Mr. Spicer’s ties, on the other hand — like many of those sold under Mr. Trump’s own label — continue to be thick

2017-03-06 2

Mr. Spicer’s ties, on the other hand — like many of those sold under Mr. Trump’s own label — continue to be thick
and shiny: “turgid pieces of silk,” as Mr. Sullivan said, in colors like an outlandish lime green or purple covered in polka dots.
If anyone recalls Josh Earnest, Mike McCurry or Scott McClellan — White House press secretaries who served Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — it is assuredly not because they wore unfortunate neckties or suits
that looked like a big brother’s ill-fitting hand-me-downs.
Mr. Spicer was responding to remarks made by Bill Owens — the father of Chief Petty Officer William Owens, a Navy SEAL team
member known as Ryan — who has called for an investigation into the raid in Yemen during which his son was killed.
Reportedly at his boss’s urging, Mr. Spicer quickly switched out his original boxy jackets — the ones with shoulders seemingly inspired by either the Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia or else by Tom Brady’s sideline coat, with collars
that floated around his neck like an oxen yoke — for marginally better fitting models.
“Someone evidently had a word with him and he ran out
and got a new suit or two, though basically I didn’t think there was anything terribly wrong with what he wore before,” said Nick Sullivan, the style director of Esquire.
“If a man’s message is, ‘Yeah, but look at my tie,’ that seems like anything other than the actual message he should be putting across.”
A version of this article appears in print on March 5, 2017, on Page ST9 of the New
York edition with the headline: Mr. Spicer, a Question: What About the Ties?.
Douglas Hand, a professor of fashion law at New York University and an expert on professional dress, said
that as messenger of his president’s agenda, the White House press secretary should have an ability to remain invisible.