JD Vance showed that he, too, can do fashion

U.S. Vice-president JD Vance on stage at CPAC. Photo: Getty Images

Does JD Vance pick his own trousers at his favourite store? Or does his wife Usha Bala Chilukuri have the honours. This has become pertinent after images of Mr Vance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were circulated online, arousing immense amusement among American Netizens that the VP has so quickly adopted the return of the latest silhouettes for trousers. As Vogue announced so gleefully last year, “The Skinny Jean is Back!” Or, a magazine more relatable to Mr Vance, Southern Living: “Skinny Jeans are Coming Back in 2025, Whether You Like It or Not”. The author of Hillbilly Elegy probably likes it than not, so much so that he wore a pair of startlingly slim pants (with him seated, it is hard to tell if they were jeans, but they were jeggings-fitted) on stage to receive an interview.

The vice-president was clearly basking in the reception that was vastly different from the one he received at the Munich Security Conference a week and a half ago. Back then, he too wore a navy suit with trousers that could be considered slim. But once he returned to fashionable USA, especially at MAGA-friendly, stylish CPAC, he chose what appeared to be even more constricted trousers. When he sat on that CPAC stage and had to pull the lower legs up, they were a tight fit around his calves. The pants were probably cropped too, since the hem even went above what were conventional-length business socks, revealing a sliver of skin on each side. There was something off about the proportion of the suit, again in navy. Could he have borrowed the bottom from someone else?

Although he has tried to express his gratitude for the opportunity he was given by dressing like the fellow who made it all possible, there could be moments, now that he has secured his place in the White House, that he wished to look less identical. Before he entered the political arena, Mr Vance was said to have dressed like any tech bro. And then to win MAGA approval, he started adopting natty suits, which, according to The New York Times, were made by a Cincinatti tailor. Is the guy over-inspired by Thom Browne? It is quite a sight to see, there on stage, host Mercedes Schlapp—former White House director of strategic communications—in a suit too, but with trouser-legs far wider than the VP’s. Was this a sartorial oversight on the part of JD Vance or the zealous cost-cutting measures of annihilating DOGE that even affected the amount of fabric used for his trousers?