Why Senators All Dress The Same

When Richard Nixon praised his wife’s “respectable Republican cloth coat” in his 1952 Checkers speech, her clothes were not the point. Rather, Nixon drew a direct line from a coat to the values he proclaimed—frugality, integrity, public service—to counter accusations of financial impropriety. Nixon understood that clothes are the story we tell about ourselves. Psychologist Dan McAdams’s work on narrative identity highlights the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves to our ability to make sense of our place in the world. For many—particularly public figures—clothing is a more intentional, outward manifestation of their story, or narrative identity: It reveals who they want to be, the version of themselves they want the world to see. Read more at Fast Company.