Jacob Zuma / The Spin / AnOther Mag

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/239/Jacob_Zuma

The Spin | Jacob Zuma
— May 11, 2010—
David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin


South Africa has a long tradition of charismatic and colourful leaders. Everyone knows Nelson Mandela; and FW de Klerk has also gone straight into the history books. But both men can learn a thing or two from the current South African President Jacob Zuma when it comes to making the most of an entrance.


The 68-year-old Zuma took power exactly a year ago and visited the UK only a few weeks ago. Zuma, like Mandela, represents the African National Congress (ANC) which not that long ago brought out their own line of fluorescent leather jackets. The collection brought on a fashionable media storm, that is until punters noticed the jackets were by ANC, not APC.


Zuma’s own personal style is best described as eclectic. When he got married in January – to his third wife – Zuma was pictured performing the ritual dance moves of his Zulu tribe, wearing a leopard skin, several animal tails as a skirt and a leopard head band. To enable the dancing, Zuma wore fresh-from-the-box Reebok trainers and Reactolite glasses.


The President is an avid believer in frequent reproduction, and has fathered 20 kids. Open about his polygamy, he says: “There are plenty of politicians who have mistresses and children who they hide so as to pretend they are monogamous. I prefer to be open. I love my wives and I am proud of my children.”


During his political career, Zuma has been accused of racketeering, corruption and rape. No charges have been pinned on him and he was acquitted in the rape case. In fact, the only thing Zuma has ever served time for was his attempt to overthrow apartheid, which in 1963 resulted in a 10-year prison sentence that he served on Robben Island, together with Mandela. Still, he should have been sent down for those leather jackets.






David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D, ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/211/David_Cameron_Fashion_Face_Off

The Spin | David Cameron: Fashion Face Off
— April 13, 2010—
David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin


Three things come to mind when thinking of David Cameron and his style: a bicycle helmet; the rolled-up sleeves of a tie-less white shirt; and his puffed-up baby face. Two of these are manufactured elements and part ofthe current election campaign: the third is just the way he is. What you see is what you get.


No one can have missed the General Election campaign in the UK. Since last week, and until May 6, Britain’s roads and doorsteps will be crowded with politicians, and Dave’s one of them. More than likely, you’ll see him without a suit jacket or tie and with rolled-up sleeves. If you didn’t know, that’s because he is one of us: Dave isn’t afraid of getting his Thomas Pink shirt dirty. With the collar unbuttoned, Dave is able to relax with the common people.


The bicycle helmet is obvious. The Tories used to be Blue, now they’re Green. The helmet shows how engaged Dave is with environmental issues. He really cares about global warming, even enough to catch a flight to the Norwegian archipelago to see the icebergs melt for himself. Dave rides his bike to work, at least before it got stolen because Dave failed to grasp the elementary function of a bike lock. This way Dave gets his exercise AND helps reducing carbon monoxide. It’s just a shame that his PA was caught driving behind him with his briefcase…


The baby face, lastly. How can we have missed it? For a while it was plastered on every single wall and billboard throughout the country. At least that’s how it felt. Had he been airbrushed or not? That was the question on everyone’s lips. But if he had been polished, it only made his baby cheeks even more pinchable. But that makes sense because, in political terms at least, Dave is just a puppy. At 43 we would be one of Britain’s youngest Prime Ministers ever.


I’m just waiting for Gordon Brown to walk up to Dave during PMQ one day, put a bicycle helmet on him, roll up his sleeves, and pinch those cheeks, so that Dave can go out and play with the other kids.






David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

The Spin/Hugo Chavez column for Anothermag.com

The Spin | Hugo Chávez

— March 30, 2010—

David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of 

World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin

There can be no doubt that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has friends in high places. Actor Sean Penn seems to be constantly defending Chavez, American film director Olive Stone has made a documentary about him, and – to top it off – British Super model Naomi Campbell once interviewed President Chávez for GQ Magazine. Not bad for a man most people struggle to label a dictator or a socialist hero.


Chávez, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Venezuelan army, divides opinion wherever he goes. We know for sure that the US doesn’t like him – and vice versa. Of course Chávez is more friendly towards Obama than he was with Bush, and Chávez has even claimed that POTUS Obama is more left wing than himself; a statement Obama probably wasn’t too happy with.


