Accidental Blogger

Evo Morales, the newly elected president of Bolivia is a colorful character and the first Bolivian president of indigenous Andean Indian origin.  He is a socialist and a good friend of Hugo Chavez.  If that was not enough to send alarm bells ringing through the corridors of the White House and US Congress, he has also threatened to legalize coca farming, directly challenging the US war on drugs (Morales is a former coca farmer).  Now  Morales is making waves in the halls of fashion – by refusing to submit to the tyranny of the suited, booted, necktied world of men’s professional attire (go Evo!).

In fashion conscious Latin America of Armani suits and designer dresses, Morales routinely  wears black jeans and the jacket of a sweat suit (and never a tie). For more formal occasions, such as his meetings  with other world leaders, he wears a multi-colored sweater over slightly crumpled dress pants. His unconventional sartorial preferences have raised a few stern eyebrows.  In Spain, uptight fashion commentators scoffed at his lack of style when Morales chose to meet with both the king and the prime minister wearing his sweater, calling it the "garment of discord, far from official protocol."  But the fiery populist leader’s "signature look"  is quite a rage in his native Bolivia where colorful striped sweaters are flying off the shelves like the proverbial hot cake.

Men in politics do tend to dress in a conservative (boring) manner for the most part.  Until we have more women in leadership positions around the world, gatherings of presidents and prime ministers will continue to look, well, boring. The fashionistas here concentrate on the first ladies and don’t waste a second glance at presidents (things will change dramatically when a female president is elected). Indeed, why should they bother? I mean, think back to all the US presidents during your life time. Can you name one with a memorable personal style?  All dark suits and ties and the occasional jeans and plaid shirt favored by Reagan and George Bush while playing out their macho, outdoorsy, wood chopping fantasies. In fact the most famous piece of clothing associated with the US presidency in recent years was Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress!

Some women world leaders have exhibited distinctive personal styles. Golda Meir, with her rumpled, harried look of the sensible leader of a nation under siege, comes to mind. Margaret Thatcher of the perfect coiffure and severe suits, which, had it not been for the occasional flash of color, would have blended her in with the men she was surrounded by. Indira Gandhi was probably the most elegant of all modern day women leaders. Cool as a popsicle in her tasteful saris, she was never overdressed, never dowdy, often aloof and always confident.  That Mrs. Gandhi made the sari a familiar garment in far flung places, I can testify from personal experience. In the 1980’s, despite officially being a "non-aligned" nation, India was in reality aligned with the USSR.  Indian movies, music and political leaders were hugely popular in the Soviet bloc nations of eastern Europe.  In 1982 I was in Bulgaria with my husband and two young children. During an afternoon foray into a village outside the city of Varna near the Black Sea, we met some cheerful Bulgarian women. I was wearing a sari.  The women surrounded us, pinched the kids’ cheeks and then proceeded to unwrap my sari with the perfect ease of familiarity, in order to investigate how the sari stays put.  While I fended them off, they were chattering jovially and I could not understand a word – except "Indira Gandhi, Indira Gandhi"!

In all fairness to male world leaders, some have shown a flair for fashion and even set clothing trends, as the linked article in NYT points out…..  "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan was once named by Tom Ford, then at Gucci, "the chicest man on the planet today" because of his dramatic capes, caps of sheared Persian lamb, and loose but elegant trousers. Nelson Mandela struck a note of optimism in South Africa with his colorful, flowery shirts, while the élan of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru is embodied in jackets still popular today. Closer to home, who could imagine Fidel Castro without camouflage?"

Other than making a fashion statement, clothing of popular leaders occasionally symbolize political movements. Many black civil rights leaders in the US including MLK Jr., often donned white Gandhi caps popularized by Indian freedom fighters during their battle against British colonial rule. Ukraine’s Orange Revolution was I believe, set in motion by an orange scarf worn by  Viktor Yushchenko during a pro democracy rally. The drab Mao jacket was the uniform of the fierce peasant revolutionaries in China. The more charismatic the leader, the more likely is his/ her style to be emulated.  That is why I feel very relieved that the minimalistic (half naked) dress style of Mahatama Gandhi, arguably the most influential Indian leader, did not catch on among Indian males.