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Macron, Zelensky and the look of leadership
At first I dismissed it as a pretend, the picture was so preposterous: the French president Emmanuel Macron, gripping a file of paperwork, his face unshaven and sporting a hoodie with the emblem of CPA 10, a department of the nation’s particular forces. Flanked by the classical particulars and gold ornamentation of the state rooms within the Elysée Palace, his selection of outfit appeared completely out of kilter.
“Zelensky cosplay” screamed the web, as Macron’s sartorial debt to the Ukrainian president was made obvious. Though my first ideas on seeing this aberration, captured with an eyebrow cocked and smirking, had been of Jason Bourne meets The Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau.
Reasonably than a pretend, the photographs are a part of a rising archive of photos by Soazig de la Moissonnière, a former photojournalist who, since 2016, has been the chief photographer to Macron, and one in every of a rising variety of photographers employed to seize candid photographs of a politician’s profession. First utilized by JFK, who employed Cecil W Stoughton to seize him in workplace, the private photographer of the president is meant to offer a public service: Pete Souza, for instance, captured intimate moments with Barack Obama within the White Home, footage that helped seal his picture as a person of precept and compassion.
Extra just lately, nonetheless, these on-site portraitists have change into one aspect in what appear to be a monstrous vainness mission. The photographs by de la Moissonnière have already contributed a lot to the meme-building round Macron’s battle effort. One other equally cringeworthy set of photos, taken within the run-up to the Russian invasion, finds him with head clasped in anguish following anxious diplomacy exchanges, rebranded by Twitter customers as #sadMacron.
Six weeks earlier than a management election, positioned as one of many key gamers within the peace talks, Macron has acquired a extra unpolished picture. The informal sweats, the unkemptness, the matted virility: are all motifs that owe an enormous debt to Volodymyr Zelensky. And, presumably, Ukrainians should be touched that the president is such a fan-boy of their chief he’s taking part in dress-up whereas posing from the consolation of the palace.
However whereas Macron’s efforts to emulate Zelensky in his deportment are embarrassing, they do converse to the politics of a wartime chief’s wardrobe. That Macron, of the impeccably tapered trouser lengths and pristine white cuffs, has began rolling out the sweatshirts speaks to a brand new need amongst public servants to catch a few of that Zelensky “everyman” chutzpah.
And whereas it appears laughable for world leaders to decorate like somebody who is definitely sitting in a bomb shelter with the intention to bolster their credentials, the wartime hoodie has change into a helpful means for leaders on this disaster to semaphore their sympathies. In any case, Putin, who nonetheless insists that Russia is engaged in a “particular navy operation” in Ukraine, is simply sporting fits. Placing in your paratrooper hoodie no less than tells individuals there’s a battle on.
Zelensky, in the meantime, in his dusty combats, has emerged as a contemporary icon. And whereas, clearly, his outfit has not been a primary precedence in his planning, one can solely think about the previous tv star has been a cautious scholar of his wardrobe decisions.
An actor whose presidency for years has coexisted between the worlds of reality and fiction, Zelensky has finessed his public picture at the side of an on-screen evolution: in simply two weeks, he can already be captured in a pen sketch, the unshaven man with a three-day goatee who all the time wears a khaki tee and typically a zippered hoodie. The pared-down look is a continuing reminder that he represents the strange Ukrainian: there isn’t any posturing or fancy extras.
Extra considerably, he has defied accusations that he has left his capital by strolling round Kyiv with out sporting any apparent safety. In eschewing the traditional physique armour one would possibly count on to see on politicians in a battle zone, Zelensky’s selection has been an awfully courageous one. In insisting the world see how susceptible he’s, he has emerged because the world’s strongest and most charismatic chief.
It’s an astonishing distinction when one considers the guerrilla combats and grizzled uniform of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen Putin loyalist who introduced final weekend he can be supporting the Russian effort. The impression of his hard-nut, wildman vigilantism is considerably dissipated, nonetheless, by the scrumptious discovery that the person wears AW19 season Prada fight boots that price $1,500. For the love of God, the vainness of some males is totally surprising. I do know little or no of fight, however I can inform you that to attempt to run in these gigantic lug soles can be an absolute catastrophe.
Electronic mail Jo at jo.ellison@ft.com
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