Hugo Chávez might be on fairly good terms with Obama, but his real political and fashion hero is Cuba’s Fidel Castro. The socialist regime of Castro’s island and the length of Fidel’s presidential tenure are both major sources of inspiration for Chávez. The Venezuelan president has been in power for more than 10 years, and it’s safe to say that he wouldn’t mind doubling that.


The strongest sartorial point to Chávez’s political wardrobe is his consistent colour coding. On that point he even outdoes Castro, who always wore a khaki uniform. But Chávez and his stylist have gone for a more Communist approach through ALWAYS making sure the colour red is part of his outfit. Be it a beret, a tie, a t-shirt, or several of them at the same time, blood red is his constant fashion friend.


As we all know, red is a difficult colour to pull off. Its strength and connotations threatens to out manoeuvre the wearer. Therefore it’s a testament to Hugo Chávez’s political charisma and fashion courage that he pulls it off. And who am I to tell Venezuela’s President that blue is actually his colour…




David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

The Spin/Barack Obama column for Anothermag.com

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/184/POTUS_Style

The Spin | POTUS Style
David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin


Like many powerful men on the international political stage, President of the United States, Barack Obama is often upstaged by his wife. This is in no condemnation of the President’s personal style, more a testament to Michelle Obama’s glowing personality, colourful wardrobe and sartorial freedom. Quite often the American leader is even pushed out of the fashion limelight by his two daughters, Malia and Sasha.


Nevertheless, we have a high and mighty POTUS: his slender 6”1 frame makes him stick out in a crowd, and simplifies the process of making him look fashionably presidential. Consider the facts: tall and slim is ALWAYS better than short and stubby. Of course, POTUS also has facial advantages, and there is no doubt that – if there ever were to be one – Obama would score highly in a US Presidential beauty pageant.


Certainly, Obama is better known for his rhetorical skills than his personal style – the compulsory suit offers harsh boundaries in terms of imaginative sartorial adventures. But in his spare time, Obama has both impressed and let down his dedicated following. Recent holiday snaps revealed the president sporting beige slacks and a simple yet stylish navy polo shirt. Less is more, and this guy knows it. Simple colour combinations; easy on the details: let the authority of the office do the talking!


On the other hand, we have seen Obama on stylistic crash courses. Especially in his far too modern wraparound Ray Ban sunglasses, and last year when he pitched the obligatory first baseball throw in the NBA league: he stepped up to the plate in ill-fitting and stonewashed jeans, teamed up with the wrong kind of Nike trainer. Not a good a look for anyone, let alone the Leader of the Free World.




David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

The Spin/Silvio Berlusconi column for Anothermag.com

TYCOON TAILORING

David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly

 column The Spin

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/74/Tycoon_Tailoring

Like many politicians, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, is not known for his snappy fashion decisions. But, whether you like his style or not, there is a certain careful consideration to his sartorial approach, which derives perhaps from his being of the grand old age of 73.


However, more than a few fashion faux pas have blemished his career as a media tycoon and politician. He has, for example, the almost unforgivable habit of donning a bandana. And to make matters worse, it’s not even for the purpose of keeping sweat off his brow during exercise – which of course, was Boris Johnson’s defence when he was charged with the same fashion crime.


But Berlusconi has the advantage of his nationality. A wealthy Italian, he has unlimited access to his country’s fashion houses. (If he is an Armani, Versace or Prada man had not been confirmed at the time of going to press.) Whether in a navy blue double-breasted jacket, beige slacks and deck shoes, a light grey pinstriped three piece suit or a causal polo shirt and jeans, he has so far managed to keep the fashion conscious Italian public on his side. It will be interesting to see just how far a Fendi jacket and a Roberto Cavalli tie can carry this contentious dandy.

The Spin/Boris Johnson column for Anothermag.com

The Spin | Shabby Chic

— January 19, 2010—

David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/54/Shabby_Chic

Who said the following: “As long as I have anything to do with the government of London and of the UK there will be no ban on high heels!” A fashionable Harriet Harman? Or perhaps a political Naomi Campbell? No, this statement of intent came from Boris Johnson, London’s floppy haired Mayor. It’s how he officially opened London Fashion Week last September for its 25th anniversary.

Johnson is the perfect example of a gaffe prone politician, but also of someone who is very likeable, often winning people over after having been disliked initially. He is able to flatter, smooth talk and confuse his greatest opponents, with perhaps only one exception: his predecessor, Ken Livingstone.

