Congratulations, Prime Minister: You're looking great these days. Did you really lose 40 pounds?
But we need to talk. You are still dressing like a larger, older man. You are a world leader: It's okay for you to project a smarter, more confident image – heck, it's required that you do.
The season change is the perfect opportunity to try out an updated look. We're not suggesting anything drastic, of course. We know that the PM has more pressing matters to address.
Besides, a wardrobe of Gucci and Dior would make Stephen Harper stick out on Parliament Hill like a sartorial sore thumb. Question Period would involve Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion accusing his rival of metrosexual tendencies. Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Alberta MP Rahim Jaffer would have to relinquish their unofficial shared title as Most Fashionable Conservative.
A 'uniform' works as long as there's some wiggle room for style. (Yvonne Berg for The Globe and Mail)
Photogallery
What we have in mind are some reasonable changes that could easily apply to any professional who has slimmed down or who hasn't yet traded his boxy suits for narrower ones.
Two-button jackets and flat-front pants are the first step. Next comes furnishings (translation: shirts and ties); this is where Harper should give up his predilection for wide diagonal stripes and try something subtler though still colourful.
Paying more attention to the details – cufflinks, a hint of a pocket square and lighter shoe styles – will contribute to what Larry Rosen, son of Canadian retail icon Harry Rosen, thinks is a greater projection of the PM's self-confidence.
“I think it would work for him positively,” says Rosen, chairman and chief executive officer of the men's wear company.
“People are looking for him to be a visionary guy and my advice to him would be that he can step it up a bit.”
As an example, he points to former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who last passed through Toronto for a private speaking engagement wearing a grey suit with double vents, a bold check shirt and a purple tie. Rosen describes this look as classic, but “with a bit of a twist.”
Senator Barack Obama is frequently cited as a politician par excellence in the wardrobe department. Rarely straying from a white shirt, dark suit and tie, he oozes effortless élan.
Communications consultant Gabor Apor, who advises politicians on their image, strongly proposes this default uniform, primarily because it never distracts from what a person has to say.
Even when Obama makes informal appearances, Apor notes, he simply takes his jacket off and rolls up his sleeves. That deliberate decision earns him a winning score where a golf shirt and pleated chinos would necessitate demerit points.
“The moment you question any individual's appearance, you can't get to the message,” he says in Toronto. “A uniform is a very safe proposition because you never have to ask whether it's right or wrong. You know it's always right.”
Certainly, there is room for some individuality, but Apor says this is taken to extremes in the House of Commons. “They look like a bunch of dealers in a flea market somewhere. They wear the most outrageous sports jackets, suits that are not appropriate, colours that are not appropriate and shirts that look like they're worn to a football game.”
Harper is guilty of wearing a greenish brown suit on more than one occasion. But the biggest mistake he makes is not the colour but the cut. Wider suits inevitably make men look wider. And more buttons means more fiddling every time he stands up during Question Period.
Worth noting is that the clothes we chose represent ideal options. While designer versions are in stores now, less expensive takes are also available. After all, we would hardly condone profligate spending in these times of economic gloom.
Indeed, Apor warns that politicians should stay away from labels that are too obvious, citing Brian Mulroney's Gucci shoes and the ensuing criticism as evidence that Canadians are not as hot on the idea of their leaders wearing luxury fashion as voters in other countries.
Berkeley Kaite, a professor of cultural studies in the department of English at McGill University in Montreal, agrees, using foreign heads of state as a contrast. “Europeans have a longer heritage of style,” she says. “They come from the land of Prada and Gucci and Chanel.”
What's more, we simply don't seem to care about looks as much as Americans, who are susceptible to what Kaite calls “the tyranny of the image.” For better or for worse, our politicians are rarely viewed as fashion plates. But she says this does not excuse a leader from being “clearly defined.”
It's about “a mind that's not cluttered, that's sharp and clear and can come across with these concise quips and sound bites. We want to see that mirrored in the visuality of the body and the way that that body is put on display.”
And speaking of the body, we also need to address Harper's hair.
“He needs to have his sides shortened,” says Toronto hair and makeup artist David Goveia. “I believe short sides keep men young. When hair gets long on the sides, it can be old-looking and people will think you look tired.”
All that being said, a politician's personal style will never be the deciding factor in an election.
“No country is so shallow that they're going to vote for a leader because they like his suit,” Kaite says. “We know that. But let's just say it works.”
In pictures: Harper: Before and after
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