It’s so rare these days for someone in politics to sport buttondown collars with ample roll that when one does come along he gets a tribute at Ivy-Style.com.
Here’s former FBI director Robert Mueller, who shot into the national spotlight this week when the Justice Department appointed him a special counsel to lead an investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.
It looks like Mueller even sports an ugly black Casio-type watch, perhaps a holdover from his miliary service.
Mueller attended Princeton and UVA. — CC
Great collar. It must be the UVA connection. Commencement begins here in an hour or so, and I am sure that OCBDs will be well represented, although most probably not so well-rolled as on Mr. Mueller. Speaking of Commencement, this is a good weekend to avoid Charlottesville unless you are involved in the graduation, locally known as “Final Exercises.” No vacancies at the hotels, no empty tables at restaurants, and no parking to be had anywhere. I, for one, plan to be at a restaurant 40 mile away and across a sizeable mountain range by cocktail time.
As I said in another comment on the “FBI” post just a few minutes ago, there’s a nice portrait of him on politico.com, which elaborates also on his white shirts:
“He famously, almost religiously, wore white shirts and dark suits as director—the picture of a stereotypical Hoover-era G-man—and would even gently mock aides and agents who dared to show up in his office wearing, horror of horrors, pink or even blue shirts. I long attributed his habit to his personal style and strait-laced nature, but, after he finished as director, I once asked him: Why the cult of the white shirt? He answered more philosophically than I’d ever seen him speak before—explaining that he knew he was leading the FBI through a period of wrenching change, converting it to a global intelligence agency focused around counterterrorism, and that he felt it important to keep recognizable totems of the past in place—like the tradition of the white shirt—to help agents understand it was still the same FBI they’d signed up to join.”
Re: Casio. Worn by many law enforcement types. Never know when you may chase down a bad guy, dive into the Potomac to do so. All under 3 minutes, 32 seconds with a temperature of 68 degrees outside?
This article: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/23/214549458/outgoing-fbi-boss-on-his-legacy-and-what-kept-him-up-at-night quotes George Tenet describing Rob Mueller as follows:
“St. Paul’s, Princeton, a high Protestant with a locked jaw, blue blazer … khaki pants, penny loafers, maybe a little Vitalis and Old Spice to boot,”
Perhaps more to do with St. Paul’s than Princetown/UVA…
*Princeton
Looks more like a lecturer than a top G man. All he needs is a spread collar shirt and a black suit to fit the Hollywood depiction.
I’m enjoying this G-Man Look trend here at Ivy Style. When my father became a Secret Service agent in 1968, he wore glen plaid suits with button downs and plain navy ties, four-in-hand. As the ’70 rolled on and he switched from protection details in D.C. to anti-counterfeiting in San Diego, the favored uniform became blue jeans and “Hawaiian flowerdy [sic] shirts.” But those photos of his early days in the service have always been my inspiration.
He doesn’t look like a “nut job” either.
Back in 1989-90 when he was assistant US Attorney in Boston, Bob was an usher with me at that Episcopal Ritz, Trinity Church Boston. Always a gentleman, he looked just as he does now and would arrive early each Sunday AM. I believe he moved from there to San Francisco as US Attorney before his stint at the FBI.
The antithesis of all things Trump….and not a day too soon.
This is how a consequential man should look.
I appreciate the story behind his decision to wear a “uniform” while FBI director. The consciousness of thought behind his choice, and the awareness of how his look would be perceived by his colleagues is impressive.
So in fact, his white buttondowns combine two traditions: the white shirt as part of the FBI “uniform”, as he explained in the interview on politico.com, and the buttondowns roll as reference to the prep school / Ivy background, which he was graceful enough not to highligh in the interview,
You are correct: FBI agents, during the Hoover days, were required to wear starched white shirts and dark suits every day. In the early 1970’s an agent sharpshooter, standing on a car roof and leaning on a fence for stability, shot an airline high-jacker at the airport in New York in 90 degree heat, with his suitcoat off. A long lens photo of him, balancing a sniper rifle on the fence, was published in Time magazine. Though lauded in NY, the agent was reprimanded by Hoover for taking off his coat.