The Clothes of Thomas Barrack

The WSJ's Christina Brinkley today annoints Thomas Barrack as "one of the best dressed deal makers on the Forbes Richest Americans list," at least in the eyes of the notoriously lowbrow Donald Trump. In any case, he's apparently worthy of a long article explaining what he wears and how he wears it. But is he really that well dressed?

The photo accompanying the article shows Barrack wearing that most horrible of fashion ideas, the colored shirt with a white collar. Many years ago, shirts did actually come with detachable collars and cuffs, which were normally white, no matter what color the rest of the shirt was. But no one wears detachable collars any more – which means that there's no excuse for the collar not matching the rest of the shirt.

In the photo accompanying the blog entry, Barrack commits another shirt-related fashion faux pas: he's wearing a shirt with a button-down collar. The man gets his shirts custom-made in Italy, and they're definitely high quality: they're carefully tailored so that the points of the collar always rest on the top of the chest, rather than flying out into space. But that's a job of tailoring, not of buttons. Using buttons to keep your shirt-collar points down is decidedly déclassé.

Elsewhere, a larger photo of Barrack proves his fondness for button-down collars, as well as revealing a rather nasty belt. (Again, a good tailor should always be able to make your trousers stay up on their own: you shouldn't need a belt, especially if, as in Barrack's case, you're in reasonably good shape.) In this case, there might be an excuse for the belt: it seems to be acting as a device for holding a radio. So we'll reserve judgment on that front. But the shirt does seem rather baggy, and ill tucked-in to the trousers.

But the WSJ article does have a photo of his shoes, revealing a fondness for tasseled loafers. Those, I really can't forgive.