The ways he speaks is the first thing that strikes you about him– Hugh Grant meets Mr Darcy – if you haven’t already been blown away by his blonde mop of a hairdo. Even when it is freshly cut, it manages to attract attention worldwide. And although he is known as a frank and honest member of the international political stage, he is rarely mentioned because of his well-pressed suits.

Johnson invokes caring maternal and paternal feelings in stylists across the world because of his adolescent inability to dress smartly. Shabby is probably the best way of describing his style: loose and ill-fitting suits, weather-beaten shirts, and banker’s shoes are all part of his City Hall uniform. He also often subscribes to the tired Tory tradition of wearing a blue tie. It seems fitting then, that he came fourth place in GQ Magazine’s list of 2010’s Worst-Dressed. luckily for him, he was beaten by other political figures Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy.

Although GQ believe that Johnson is “no advert for London as the fashion capital,” it was Geordie Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard who put the final nail into Johnson’s sartorial coffin by calling him a cross between “Charlie Chaplin and Karl Lagerfeld.” It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for this affable man, but don’t – he’s still one of the most senior and powerful Conservative politicians in Britain today, shabby chic or not!

David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

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The Spin/Mummar Gaddafi column for Anothermag.com

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/38/The_Colonel

How do you solve a problem like Libya’s Chief-of-State, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi? As the world’s third longest-serving leader, Gaddafi has had four decades of free rein to cultivate his sartorial image and his eccentric hobbies. For some time, he was seen as a terrorist-sponsoring rogue, but in recent years he’s been allowed back in from the Sahara Desert wilderness. As a result, his madness has been fully exposed to observers worldwide.

The first case in point is his wardrobe: his outfits can be (generously) described as a fusion between silk robes and 1970’s wallpaper. Standard operating procedure is to combine loud colours, imaginative prints, and matching hats. He also has a weakness for over-sized sunglasses and is thought to set aside critical time each morning to perfect his Phil Spector-esque hairdo.

Beyond his personal style, Gaddafi is partial to note-worthy excesses in his other pursuits. Perhaps most notoriously in his bodyguard army: a collection of forty specially trained female army officers who escort him everywhere. Armed to their teeth, they’re also dressed for success in high heels and a lick of lipstick. It is also claimed that they’re a flock of virgins.

Lastly, I refer to his travel habits. He pitches a Bedouin tent to stay in everywhere he visits – no swanky hotels for this statesman. When he went to New York in September, 2009, he tried to rent a tent space in Central Park. While there, he extended his scheduled twenty-minute speech to the United Nations by an hour, making time to mention that Obama should be president for life; that swine flu is a man-made laboratory product; and to demand that the real identity of the man who shot JFK be revealed. All in a day’s work for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s arch self-promoter and 'Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.'

David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

The Spin column for Anothermag.com

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/13/The_Girl_with_the_Golden_Braid

David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin


It’s painstakingly true that most stylish ladies in politics are wives of either Presidents or Prime Ministers. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, doesn’t have much to offer compared to Michelle Obama or Carla Bruni, two bright and fashion conscious women who are in the public eye because of their highflying spouses. To firmly put an end to this I give you Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko – one-part politician, one-part fashion icon.


Politically and stylistically, Tymoshenko has been making waves since being appointed Ukraine’s second in command – trailing only President Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution. But her influence and in particular her characteristic style reach beyond Ukraine to the fashion capitals: the Victorian touches in Prada’s A/W08 collection seemed to resonate perfectly with Tymoshenko’s lace dresses and hairdo.


Apparently, Ukrainian people judge good looks by the thickness and golden hue of braids. By these measurements Tymoshenko is surely a beauty queen. Her trademark blonde braids, which she wears like a tiara, would surely make anyone vote for her. And as an ambitious politician she’s counting on these votes to carry her to the Mariyinski Palace – the official Presidential residence in the capital Kyiv.


Originally, however, a brunette wearing dark clothes, Tymoshenko opted for blonde locks and predominately white frocks a few years ago to achieve an angelic, innocent look. Politically savvy? Her fashion and/or public relations interests certainly encouraged an appearance on the cover of Ukrainian Elle, wearing Louis Vuitton. Had she been able to pick her favourite designer, it would have been Azzedina Alaia.


Because of her looks, there are many nicknames floating around for Tymoshenko – Princess Leia of Ukraine, the Slavic Joan of Arc – but you can always rely on rude bloggers to come up with something even saucier. They call her the PMilf…


David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report.