The Wardrobe Politics of Greece’s New Prime Minister
By VANESSA FRIEDMAN

Last week, as the Twitterati and the talking heads tied themselves in knots over the nonstory of Michelle Obama doing like her peers Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and eschewing a head scarf on a visit to Saudi Arabia, an actual political sartorial revolution was, in fact, taking place elsewhere.

I am talking, of course, about the newly elected Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and his staunch rejection of the tie. As a piece of political stagecraft, it has been exemplary.

Mr. Tsipras did not wear a tie during the campaign. He did not wear one during his formal swearing-in. He did not wear one when he met with the European Parliament president, Martin Schulz (who did: a light blue-dark blue diagonally striped number). And now it looks as if his new cabinet is following him.

Yanis Varoufakis, the new finance minister, met with George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, on Monday in a blue shirt, leather jacket — and no tie. Panos Kammenos, the new defense minister, and former tie wearer, has also started to abandon the accessory.

Even Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, it seems, has felt the effect: His office tweeted a picture of him chatting on the phone last week in a dark suit and white shirt with the following headline: “Commending Greek PM Tsipras’ victory, Mayor @BilldeBlasio went tie-less with him this morning.”

Whatever the reasons Mr. Tsipras, head of the left-wing Syriza party, initially had for rejecting the tie (he has not worn one in years) — it gave him a neck rash, he didn’t like it, it had negative associations — he has since realized the symbolic power associated with his decision, and has been wielding it unabashedly.

“I think that if there is something that people appreciate in Syriza and me, it is that we haven’t assumed this mentality of establishment parties, with specific ways to dress, to act,” he told The New York Times just before the election, honing in on style as an efficient differentiator between what he represents — new blood, new energy, an alternate approach — and what the old establishment represents (the people who got Greece into all of their problems in the first place).

Think of it as the contemporary version of John F. Kennedy’s decision at his 1961 inauguration to take off his traditional silk top hat, which he had dutifully worn, for his swearing-in and address, with all the new-generation symbolism that that entailed. After all, Mr. Tsipras, at 40, is the youngest Greek prime minister in almost 150 years. Sometimes what you don’t wear is even more potent than what you do.

But Mr. Tsipras took it a step further.

He said he would wear a tie again, The Guardian reported, when Greece’s bailout terms are renegotiated. Message: I’ll play your game when you play mine.

Accessories have always been a major tool of political dress and identity, from the little flag pins that every American president seems duty bound to wear, to François Hollande’s hipped-up new eyeglasses and George W. Bush’s cowboy boots.

And this is never more true than with ties: one of the few customizable, easily visible pieces in a male professional wardrobe.

For years, conventional wisdom has had it that the best use of the tie was as a color-coded communications tool: Think of Ronald Reagan’s penchant for red ties (red being the color of the Republican Party, as well as war, Wall Street and TV anchormen) and President Obama’s more conciliatory, serene (and Democratic) blue. But this strategy has proved increasingly less useful.

During the 2012 United States electoral debates, for example, Mitt Romney and Mr. Obama actually traded red tie-blue tie. Debate No. 1, Mr. Romney in red, Mr. Obama in blue; debate No. 2, Mr. Romney in blue, Mr. Obama in red; debate No. 3, vice versa. It was almost as if their camps were coordinating their choices to create an even playing field, suggesting that the days of reading the tie leaves were numbered.

Perhaps as a result, the next year, during a G8 summit hosted by David Cameron, the British prime minister, Mr. Cameron, decided to instruct his fellow world leaders to abandon the tie altogether and adopt more “informal dress” (Chancellor Merkel being the exception), apparently because, as Mr. Osborne said at the time, “where things are more formal, and people are in entrenched positions, that’s more difficult.”

Unfortunately, the result was a somewhat uncomfortable photo op of the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe; the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin; Mr. Cameron; Mr. Obama; Mr. Hollande; the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper; and the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, among others, outside a castle in Northern Ireland in almost matching navy blazers, gray slacks and white shirts, like some sort of ersatz Casual Friday chorus line. It may not have led to any great bonding moments, but it was a revealing idea.

