MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Onstage at a political rally in Nebraska on Monday, President Trump was wearing what he pretty much always wears - dark suit, white shirt, solid tie. But at one point, he stopped, stood still, opened his suit jacket wide and flashed the lining. Cameras clicked, and they captured the tag stitched into that glossy blue lining - Jos. A. Bank. President Trump, a billionaire, wearing an affordable suit - among those intrigued was Jacob Gallagher, fashion reporter at The New York Times. He's on the line from The New York Times newsroom. Hey there, Jacob.
JACOB GALLAGHER: Hi.
KELLY: Hi. All right, so for people who are not into menswear, not familiar with the brand, describe Jos. A. Bank.
GALLAGHER: It's funny that you say not into menswear because Jos. A. Bank is one of those brands that if you're not at all into clothes, you might still know because they are kind of ubiquitous.
KELLY: They're at your neighborhood mall often.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They're probably not far from where a lot of your listeners are sitting. There's a Jos. A. Bank chain or location somewhere, and they sell pretty much what you would call an affordable suit, a cheaper suit. They sit on the kind of budget end of the suiting market. That's to say they sell for around $500, I would say, is kind of the median price of a Jos. A. Bank suit. The suit that Trump was wearing appeared to be from its Traveler line, which is right in that kind of 500, $600 price range depending on when you check the Jos. A. Bank store or website because they are the kind of brand that always seems to be running some kind of sale.
KELLY: OK. So nothing wrong with a discounted - nothing wrong with...
GALLAGHER: No, indeed not.
KELLY: ...An affordable suit. But in the past, President Trump has talked about wearing suits from Italian company Brioni. Their suits would cost - what? - something like 10 times that and higher.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, just about 10 times that right now. Trump, for years and through his spokespeople, would say that he wore Brioni or sometimes there was a tailor in Brooklyn, Martin Greenfield. He was a custom tailor who dressed a number of presidents. We were always told this kind of, but, you know, obviously, there's not much evidence of him flashing his jacket then to show that they were Brioni.
KELLY: You have a great line in your piece. I'm quoting you. If Brioni is a two-Michelin-star meal, Jos. A. Bank is fast food.
GALLAGHER: Yeah. And that's really kind of the point here - is it's not like this is - the Jos. A. Bank suit is bad. It's - you know, it'll do the job, so to speak, but it is just quite a different class of suit than what he wore in the past.
KELLY: In your story, you raise a question which boils down to, was this political messaging? We're in a hot election season. Elections are upon us, and affordability is very much on voters' minds.
GALLAGHER: I think that that could absolutely be a part of this. It's funny because in spite of it being more affordable, I wouldn't say - and this might be splitting hairs - that it's Trump presenting himself in a man-of-the-people kind of way because, obviously, a lot of people in America don't wear suits at all right now.
KELLY: Yeah.
GALLAGHER: At a Trump rally, there's pretty much always one guy wearing a suit - it's Trump - and that's kind of it. But I also do think that what it does probably boil down to is more so that Jos. A. Bank is a very conservative-looking suit. It's a very traditional cut. It's a larger cut, going back decades. He's really dressed in a very conservative businessman manner from the 1980s.
KELLY: No Italian flash here. OK, Jacob, are you ready for the most important question?
GALLAGHER: Sure.
KELLY: How did the president look? Did he pull off the Jos. A. Bank suit?
GALLAGHER: I think Trump at this point - that fit of suit is what clearly he likes. It's obviously not kept up with the times, but I would say, in regards to how Trump looks, he looks standard Trump. And that means it's a bit of a bigger fit, it's a bit boxier, and there's really no shape or cut to it, but it's what you expect him to look like at this point.
KELLY: Jacob Gallagher - he covers fashion and style for The New York Times. Thank you.
GALLAGHER: Thank you very much.
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