THE JUSTIN TRUDEAU x KING CHARLES x ADIDAS-SNEAKERS-WITH-A-SUIT, "GAZELLES-GATE" CONTROVERSY. MY HOT TAKE.

(AND FIVE OTHER POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC POLITICAL CLOTHING CHOICES)

Justin Trudeau is getting ready for a formal event in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa. He’ll be accompanying his mother Margaret Trudeau to the Senate Chamber to welcome King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

What to wear?

The former Canadian PM, now separated from wife Sophie Grégoire, and without anyone to turn to for a second opinion, is left to dress himself. He decides on an electric blue suit (his favoured Ted Baker, perhaps?) a light blue shirt and dark tie.

And, hey – he’s still a youngish and groovy type of guy with a tattoo, a thing for goatee beards and wacky hosiery - so let’s forgo the stiff formality of Oxfords, brogues or even loafers and rock a pair of Adidas Gazelle sneakers in the brand’s green and orange colourway.

Oh dear.

Trudeau, sticking it to all the haters with his shoes, may have felt bouncy and funky meeting stuffy British royalty in this mullet haircut of a ‘fit - business on top, party downstairs - but his mid-life divorcee crisis footwear actually made him look rather tragic. Unserious, disrespectful and infantilised in pathetic, teenage rebellion, his ensemble apparently channelling 1980s power pop culture. The bass player from The Knack or one of The Cars, perhaps?

Even worse, was that this was a conscious, stylistic decision not a circumstantial airline-lost-my-luggage outfit designed by accident and necessity - the perky disrespect and self-conscious informality 100% intended. It takes an awful lot of careful consideration to appear this casual.

So, what should Trudeau have worn? White, “dress” sneakers perhaps? These hospital-ish, bumper-car clogs, teamed with a suit, at marriage ceremonies, business meetings and even funerals, have become socially acceptable in recent years, but I still can’t get my head around the mis-matched and lobotomising effect they create.

Yes – perhaps bouncy whiteys are OK if you are Mick Jagger – a great-grandfather, 80-odd and running around the stage in scarlet satin for three hours at a time. Or if you are a six year old boy in a mini blazer at a wedding And maybe a passable, default look for a sartorially clueless, Silicon Valley tech bro, or a normcore clothes donkey Larry David sort, attending a family funeral in Santa Monica perhaps (“beloved cunt”…remember?) But for everyone else?

The sneakers and a two-piece whistle thing does not make us middle aged men look younger. The pairing actually has an opposite and de-elegantising effect. It makes us look older. Like infirm Palm Springs retirees whose calloused, bunioned feet can no longer cope with stiff leather and shoehorns. Whose lives have flatlined into elasticated waistbands, easy-care fabrics and early bird special menus.

Also - and here’s the wider truth - a proper shoe, with tailoring, is…better. Especially when you are the boyish, former PM of a commonwealth realm meeting the King and Queen.

This is not just my opinion, either. Trudeau’s Gazelle-gate incident brings to mind a similar clash of casualness and formality back in 2003 when TV chef Jamie Oliver - suited and booted, but open-necked and tie-less - went to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE from the Queen. Alexander McQueen, also honoured at the ceremony, and wearing a kilt, was vocally unimpressed. "I think Jamie should at least have worn a tie," said the designer flatly. "It just looks better." Yes. Lee McQueen is right – it looks better!

Of course, if he didn’t feel able to read the room in Ottawa himself, Trudeau could have simply asked someone for advice. The monarchy is less sniffy and haughty these days, especially when it comes to clothing (e.g. King Charles’ recent encounter with David Hockney’s yellow Crocs). There are also helpful guidelines offered by relevant royal departments and independent oracles like Debrett’s. “Those invited to royal events usually want to do their best to be correct,” states the British authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769. The constituent elements of black tie, for instance, Debrett’s suggest, should be strictly adhered to. “It is generally best to err on the more conservative side when interpreting dress codes.”

