John Boehner breaks the rules

If there's one thing the conventional wisdom seems to know about how politicians should dress, it's that men have a uniform, and that uniform includes a bright red tie. "Red is a power color," they say. "Red is patriotic," they insist.

And then you notice something like this: John Boehner is Speaker, and his ties are pastels.  Look:

He wears pink:


And green:


And yellow:


Not much red this year!

Now, you might remember my discussion in Politico this time last year about Boehner's sharp, authoritative style of dress. But that was election season - expect those red ties and cuff links to make a comeback as election time draws near again. 

The Pledge to America does not include ties

The Republican House leadership held a press conference in Virginia to announce their new policy agenda: "A Pledge to America." Perhaps you've heard of it? The group included three women, but it was the way the men were dressed that was striking: Not a single one of them wore a tie.  Have a look:

The no tie-open collar-sleeves rolled up look is well known on the campaign trail, often in town hall style events. It connotes ease, relatability and a readiness to roll up his sleeves and get to work (get it?). But seeing it here en masse looks a bit odd, not unlike if they were all wearing the exact same tie. Of course, they're not all identical. Some shirts are white, some are blue, some are blue plaid. A few opted for jackets. Rep. Jeb Hensarling wore a red polo shirt that looks like it perhaps was laundered one too many times - a bit too informal in comparison to the others.

But not one, not even the leader Rep. John Boehner, opted for a tie. And that's why it looks weird. They had to have coordinated their outfits. Either way in advance, or right before, urging those with ties to take them off. And how do I know that it's not just a coincidence? Because the women are a lot more dressed up. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. Marsha Blackburn are wearing suits with button down shirts and plenty of jewelry. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, sporting a baby bump, went for a soft jacket and bold jewelry. All three of these women are leaders in their party and appear regularly at press conferences like this one. They know what's going on. But odds are, they didn't get the no-tie memo because none of them would literally wear a tie, so they were left without information about how to dress in line with their colleagues.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm really not. But come on, Blackburn shows up in a full suit and heels and not one of those guys wears a tie? I'm not buying it.

The man with the tan

Even though we know that women in politics get more scrutiny of their looks, men are not exempt either. The man of the moment whose looks are being examined is House minority leader John Boehner. Even when the remarks are relatively positive, people just cannot stop talking about his tan. Often speculation about his skin color and its source are even more blatant.

Check out this montage of MSNBC coverage assembled by Politico:


His political opponents have even gone so far as to produce a widely-seen ad that sends the "founding fathers" to a tanning salon to look for him:


With all this discussion, I thought we should look at Boehner directly, in a CSPAN video of a recent speech in Ohio:

In this case, he doesn't look orange, which is the most frequent point of mockery. But his tan does bring his skin color really close to his hair color, and that low contrast is only emphasized by the high contrast between his black suit and white shirt and light tie.

Whenever you're doing makeup for television, you should remember that camera-ready products have a yellow base, because the camera reads skin tone in shades of red and blue. Self tanner, like some foundations, has a red base, so the camera reads the skin tone even redder, or essentially as orange. Self tanner works by creating a chemical reaction with the dead skin cells in the top layer of your skin. This is why you're warned to exfoliate first and avoid heels and elbows, which have thicker layers of dead cells - they would have more interaction with the tanning chemicals and come out darker. So self tanner is acting like makeup, creating a layer of color on top of the skin.

Tanning: Just don't do it.