One would have thought that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi settled this debate long ago. That real power dressing lies in how powerfully your dress transmits who you are and what you stand for—and not in donning a so-called appropriate set of clothes. Or, indeed, a sharp suit.
In 1931, Gandhi went to meet King George V at Buckingham Palace, dressed in his usual handspun short dhoti and shawl. While the rest of the guests were arrayed in splendorous morning coats—as the dress code had called for that day—Gandhi saw no reason to shed the attire that he had embraced in Madurai on September 22, 1921, to express his oneness with the poor people of colonised India. Some royal eyebrows may have been infinitesimally raised, some stiff upper lips may have quivered, but at the tea party, at least, the Mahatma was not questioned about his sartorial preference.
When a journalist later asked him if he wasn’t somewhat underdressed for the occasion, Gandhi famously retorted, “The king had enough on for both of us”.
Bullying Zelensky
Last week another journalist posed a similar question to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has given up decorous formal wear since Russia invaded his country three years ago, and has worn dark sweatshirts or sweaters and combat boots to express his solidarity with his people who are fighting a war.
“Why don’t you wear a suit?” asked Brian Glenn, a correspondent for the right-wing television channel, Real American Voice, when Zelensky was meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House Oval Office. “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit.” Glenn said, drawing titters from many of his fellow journalists and a wide smirk from Vice-President JD Vance. “Do you own a suit?” he went on to demand boorishly.
Incidentally, it was Trump himself who had set up the cue for this obnoxious line of questioning. Receiving Zelensky on the steps of the White House, Trump gestured to him and said, with obvious snark, “He is all dressed up today.”
Fashion Is Politics
No doubt, both Trump and his chosen brood of reporters are aware that Zelensky has been similarly dressed at every public appearance, television interview, meeting with world leaders, and, so on, since the beginning of the war in 2022. And by doing so, he sends a powerful message — that he stands with his people, a people fighting for survival and living under the constant threat of being bombed, maimed or killed by Russian aggression. This is no time for him to go swanning around in style, he seems to be saying—this is a time to hunker down and beat back the enemy at the door.
All this is well known. Hence, that Zelensky’s choice of dress raised some MAGA hackles has less to do with a perceived lack of respect for the Oval Office and more to do with a blast of antagonism towards the political message that it conveys. After all, as the internet hasn’t stopped pointing out since the incident, Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire benefactor and slasher-in-chief of government jobs, has often come to the Oval Office dressed in informal sweatshirts.
When Your Clothes Speak
One’s body and the way one chooses to dress it (or not) can make charged political statements. Gandhi, the messianic—and some would say, wily—mass leader that he was, understood this when he adopted the austere loincloth as his forever uniform. Women and girls in non-Islamic countries who choose to wear the burqa or the hijab are also making a political statement—that they have a right to express their religious and cultural identity, in spite of the feminist insistence that such attire is regressive and anti-women.
When thousands of Americans marched wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the legend ‘BlackLivesMatter’ after a white policeman charged with shooting a black teenager in 2013 was let off, it was a resounding political statement against racial discrimination. When a group of women in Paris went topless to protest against gender violence in November 2024, holding placards saying “Femme, Vie, Liberté” (Women, Life, Liberty), it was a political fashion statement that was as in-your-face as it could get. And last week, when women leaders of the Democratic Party came dressed in pink to listen to Trump’s speech to Congress, that too was a political statement, albeit a somewhat feeble one. They wore pink, they said, to protest against the President’s policies which were harming women and families.
Why ‘Unsuited’ Leaders Put Us Off So
The thing about making your fashion speak your politics is that those who stand on the other side of that politics will look upon your fashion choice with hostility and derision. Winston Churchill, the imperialist British leader, referred to Gandhi as someone “posing as a half-naked fakir”. And many governments around the world have banned the burqa, while regulating the use of the hijab, arguing that they militate against the democratic values of equality and women’s rights, and ignoring the question as to whether the state had any right at all to legislate on how women choose to dress themselves.
It could be that a Trump administration starting to betray an incipient tilt towards Russia found Zelensky’s sartorial choice offensive for precisely that reason. The Ukraine President’s humble attire, his boots and his chunky black or military green sweaters, serves as a constant reminder that his country is at war, and Russia is the aggressor in this bloody conflict. Perhaps it seemed disrespectful to Trump and his proxies because their respect for, and sense of solidarity with, the plight of the people whom he represents was dwindling.
When you are readying to abandon a friend, you don’t want to be reminded of his predicament.
(Shuma Raha is a journalist and author)