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Red, blue, purple, “I’d prefer not to talk about politics” — doesn’t matter. If we can all agree on one thing, it’s that there’s exactly one president in U.S. history who could pull off a black nylon Rag & Bone bomber jacket in public.
Sitting courtside at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night to watch a pair of blowouts (North Carolina over Duke and Zion Williamson’s Nikes), Barack Obama donned an all-black ensemble anchored by the pièce de résistance you see above. Now normally, this would go down as a smart but altogether unexceptional fit. But we’re talking about a president here, which in the U.S. denotes a famously bland and risk-averse approach to dressing (Remember all the hand-wringing over Obama’s tan suit?).
The jacket itself is available now for preorder via Rag & Bone, the NYC designer that has lost a bit of cachet in recent years but still very much qualifies as a flex in the hands of a former head of state. Cut from Japanese nylon and based on a traditional military silhouette, the jacket features a two-way zipper, snap hip pockets and the signature zip sleeve pocket. Be aware that Obama’s version had a no. 44 embroidered into the sleeve, which yours will not. Speaking to GQ about his newest client, Rag & Bone founder Marcus Wainwright said, “He looked pretty f*cking cool.”
And if you’re willing to drop $595 for a bit of presidential panache, you will too.
Main image via Lance King / Getty
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