Why Jeff Bezos fumbled his own wedding outfit
Why Jeff Bezos fumbled his own wedding outfit
The classic menswear expert Derek Guy critiqued Jeff Bezos's tuxedo on Twitter/X. Bezos wore the wrong waistcoat to his own wedding. See the full tweet:.
According to Guy, one of the best tailors around called Bezo's tux: "The most terrible, frightening, horrible tuxedo ever seen in my life. I'm really suffering." Ouch.
Derek thoughtful tells us why Jeff got it wrong. To the untrained eye, you perhaps wouldn't notice, but if you read the tweet, you see Bezo's big time miscue (for menswear). Bezos wore a business vest, not a waistcoat.
Why and how did such a rich-ass man make this error? Perhaps many reasons, but one reason may be the degrading value of clothes, and more specifically in men's clothing with bespoke tailoring: custom tailoring for menswear has lost its value as labor and as a trade.
As Derek states in a later tweet:
It's not surprising to me that a culture that devalues clothing, makes it hard for artisans to survive (e.g. skyrocketing rents in big cities), and worships celebrity, luxury, brand names, and money, should result in a culture where it's increasingly difficult to find good tailors.
Most wealthy people today don't use tailors. They go to luxury brands, which may or may not have a dept for custom clothing. I can only speak for menswear (where this system would be known as bespoke), not womenswear (which would be *haute couture). But for menswear, luxury brands are not placing any real emphasis on their custom tailoring departments.
This is what makes Derek Guy amazing: he can critique a style thoughtfully, but then he pulls a hang glider out of a hat and makes a billionaire fashion mishap about society at large.
Maybe JB made the error on purpose, to show off his taste? If JB made the error intentionally, as Derek says, JB doesn't have the cultural capital to break the rules. JB isn't cool enough. All the damn financial capital in the world doesn't make you a trend setter, or cool, or an exception to the conventions of menswear.