One of the things I was trying to get at in the interesting ethnic pathways thread is the way in which conservatism is forced to fictionalise in the absence of any sustained tradition. After industrial revolutions and world wars and globalisation and the 1960s unending of everything. After the gays and the feminists and the civil rights movement. When everything has been blown apart. And as a result it ends up as ludicrous kitsch.
You can see that here with the harking back to world pre 1960s. The rat pack suits with the narrow black ties. The side parted hair for men and the lopsided, would be rakish grin. You can see it in the tweed jackets which hark back to an aristocratic society which failed to survive the 20th century. Grouse moors and butlers. It's a kind of play acting that takes its cues not from a lived and living sustained tradition but from the entertainment industry. Period costume dramas. Mad Men. I'm very very surprised Oliver is susceptible to this as it is a serious lapse of taste.
And I think Barty is right when he says part of it is a drive to create a kind of white identity.
in this instance, it's particularly an aspirational white identity. so being a hippy or goth won't do. we have to go all the way back to gregory peck to find a role model.
a cross between the 50's and that first wave of 80's coorporate tacky chic (the latter you see in kellyanne conway)
shoulder pads and big hair play into the psychology of projecting out a reality you want to inhabit. if i project an image of might and importance i will be mighty and important.
mitt romney looks like an aged action man
Anderson Cooper.