How Did Republican Fashion Go From Blazers to Belligerence?

"At the events surrounding Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981, guests were handed small jewelry boxes that opened with a satisfying snap. Inside, metal buttons rested on a plush blue-velvet cushion. Each bore the image of a bald eagle with its wings stretched wide before the Capitol dome, a banner streaming from its beak that read 'Reagan-Bush.' The buttons were more than keepsakes; they were emblems of conservative longing."

"Republican organizers had commissioned the buttons from Ben Silver-a Charleston, South Carolina-based outfitter whose trade was, and remains, the adornment of America's gilded class-on the assumption that every attendee of Reagan's celebrations already owned a navy sport coat onto which the hardware could be affixed. With a swift replacement of buttons, hopsack jackets turned into blazers: not merely articles of clothing but markers of identity."

"Although blazers were initially worn for sport (the term comes from the red jackets worn by members of the Lady Margaret Boat Club at St John's College in Cambridge, which visually "blazed" along the water), by the early 1980s, they symbolized belonging in polite society. Blazers allowed one entry into country clubs and Ivy League alumni houses, where paintings of 19th-century men hanging above mahogany wainscoting enshrined success according to particular moral and professional codes. For many conservatives, such environments represented civility and decorum."

Guests at Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration received jewelry boxes containing metal buttons bearing a bald eagle, Capitol dome, and a banner reading 'Reagan-Bush.' The buttons functioned as emblems of conservative longing after decades of unrest, oil shocks, Watergate, and the Vietnam War, prompting Republicans to seek a return to pre-1960 social norms. Republican organizers commissioned the buttons from Ben Silver, assuming attendees already owned navy sport coats for the hardware. With buttons affixed, hopsack jackets became blazers that signaled membership in polite society, granting access to country clubs and Ivy League alumni houses that embodied civility and decorum.

Read at The Nation