What Presidents do you feel a stylistic affinity towards?

[Meursault]

This is a vague question and broad, so let me narrow its scope a little: I do not mean whose governing style you prefer (say, Clintonian backslapping or the "Johnson Treatment"); still less whose ideology you agree with. It is a purely aesthetic question: what Presidents do you appreciate in an artistic sense?

For myself, the answer is probably one of Wilson, Harding, or Franklin Roosevelt. I strongly prefer the three-piece-suit-long-tie-frock-coat-top-hat uniform of the interwar period to anything before or after; and my broader artistic sensibilities are more modernist than post-modern, more industrial than telelectronic. And these three seemed to project that better than anyone else.

I like contemporary dressed-down Southern gladhandling the least, so Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Bush fils are all far down my list.

[Lief 🗽]

Truman's style is adorable. It's super affected and sort of over the top, but you can tell he knows what he's doing (he was after all a haberdasher).

Ford's style was also impeccable, when he was wearing a suit (check his official portrait). His casual dress was so hilariously 70s though.

The best, however, is George H.W. Bush, for for rocking that prep/trad game. No idea what happened with his horribly dressed son.









And he's still slaying it in his old age:

[Indy Texas]

I'd say JFK and Poppy Bush both pulled off the timeless, East Coast preppy look quite well.

George W. Bush, and Reagan to a lesser extent, both tried too hard to play the salt-of-the-Earth Western cowboy and came across as staged. Though I certainly prefer the Gipper riding his horse into the California sunset to Dubya clumsily attempting to "clear brush" in Crawford in a white T-shirt.

[politicus]

I have always admired the sophisticated feminine elegance of William Taft.

[Oakvale]

[Clarence Boddicker]

Biff Tannen was president?

Oh, sh**t. Marty...get rid of the Almanac!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Nixon; awkward and cold, just like me, and with a touch of Jimmy Carter's simple and down to earth charm.

[TDAS04]

Calvin Coolidge for his dry humor.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

I'm a huge fan of the Clinton/Bartlet 3-piece suit. It seems so professorial and classy.

[Lief 🗽]

Yeah Clinton started dressing well after his heart surgery and weight loss. The less said about what he wore while president the better though.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

(normal)

EDIT: And, of course...

[Mopsus]

Every President who wore breeches.

[Lief 🗽]

Also if you like the presidential three piece, then Gerald Ford is your guy:

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

H.W. rocking that Vampire Weekend wear.