Barack Obama makes a preppy style statement in Malaysia – is it ‘normcore’ no more for ex-US president?
- Obama’s ankle-flaunting military green pants and Adidas Stan Smith sneakers suggest the former president is taking his fashion choices more seriously these days
- He is well known for saying in a 2012 interview that he would only wear grey or blue suits as he was trying to ‘pare down decisions’
Former United States president Barack Obama may have been a beloved figure the world over during his two-term presidency, but he was often criticised for his daddy “normcore” outfits, from his ill-fitting jeans to his tan suits.
The fashion police certainly wasn’t as kind to him as it was to then first lady Michelle Obama, who became a fashion icon and a savvy practitioner of fashion diplomacy as soon as she entered the White House.
“You’ll see I wear only grey or blue suits,” Obama said about his fashion sense, or lack thereof, in a 2012 interview with glossy Vanity Fair. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
It seems that in his semi-retirement as a philanthropist, public speaker, book author and Netflix producer, the former president is making more of an effort.