Why Bernie’s Sweater Matters
Bernie Sanders finds a Presidential look

Bernie 2020 is a great leap forward from Sanders’ already admirable 2016 effort. He has surpassed fundraising records that he set himself. His policies are even more ambitious, comprehensive, and detailed. He has beefed up his foreign policy, communicating a coherent and sorely-needed alternative vision to current consensus. Acknowledging his 2016 campaign leadership was “too white” and “too male,” he has surrounded himself with a more diverse leadership team. With more time on the national stage, his base has expanded. Once seen as too much of a risk even for many progressives, he is now raking in significant endorsements, including Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, 3/4 of The Squad, the rising stars of the multiracial progressive wing. But the most important way his campaign has improved, from the perspective of an image-conscious America plunged into a harrowing Presidential election cycle? His style, of course.
While I am a fervent and vocal Sanders supporter, I can admit when my candidate is flawed. With the exception of a killer coat game, Bernie’s look, from his wild whispy locks to his Kohl’s suit and plain no-nonsense button-down, isn’t doing him many favors. Occasion-appropriate? Yes. Memorable? Not so much.

It wasn’t always this way. In his early days, Sanders was slightly more adventurous with his image. Hindsight being 2020, one might even consider Young Bernie a kind of fashion icon. Of the Brooklyn hipster variety, but an icon nonetheless. Let’s start with his schoolboy days.

Don’t tell me if this boy asked for a dance you wouldn’t think of taking him up on it!
Now see him here speaking at a Socialist Party meeting. Rolled-up sleeves, that little bit of chest he’s showing, as if to say “down to business.” And those pants! Are they jeans or sky-blue chinos you can get at Uniqlo for $45?

As Mayor of Burlington he rocked a casual no-tie look that has only become more acceptable in today’s work environment. Here he is with that same loose button, with an unpretentious brown jacket.

And check out his tucked-in bright yellow dress-shirt and grey trousers as he describes the corrosive effects of corporate media. Love it or hate it, this certainly wasn’t aesthetic-adverse.

Looking through Sanders’ looks through his career, I realized that his chosen Senatorial fit is not a function of lack of style or interest, but of compromise with a cruel system.
I grew up in the DC area. There are many great things about it, but fashion is not one of them. Political consultant and CNN contributer Paul Begala once called the city, with its typical image as a summit for nerdy wonks, groomed play-pieces, and wealthy power-brokers “Hollywood for ugly people.” Crass, sure, and incomplete (Like much of America, DC is a tale of at least two cities). But when you survey the swamp-pit business casual-clad interns running up the broken escalator at Roslyn, it has a pang of truth.

In some ways this likely served Sanders image. He’s the guy who keeps his head down, finding creative if unglamorous ways of making meaningful change despite powerful opposition. He is known even to his foes in government as a man of integrity, unconcerned with showboating, unless it could be used to serve the people and the proliferation of his ideas. The tie-and-blue-blazer look is distinctly Senatorial and great for blending in. But when you’re running for President of the United States, your image must be, in whatever way, iconic.
Much is made about the word “Presidential.” As a concept it is more ephemeral than not, subjective, and very often influenced by class, race, and gender associations and prejudices. For many, it would be the last word they would use to describe Bernie. The media often depicts him as a grumpy old gadfly, an ornery slacker, even a sexist pig. He yells too much, he’s repetitive. If you have been raised on the hushed violence of wealthy life, someone who’s straightforward and passionate seems dangerous, inappropriate, maybe even shameful.
For his supporters tired of duplicitous people-pleasers, many of whom are poor and working class, many of whom are people of color, they see a righteous fury. However, while Bernie’s anger has defined his national profile, the effect might not be so successful if his supporters could not detect the old softie underneath. Those who follow Sanders more closely than the average CNN-viewer or New York Times-subscriber know that he’s also funny, charming, and caring. He smiles, he jokes, he shows affection. These are qualities that those who know him see, but not those still learning who he is.

That has all changed with the return of a classic and versatile staple, a choice so simple it’s revelatory: the sweater. The slimming grip on the arms and shoulders, that snug torso fit. In it he becomes your effortlessly stylish Grandpa. It screams fireside chats. And that poke-out collar? Pure class and professionalism. It flatters his form, greatly expands opportunities for color coordination, and it brings out an often forgotten part of Bernie’s personality: his cuddly side.

Despite his slogan of “Not Me, Us” and his de-emphasis of himself as a miracle worker, it is so often the case that a person will become a visual shorthand for a movement. In her endorsement speech Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “it wasn’t until I heard of a man by the name of Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves health care, housing, and a living wage.” The anti-Bernie crowd found this statement odd, but when someone has internalized the lesson, which is taught to us every day in countless ways, that they do not matter to their institutions, it is hard not to become attached to the person who first broke through that and showed you that you do.
For those people it never really mattered how Bernie looked. In fact, I love his messy hair. I love his grouchiness. But sometimes you need just the right item that shows the world who you really are. That he’s done it in such a way that he maintains his integrity is just another example of just that in his long career working in the system.
The general public doesn’t often remember Obama’s drone strikes, his willingness to cut Social Security and Medicare, or his refusal to prosecute the architects of the Iraq War and the financial crisis. Republican or Democrat, when they think of an Obama scandal, they remember that tan suit. The secret Facebook group of Clinton 2016 supporters tired of hearing from the cries of the rabble took its name from Hillary’s iconic pantsuit. Bernie needed a memorable look to match the Office of the Presidency in all its pomp and circumstance, something visually iconic besides his messy hair. Finally, we have it.
Damn sexy Bernie!