Still, by the next G8, the ties were back —in part, probably, because the reaction on the part of the watching world was largely negative. Sample: “Bunch of scruffs wot no ties.” (@KeithSTaDH)

So how is Mr. Tsipras getting away with it?

I think the answer has to do with two things: 1. his commitment; and 2. our own accepted stereotypes.

Mr. Tsipras didn’t wear a tie before he took office, and he is not wearing a tie now that he is in office: He is not flip-flopping with his success. (The problem with the G8 meeting was that Mr. Cameron and company are known as tie loyalists, and hence their no-tie experiment just looked like spin). He has wardrobe integrity, which may be extrapolated to policy and position. His consistency of dress is reliable, and whether or not we like to admit it, there is a human tendency to interpret that as a personal trait, not just a superficial style signature.

Just as there is a general belief that leftists should distinguish themselves from the conservative establishment by rejecting the trappings of that establishment, the most obvious of which is the tie.

By not wearing a tie, Mr. Tsipras is playing into all our assumptions of how a leader with his background should look.

No one — either in Greece or outside — may be sure of how the current tension between the European Union and its member state over austerity measures will end.

But in this regard, at least, they are getting what they expect. There are few things as satisfying in life as being proved right. As I would guess Mr. Tsipras is well aware.

甩開領帶 希臘新總理齊普拉斯引領風潮

希臘新總理齊普拉斯不論在競選期間、宣誓就職或會見歐洲議會議長舒茲時都不打領帶，跳脫傳統，內閣閣員群起仿效，但其他國家領袖不打領帶卻被批評邋遢。紐約時報指出，齊普拉斯穿衣風格前後一貫，而且他不打領帶符合「左派人士拒絕傳統體制」的既定印象，所以他能輕鬆駕馭這種風格。

希臘新任財政部長瓦魯法奇斯二日會見英國財政大臣歐斯本時，穿藍色襯衫加皮外套，不打領帶。希臘新任國防部長卡門諾斯以前慣常打領帶，最近開始不打了。

就連紐約市長白思豪也似乎感受到這股風潮，他的辦公室上月底在推特上發布一張他打電話聊天的照片，白思豪穿黑色西裝、白色襯衫，內文寫道：「白思豪市長今天早上恭賀希臘總理齊普拉斯勝選，跟他一起不打領帶。」

齊普拉斯選前接受紐時訪問時說：「如果激進左派聯盟跟我有什麼讓人欣賞的地方，那就是我們沒沿用傳統政黨的那一套模式，包括怎麼穿衣、怎麼行動。」

他致力打造的風格是，他跟那些讓希臘陷入種種麻煩的老派政治人物不同，他代表新勢力、新方向。

齊普拉斯並非完全拋棄領帶。英國衛報說，他表明如果希臘成功跟國際債權人重談紓困條件，他就打領帶。紐時解讀言下之意是：如果你照我這一套走，我也會玩你那套遊戲。

2013年英國主辦八大工業國峰會（G8），財相歐斯本透露，首相卡麥隆很早就決定辦一場不打領帶的峰會，要求與會領袖都不打領帶，穿著便裝。歐斯本表示：「如果會議氣氛嚴肅，與會者往往會更堅持己見，問題就更難解決。」

不過，多數網友無法接受領袖不打領帶，有人在推特上毒舌說：「這是一群不打領帶的邋遢傢伙。」

紐時指出，問題出在G8領袖一向打領帶，偶爾不打領帶看起來會像公關手法，不能打動人。

相對的，齊普拉斯不打領帶，始終如一，給人堅持原則、值得信賴的形象。雖然希臘和歐盟間紓困談判結果難料，至少齊普拉斯的衣著，就是個反體制左派該有的樣子。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/business/europes-having-a-distress-sale-on-visas.html

2015-02-09．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯李京倫