In a year when the conservative pendulum swung, a legion of emboldened men also attempted to reassert their (fragile) masculinity, one button-down shirt and navy blazer at a time, writes Dan Ahwa.

Fashion has always been a sort of barometer of its times.

The hem index is
a prime example of this: a vibrant economy equals mini-skirts, and a period of austerity is supposedly reflected in longer lengths.

In 2024, we held the two 2000 Skirt Belt Competitions with ankle-length skirts that looked like they had been taken out of Florence Nightingale’s closet, confirming that we are indeed living in chaotic times where the knife that separates progressive values ​​and conservatism has sunk deeper.

But if it seems like conformity is a trend right now, then the fashion industry should have seen it coming.

According to Vogue Business, Ralph Lauren, the arbiter of preppy, all-American WASP style, reported a 3 percent increase in sales to $6.6 billion, with revenue expected to grow 2 to 3 percent. at constant exchange rate in 2025.

Fashion terms like “quiet luxury” and “traditional brides” have permeated our reality this year, small examples of how the industry has generally shifted towards these more traditional forms of dress over the course of the year elapsed.

Just this week, Internet sleuths quickly identified traditional wife and content creator Nara Aziza Smith’s Mormon husband, model Lucky Blue, as a possible Donald Trump supporter, adding further grist to the story. idea that they were secretly using social media as a means to reinforce heteronormative values ​​and Mormon propaganda.

If Aziza Smith’s demonstration of serving her husband hand and foot with a full face of makeup and a dress was an example of regression in 2024 (some might see this differently), the return of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after a six-year hiatus.

Despite its checkered history (the brand’s former marketing head, Ed Razek, explained that they would never hire “transsexual” models), this year’s showcase did its best to engage in the pivot inclusiveness of the body that she tried to establish during these intervening years via her campaigns and branding.

But it wasn’t enough. The inclusion of plus-size model Ashley Graham, who debuted on the show, always seemed like an afterthought for a cast made up mostly of the stereotypical Victoria’s Secret model of the past: impossibly tall, thin and buxom.

Another setback was last week’s election of Trump to a second non-consecutive term as president of the United States. The polarizing results also offer a sad reality: A larger share of Black and Latino voters, mostly men, all went to the polls to vote for Trump, a significantly higher number than in 2020, when he had lost to Joe Biden.

While it’s easy to be reductive in these cases, the majority of male leaders with conservative leanings seem comfortable in a single-breasted navy suit.

The navy in general is widely recognized as the symbol of loyalty and wisdom, but a suit rendered in the navy conveys something else. Stylish vanity that provides an easy shortcut to confidence. Unsurprisingly, this is a failing for white men in power, like Trump or Christopher Luxon.

Dressed in his trademark navy suit with red tie and “America First” cap in a recent video, Fuentes felt emboldened to declare that “the men win again,” further telling women “Your body, our choice », the dangerous anti-abortion slogan went viral this week.

Close to home, Act leader David Seymour’s controversial Treaty Principles Bill is another example of a man using the banality of a single-breasted navy suit to help him guide its program of divisive proposals. Yesterday, at the first reading of the principles of the treaty, Seymour wore a single-breasted navy blue blazer, with too-short cuffs, a blue shirt and a red polka dot tie.

If the last four or five years have been focused on guaranteeing the “Generation of kids” are understood and represented after losing much of their formative years to the pandemic, with high-profile figures such as Harry Styles, Colman Domingo, Timothy Chalamet and Paul Mescal offering a more sensitive, new age evolution of this metrosexual term from the early 2000s, United States. The elections proved that machismo – whether white, black or Latino – presented its modus operandi not only to “take America back” but also its refusal of equality.

The image of a clean-lined, “virtuous” man dressed in a shirt, tie, chinos, and brown boots is a Western construct of piety that offers a soothing balm to men who are deeply unsure of their place in the world and who feel the need to assert their authority.

But progressive, experimental men’s fashion isn’t completely at a standstill – as we’ve already seen with sports enjoyed by many alpha men; NFL football and its tunnel fashion with Formula 1 style on the grid. Sports stars are able to distance themselves from male fragility with a keen knack for personal style and self-expression, whether it’s Lewis Hamilton in a Dior Homme jumpsuit or the NFL star Travis Travis Kelce in a glittering custom Amiri suit.

It’s easy to draw parallels between conservative fashion and a return to conservative values, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of true, personal style. It just means that now is the time for individuality to shine even more.

By smearing beef tallow on your face and investing in a pair of ironed chinos might be superficial indicators of a pendulum swing toward a bygone conservative era, they’re just small details in the larger conversation about our identity in a critical period of change .

Individuality and authentic forms of self-expression through fashion are much more easily embraced by rabid liberals, fans of questioning the status quo. This is territory that conservatives generally avoid because for them, fashion as a form of expression is empty.

Because ultimately, a straight lace-up suit is a symbol of conformity, not rebellion.