'It's powerful': How John Fetterman's hoodie won popular vote in Pennsylvania

By his own admission, newly elected Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman does not look like "a typical politician".

A just over 6ft 8in with a goatee, tattoos on his forearms and a strong streak in work clothes (for his official portrait he chose to sit in a wrinkled gray Dickies camp shirt in front of the American flag), Fetterman has been described as the state's first "work clothes senator" as well as "a dude in shorts".

Yet despite this - or perhaps because of it - he broke the Republican hold on Pennsylvania's white labor-class vote while wearing a black Carhartt hoodie, an item of clothing "that's not fancy, is well-made and above all will last - all the qualities that a politician like Fetterman probably wants to convey in what he wears," says Erynn Masi de Casanova, professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati and author of Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity. "Put simply, this hoodie is an easy way to read what it appears to represent".

Fetterman's unreconstructed wardrobe - which also includes a lime green neck warmer, indigo Levi's 501s, oversized swim shorts, and, in an odd oddity, a pair of Maison Margiela side-zip boots that cost several hundred dollars — has become a talking point since the former mayor entered American politics.

Hailed as a style icon by GQ in 2020 while still lieutenant governor, he replied on Twitter that he had "a negative sense of fashion". Pressed for further comment, he wrote a blog on Medium in which he said: 'I don't look like a typical politician or a typical person' - alluding to his size - before explaining why he has tattoos : on his left arm is 15104, the postcode of Braddock, the steel town where he was previously mayor, and on the right are the dates of five murders in the town since he was elected.

But it was the hoodie that dominated the story. Casanova says, "It's strange that we continue to give so much meaning to an item that almost everyone has in their closet." Yet context is everything. Rishi Sunak was mocked by most of the UK media for wearing a gray Everlane hoodie (about the same price as Carhartt, although more gym-friendly) to his office, while in 2019 the politician from Québec solidaire Catherine Dorion was so ridiculed for wearing an orange hoodie in the legislative chamber that she had to leave the room. But since none of the people above wore theirs to vote, campaign, or even meet President Biden, by wearing one Fetterman "brought some visibility to himself," Casanova says.

The fact that it comes from Carhartt only adds to its visibility. Originally based in Detroit, Carhartt began manufacturing workwear, often triple-stitched for durability, for workers in labor-intensive industries during the Great Depression. Today, the brand's core clientele is divided between hipsters and blue-collar workers. Fetterman may have gotten a master's degree from Harvard, but he's from a Rustbelt town; wearing a Carhartt hoodie, as authentic as that choice is — "and I think that's really what he's wearing rather than a suit," says Casanova — he's recognizable to many people who vote for him , and enjoy it. As the midterm elections approached, his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, described Fetterman as a "basement bum". When Fetterman fired back by mocking Oz's "Gucci loafers" for being disconnected, the post went viral. the media climate still dictates that it is unusual for a politician to wear one. “Pennsylvania is a unique thing with a very strong work history, which is more important than the costume,” says American political commentator Luke O'Neil. Fetterman is aware that he lends the dignity of blue-collar work clothes to the political act, but as O'Neil puts it, he's also "just a guy who wears what's comfortable."

Hoodies are the last bastion of progressive casualness in political dress, which began when JFK dodged a hat for his inaugural speech in 1961 and rolled out for the last times when...