that would convey the historic nature of her candidacy, or the excitement she stirs. While the campaign has certainly expanded the political imagination of what Harris can achieve, it still needs to hone in on what image defines her new status as a presidential nominee.Unlike Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are known for fashion statements that effectively telegraph power and political shrewdness, Harris is not known for her sartorial savviness. In 2020, she branched out of her comfort zone by posing for Vogue in her Chuck Taylor All Stars or by wearing a white suit with a pussy-bow blouse during her victory speech as a tribute to the suffragists, but her fashion choices during her tenure as vice-president can be best described as safe. Harris is fond of corporate pantsuits in dark colors, a form of functional power dressing that has defined her career as an attorney general and a senator. Often paired with soft feminine blouses, high heels and delicate pearl jewelry, Harris maintains her femininity without letting it stand out.View image in fullscreenThere is some sense to this choice of style. The tailored suit is a symbol of power, professionalism and also masculinity. And as a Black woman on Capitol Hill, Harris has used the dark suit as a shield that allows her to blend in. It provides authority and legitimacy, two important qualities needed for a leader. This strategy was especially useful for Harris in her role as vice-president. Her outfits were so unremarkable they faded into the background.But as recent years have shown, a candidate’s style is an important element in crafting a political image and building a successful brand. It brings recognition and visibility while also helping to boost identification and campaign merchandise sales. Donald Trump turned his ill-fitted suits and Maga trucker hat into a trademark of his persona, conveying an image of “a regular, simple guy” that appeals to his base of white, rural, working-class voters. The sloppy tailoring hides the fact that his suits cost tens of thousands of dollars, and that his background is rooted not in the coal mines of Appalachia but in the boardrooms of Wall Street.View image in fullscreenFashionable accessories have also helped Joe Biden to project a vigorous image, presenting a cool and in-control look that signals vitality and leadership. His signature Ray-Ban 3025 aviators amplify his “dark Brandon” identity, and project the image of a confident president who pushes defiantly against his critics while getting the work done.But fashion functions differently for Biden and Trump. Unlike Harris, who needs to navigate an entire set of expectations and stereotypes about her presence in politics, they don’t need to worry about “looking presidential”. Being white men, that is almost a given. Fashion for them is just one tool in their political strategy box – one they can use but not be defined by.For Harris, however, fashion presents a different challenge. Female politicians, and specifically female politicians of color, have endured much more scrutiny (and misogyny) regarding their bodies and appearance. They have long needed to balance between the need to demonstrate their capability as leaders and conforming to gender norms of femininity. Much more than men, whose presence in politics is never questioned, women need to fashion themselves in a way that will prove their fitness for office and to claim their power.View image in fullscreenSo far, Harris has preferred to dodge the fashion issue, but as the campaign continues to gain steam, attention on her appearance mounts. Although there is no playbook for how a woman can “look presidential”, Harris can reach to the past – and to the only other Black female Democratic presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm – for inspiration.The daughter of a dressmaker, Chisholm understood both the importance of presentation and of execution, viewing it as an important means of self-expression. Her clothes were often custom-made, and she was active in the design process. She cultivated a unique signature style through her bouffant hairdo, cat-eye glasses and brightly colored ladylike suits. Chisholm’s savvy dressing won her the title of the “best dresser in Congress” from the Washington press, and also helped her project a modern image of Black femininity. Refusing to be boxed into norms of respectability that expected Black women to be quiet and accommodating, Chisholm’s fashions nonetheless conveyed professionalism and propriety that commanded respect.As the first Black woman to be elected to Congress, Chisholm embraced the visibility of the position. She harnessed her style to create an unapologetic proud image of a person who refused to be silenced or muted, which worked well with her campaign message of “unbought and unbossed”. Known for saying, “if they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” Chisholm’s bold fashion statements enabled her to claim her right to power and influence.View image in fullscreenCombining knee-high boots and geometric prints together with church-lady style, Chisholm’s strategy was to maintain a feminine appearance that did not alienate voters or mark her as a “radical”. And while she was not known for wearing pants (it would take Carol Moseley-Braun, the first Black female senator, to lead this revolution), Chisholm showed that there could be a strong Black feminist woman in politics, even when sticking to feminine styles.Chisholm’s style provides a model for Harris of a female politician who was a strong, fearless advocate for women and people of color, while also being a smart dresser with a touch of creativity and fun. The Harris campaign already showed they were open to emulating Chisholm when it changed its logo typeface to resemble that of Chisholm’s presidential campaign. It is now time to embrace Chisholm’s fashion strategy, too.With the Democratic national convention starting on Monday, Harris has the opportunity to define what a female president could look like. Chisholm once advised that we should reject not only the stereotypes that others have of us, but also those we have of ourselves. Harris can listen to this advice as she tries to convince voters to imagine a world in which a Black and Asian woman can be a president. She could also use some styling tips while sending this message; Shirley would certainly approve. More