Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault Suit Up, but ...

Melania Trump, Usha Vance, Ivanka Trump, Kamala Harris and Jill Biden might have been the focus for fashion admirers and critics alike at Monday’s inauguration, but the newly installed President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, former President Joe Biden and former President George Bush sent a few style signals as well.

Many of the male attendees at Monday’s swearing-in ceremony played things safe by wearing standard dark blue business suits. Perhaps as a hint of unity, the 47th president chose a subtly patterned tie in purple to wear with his soft-shouldered suit with a single-notch lapel. As colorists can attest, purple is a mix of red and blue. While many of the politicians in the crowd like Joe Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sported the color of their respective political parties, some like Bush crossed party lines so to speak by wearing a blue suit and blue tie. 

Vance was more representative of the Republican Party in that regard, sticking with a solid red tie to accent his dark suit for his own official swearing-in. Both Trump and Vance appeared to wear ties that were too long. Trump’s youngest son Barron stepped up the style quota by sporting a dark charcoal cashmere coat with a custom suit and dress shirt from the Baton Rouge-based Pearce Bespoke. Nathan Pearce, the founder of that white glove concierge style mobile tailoring service, said the New York University student knows what he wants when choosing fabrics, buttons and linings for his custom suits. The 18-year-old also prefers to handle that on his own without any advisers or an entourage of any kind.

Another well-dressed attendee was Alexandre Arnault, executive vice president of product, communication and industrial at Tiffany & Co. The French executive attended the ceremony in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda with his father Bernard, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, his mother Helene and his sister Delphine. Not about to be mired in any political cues, the father and son turned up in slim dark suits, white shirts and narrow dark ties. Open AI’s Sam Altman and Apple’s Tim Cook were also suited up with white shirts and dark ties.

Meta’s leader Mark Zuckerberg opted for a maroon tie with his suit, as did Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. His seatmate Google CEO Sundar Pichai went with a purple tie, whereas X owner and Tesla founder Elon Musk chose a dark blue one. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. switched things up slightly with a pale blue shirt, with a narrow blue tie with single vertical dots of stitching.

So what’s it all mean? Sacred Heart University professor David Loranger said that many look to the president’s attire as a uniform of sorts, and for reassurance of what we can expect. He suggested that a navy suit represents the American flag, along with a sense of calm and steadfastness and that a white shirt can represent the flag’s stars and stripes.

While the color of a tie can represent either political party, Loranger said the choice of wearing a tie, again, is consistent with traditional roles that the “Old Guard” is still in charge. Conversely, not wearing a tie or suit can signal “that things might be different going forward or another generation has taken charge.” All in all, though, the public’s interest in politicians’ fashion choices is “a way for people, who don’t know politicians personally, to get a gauge on the person and what they believe,” he said.