History and High Heels: Interview with a Traditionalist

Gary Armstrong, pictured here, is a professor of political science and international relations at William Jewell College. He is known around campus as one of the best dressed professors and is a self-professed traditionalist. He always shows up to class at least wearing khakis and a tie. On Monday, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Armstrong on his thoughts on fashion. Below are some excerpts from our discussion.

Me: When was the first time you bought a suit?
A: High school, mom and dad insisted I get one for graduation. And then for a summer program, I got an internship with the US State Department and professional dress was expected. So of course my mom helped me. She taught me the virtue of mixing suits. Instead of having 5 suits, I had 1 or 2 suits and 2 or 3 sport coats. I was terrible at it. I didn't have an eye for certain things. I think one time I came down wearing three different plaids. So that's where it started.

Me: How many bowties do you own?
A: Probably five or six. There are a couple that I don’t wear that much; there is Valentines Day with pink hearts and I have lost an American flag bowtie.

Me: Do you wear a specific bowtie for special occasions?
A:I have one that causes a lot of comment, which is the red William Jewell bowtie. I tend to wear that on kind of formal academic things. The college bookstore sold them, then when we moved to Barnes & Noble they got rid of the inventory. But [Professor] Milton Horne used to always wear bowties. Always. So when I first started wearing them I declared it “Milton Horne Solidarity Day.

Me: Did you ever go through a weird fashion phase?
A: Besides mixing three plaids? I don’t have highly articulated philosophies on fashion dress. I think what it means to be a gentleman is to know how to behave in whatever setting you are in. It is not always to be a prude, its not always to be a stick in the mud. It’s inappropriate to be in a morning suit if you are go to the lake and have fun. But there has been this kind of sneaking in the back of my head that something went wrong in the West around 1914. I just don’t know where it got started. It has to be Masterpiece Theatre. Just the kind of sense that guys clothes were better in the [early] 1900s before they started dressing like bankers.
I was born in the pre-polyester days, but that does mean in the 70’s which were generally a bad time for America I had two leisure suits, I think they were 150% polyester. One was green and had white stitching and we had thick, wide white belts that went with it. We were all wearing two-tone shoes. I think there was an Easter when all of the guys in the family turned out in these leisure suits around 1974. That was crazy.
In high school in the late 70s, we were wearing bellbottoms and you needed to have a big thick white belt, and everybody carried big hunking combs in our backpockets, that I think we spent more time flipping each other with them than actually using them.

Me: Have you ever worn something that you now look back on with regret?
A: [Laughs] Well somewhere there is a picture of me from when I was a little kid because it was school photo day and mom dressed us. We are wearing shirts and I think they were leopard print scarves. She thought it was really great. I don’t know why in the world she thought that.

Me: What do you think of men’s fashion today?
A: Our society is becoming less formal. You see it in all kinds of ways. My suspicion is that our society is also becoming coarser. You hear cursing in public that you never would have heard when I was younger. I’m part of the problem there. I use words in class that I shouldn’t use. I think maybe as a trade off with that coarsening, we have become a more immediate society. I think that is
So I’m kind of old fashioned and wear the tie. Sometimes I wonder, now I address you guys by your family name. That’s because most of my colleagues don’t. But also because you need to be addressed as adults and the old fashioned standard was that you always address adults as mister and miss. I’m not above consciously making some differences between myself and my colleagues.
Men’s fashion has become less formal. I really regret the decision of so many guys at Jewell to dress informally and sloppy every day as a matter of course even when they come to class. I think it is a mistake for guys to be constantly in sweats and athletic suits. I think that we are all capable of being more polite when we remember that dress and appearance matter. Leaders know how to behave in all sittings and all contexts.

Me: What do you wish you could change?
A: I read an interview once with J.R.R. Tolkien who thought that it all had been downhill since world war ii when the waistcoat went out. [Laughs] And as you can tell, we call them vests. I kind of like those.

Me: Do you have any advice for a young well-dressed gentleman today?
A: I still think that some of the old rules are commendable. Somehow they got deep into me; I think it was between my grandmother, my mother, and dad. If you wear brown shoes, you wear a brown belt. Do not remove your jacket at a dinner, unless the host does. I have talked to more than one young guy at formal college dinners who have made that kind of mistake. The key thing is that as styles come and go, just decide what kind of presentation you want to make to the world, but remember some of us are shallow enough to judge you by your look. If you intentionally dress sloppy, then some of us are going to suspect you of that.