I went to meet the King once - at Highgrove, Charles’ country estate in Gloucestershire on a cloudless July morning. It was billed as an informal introduction but a certain level of decorum would be in order - an email from Buckingham Palace a couple of days in advance, suggested a mufti of navy blazer, shirt and tie, chinos or flannels, loafers or brogues. And socks. (This would not be an occasion for bare ankle cleavage.) The result? Five grown men – assistants, PRs, security and me, all togged up in pretty much EXACTLY the same Ralph Lauren / J.Crew catalogue get-ups. (Don McCullin was dressed as if for the trenches in South Korea but he is a bonafide photojournalism superstar, and old pal of the King’s, so gets a free pass). That said, any and all of us would’ve felt wrong in Nikes or Allbirds.

Does Trudeau’s “dress Gazelles’ debacle with King Charles mark the beginning of a new era? Is suit and tie formality outdated? Are we now in a realm of Unilqo world leaders and Under Armour Presidents? Will Boris Johnson go down in history as the UK’s first Primark Prime Minister? Will the nu-gen of permanently hoodied, gym clothes-preferring, soft-soled sneaker heads, take over…like, everything?

Recently, I came across a profile of Dragons Den panellist / Diary of a CEO host Stephen Bartlett who revealed that he would be distrustful of anyone wearing a suit to a job interview. A man in a suit, Bartlett reckons, is not showing respect for his potential employer or attempting to present a best version of himself, but actually creating a mistrustful image. “A young kid walks in wearing a suit (at an interview) and I think, I have no idea who you are, because that’s not you,” Bartlett said. “You are 22 years old, you don’t wear a suit. I have no indication, no clues to who you are and I have to then figure out if you will fit in.”

Exactly how a 22 year-old at a job interview dressed in a Sports Direct tracksuit and a pair of Hokas would’ve presented more honestly and faired more competently in front of a new boss? Steven Bartlett did not elaborate. But let’s leave the final decision on dress codes to a cross generational hipster who knew a thing or two about a patent leather pump. “You can never be overdressed,” Oscar Wilde once said. “Or overeducated.”

Five More Controversial Clothing Choices Made by Political Figures.

1. Elon Musk wears two baseball caps at a Cabinet Meeting with the President. April 2025

Musk, whose default-setting formal attire is a five seasons-old Belstaff jacket and a t-shirt, attended one of Trump’s cabinet meetings wearing a DOGE cap, atop which he promptly placed a second “Gulf of America” hat. "Well, Mr. President, as they say, I wear a lot of hats,” quipped Elon, the world’s unfunniest comedian. “Even my hat wears a hat."

2. Zelensky Wears Black Polo Shirt to the White House. March 2005

"You're all dressed up today," Trump said sarcastically, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky no-nonsense, black polo shirt. The Ukrainian leader stood firm. His face said it all. He and his country are at war. This is no time for a fashion show. Luxury fabrics and fine tailoring on hold until Ukraine prevails.

"Why don't you wear a suit?" Trump suck-up Brian Glenn persisted. "You're at the highest level in this country's office, and you refuse to wear a suit Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office."

"I will wear costume after this war will finish," Zelensky replied. ("suit" being "kostyum" in the Ukrainian tongue) "Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better.” Zelensky wins this battle.

3. John Fetterman wears Shorts to the Trump Inauguration. January 2025

The rebel Pennsylvania senator (and perhaps a former member of Limp Bizkit) who clearly regards Carhartt as a luxury brand, telegraphed his contempt for Trump by wearing baggy gym shorts and a sweatshirt to the solemn occasion. I know it was a silly, teenage move, but…gotta love Fetterman for refusing to gussy up for Donny’s big day. (Or was he actually, he was following the new dress code ruling, as passed by Chuck Schumer, which loosened the rules and now allowed for “recreation-like clothing” on the Senate floor?)

4. Barrack Obama’s Infamous Tan Suit. August 2014

For a live press conference to discuss the prospect of escalating America’s response to ISIS’s terrorism in Syria, President Obama chooses to wear a light brown suit instead of a navy one. This is considered, at the time, by some news networks (ie Fox) as wildly inappropriate and “unpresidential”. The incident became known as “The Tan Suit Controversy”. Obama, of course, looked mighty fine in taupe.

5. Winston Churchill Wears Boiler Suit to the White House January 1942

Churchill’s self-designed, one piece “siren suits’ (he had some in velvet) were made for him by Jermyn Street’s Turnbull & Asser. He wore them frequently whilst Britain was at war with Germany, and, some eighty odd years before Zelensky made a similar sartorial statement, also donned one to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. No one commented. (No one dared.)\