KATE EMERY: A flash suit doesn’t make you a competent leader

It takes a brave journalist to ask the big questions and last year GQ dared to ask the biggest of them all: Do Suits Still Matter?

One year on we have our answer: yes.

But they really should not.

Confirmation that we’re still judging (some) men by their ability to access Tony Barlow and willingness to dress in a style popularised by a 19th century dandy, came not from the world of men’s style but from the weekend’s White House press conference.

There are many possible takeaways from the alarming press conference between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

You could watch footage of that meeting and wonder if the US has entirely relinquished its post-war role of leader of the free world.

You might speculate on just why Mr Trump has set up his sixth (by my count) residence so firmly inside the pocket — or possibly a more intimate location — of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

You may marvel at the big egos of small men, after US Vice President JD Vance suggested Mr Zelensky had failed to say thank you often enough for the US’s military aid after the Russian invasion three years ago.

But because I cover social affairs, not world politics, I choose to avert my eyes from the serious geopolitical implications of the weekend’s events and focus on the most superficial possible conclusion to emerge from this sorry display: suits still matter.

Unfortunately.

Because at that White House press conference pro-Trump MAGA podcaster Brian Glenn asked Mr Zelensky: “Why don’t you wear a suit? Do you own a suit?”

It’s not the first time this has come up. Mr Zelensky’s habit of wearing comparatively dressed-down military-adjacent get-up when meeting other leaders has been criticised by some as lacking respect and defended by others as showing solidarity with his country’s troops.

Mr Trump had already made a snide remark to Mr Zelensky about his clothes before the press conference and it’s hard to believe Mr Glenn’s question was intended to do anything but humiliate the Ukraine leader.

Mr Zelensky could have chosen to rebut the question by name-checking former UK prime minister Winston Churchill, who turned up to the White House in 1942 wearing a siren suit — a one-piece item of clothing designed to be worn during air raids. The outfit, which Mr Churchill really pulled off, in case you’re wondering, was a nod to the fact his country was at war.

Mr Zelensky could also have asked if anybody had a problem with Mr Trump’s unelected right hand man, the Bond villain formerly known as Elon Musk, appearing at the White House in a T-shirt and baseball cap.

Mr Zelensky’s actual reply was great, the kind of savage off-the-cuff response most of us only think up on the car ride home. “I will wear a costume when this war finishes,” he said to Mr Glenn. “Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.”

Boom! In the military, I think they call that a direct hit.

Unfortunately, this entire exchange confirmed that suits remain the bastion of respectability for a cohort of people that, even more unfortunately, are holding the reins of power.

Mr Zelensky didn’t show up to the White House in thongs and a Bintang singlet: he was dressed in a knitted long-sleeved polo shirt bearing the Ukrainian coat of arms and trousers — both from a Ukrainian menswear designer.

Even if Ukraine was not at war, it would be ridiculous to suggest that a person’s clothing choice is more important than their actions. And it feels particularly silly to suggest that Important Men must match their pants to their jacket or risk ridicule.

I can’t pretend to know a lot about the social history of men’s clothing.

What I do know is that, as recently as the turn of the 20th century, suits weren’t associated with respectability. At the time, so-called gentlemen wore frock coats and looked down on suit-wearers.

I know this because I, like half the internet, have become a slavish devotee of menswear journalist Derek Guy. Of Suitgate, Mr Guy said judgments linking clothes to respectability were usually about the people under the clothes.

“To wit, no one raised an issue when Elon wore a graphic T-shirt and ball cap to meet the Trump cabinet,” he wrote on social media site Bluesky. “As a general matter, I also dislike the idea of respectability in dress because the concept is often unevenly applied. It bothered me to see Vance smirking, as he supposedly champions the forgotten working poor who are most often shamed because of these concepts.

“The biggest reason why I dislike the idea of respectability in dress is because it conflates the *appearance* of virtue with *actual* virtue. Wearing a suit doesn’t make you respectful, intelligent, or capable, just as wearing a leather jacket doesn’t make you rugged.”

Dress codes are more relaxed than they used to be and that’s mostly a good thing.

Personally, I enjoy frocking up. But I also think the idea that you need access to the “right” clothes to have a seat at the table is the kind of classist BS that keeps the wealthy and privileged in positions of power.

I don’t care if a leader has access to a good tailor, I just want them to be competent.

To put it another way: Mr Putin is notorious for a designer wardrobe that includes custom-tailored black suits. But I’m not convinced that’s a good enough reason for the US to abandon its allies and get into bed with him.