The Spin/Hugo Chavez column for Anothermag.com

The Spin | Hugo Chávez

— March 30, 2010—

David Hellqvist tries to make sense of the sartorial choices of World 
Leaders in his fortnightly column The Spin

There can be no doubt that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has friends in high places. Actor Sean Penn seems to be constantly defending Chavez, American film director Olive Stone has made a documentary about him, and – to top it off – British Super model Naomi Campbell once interviewed President Chávez for GQ Magazine. Not bad for a man most people struggle to label a dictator or a socialist hero.


Chávez, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Venezuelan army, divides opinion wherever he goes. We know for sure that the US doesn’t like him – and vice versa. Of course Chávez is more friendly towards Obama than he was with Bush, and Chávez has even claimed that POTUS Obama is more left wing than himself; a statement Obama probably wasn’t too happy with.


Hugo Chávez might be on fairly good terms with Obama, but his real political and fashion hero is Cuba’s Fidel Castro. The socialist regime of Castro’s island and the length of Fidel’s presidential tenure are both major sources of inspiration for Chávez. The Venezuelan president has been in power for more than 10 years, and it’s safe to say that he wouldn’t mind doubling that.


The strongest sartorial point to Chávez’s political wardrobe is his consistent colour coding. On that point he even outdoes Castro, who always wore a khaki uniform. But Chávez and his stylist have gone for a more Communist approach through ALWAYS making sure the colour red is part of his outfit. Be it a beret, a tie, a t-shirt, or several of them at the same time, blood red is his constant fashion friend.


As we all know, red is a difficult colour to pull off. Its strength and connotations threatens to out manoeuvre the wearer. Therefore it’s a testament to Hugo Chávez’s political charisma and fashion courage that he pulls it off. And who am I to tell Venezuela’s President that blue is actually his colour…




David Hellqvist is a freelance journalist for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, i-D,ZOO and a Contributing Editor to American website JC Report

Chavez In A Kevlar Vest? Can I Have One!?

A recent article in the New York Times highlighted the reoccuring connection between fashion and bulletproof vests. When I hear those two words, a couple of people come to my mind. One is good, the other not so much; Helmut Lang and 50 Cent. Lang incorporated this hardline approach in his 1990's period of fashion reign. He fused a minimal formal look with casual military influences, as such shaping the army inspired fashion we see today. Fiddy, on the other hand, didn't know what looked best: wearing the vest or showing off his nine bullet holes. To his credit, he managed both in an excedingly annoying way. Anyway, the NYT article told us about another use of fashionable kevlar: style conscious world leaders who need protection! This is the story of Miguel Caballero, one of the main players in this fascinating game of Get Good Lookin Or Die Tryin (I'm sorry that was a really bad one, I know)


"Caballero, a Colombian entrepreneur — and for nearly two decades a reigning monarch of high-end body armor — is no stranger to that reality. Mr. Caballero has sold trench coats, business suits, riding jackets and blazers to an A-list clientele including President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. His deep-pocketed clients order custom-tailored Italian leather jackets that can deflect bullets from a handgun (about $6,000) or polo shirts that can cost as much as $4,000. A year ago, Mr. Caballero opened a boutique in Mexico City, where its neighbors are Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Giorgio Armani"

Your Weekly Dictator Update

Mummar Gadafy and Hugo Chavez

It's been a busy week for our beloved dictators. They've been traveling and, it seems, pairing up with each other. Maybe there's a not only a British conference season at the moment, but also some worldwide despot gathering, where they get together and discuss their best crowd control measurements, how to police the internet, effective propaganda in a multimedia times, or maybe just a new online shop that sells plat form shoes...we will never know.

Kim Jong-il and China's Wen Jiabo

Oliver Stone + Hugo Chavez = American nightmare

Oliver Stone, the man who brought you the W movie, is back with South of the Border, a film where Stone interviews five South American heads of states about the situation in the countries and their relationship with the US. Next up, we hear, is Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...can't wait!

Fashion in Politics interview on Viceland.com

http://www.viceland.com/fashion/2009/05/some-people-really-want-to-be-judged-on-appearances/#more-3332

Whatever people claim, when it comes down to it, fashion is all about making people like you. Even if your personality smells like a glove compartment full of arseholes, you’re only one sexy pair of jeans away from popularity and power. Everybody says they hate politicians, but in reality most politicians are actually pretty good at getting people to like them – so much so that they get to control the world. Obviously, then, they use fashion to help their dominance. David Hellqvist links the two on his blog, Fashion In Politics.


Why it took so long for some blogger to link the two is anyone’s guess. Hellqvist’s blog uses all that crap we know about fashion to try and decode the inner-mind of all those people with egos so big they want to rule us — otherwise known as politicians.

Vice: Being interested in fashion and politics is pretty unusual. Most fashion people are pretty scared of politics, right?
David Hellqvist: Yeah, that’s because traditionally fashion designers aren’t meant to interfere in politics. The thing is, most politicians don’t understand what a powerful way of communicating fashion is, except the despots and dictators, of course.

Can fashion ever really be political?
A lot of the time fashion is square and predictable, but sometimes it’s anarchic and rebellious, which are political things. It’s easy to print slogans on t-shirts like Vivienne Westwood does, but that’s boring. The political standpoint should be made by the wearer, not the designer. For example, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wears a beige windbreaker and a white shirt to try and make out he’s one of the people, while Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is a master at showing off his socialistic convictions by wearing a red beret or a red lambs wool pullover .

Why did you set up the blog?
People say they find politics boring but they do care about who the people leading them are. Fashion is a big part of that cult of personality and celebrity. So I wanted a blog where I could write about all of that.

Do you wish you were a politics writer?
No, a politician! I’d style myself on Fidel Castro or Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but not in terms of politics, obviously. I would rock the Fidel look with some khaki combats on my days off and wear a Pinochet-esque black cape from YSL for state openings. Throw in a pair of Cutler & Gross sunnies and I’m all set to go.

Who are the most stylish people in politics?
The evil politicians always outdo the good ones when it comes to style. People like the Ugandan leader (and rumoured cannibal) Idi Amin. Or Jean Bedel Bokassa, the ruler of the Central African Republic in the 60s, who spent a third of his country’s budget on his crowning ceremony and declared himself Jesus’ 13th apostle, or Zaire’s leopard-print loving leader Mobuto Sese Seko. But it’s not just dead despots who make snappy dressers. Muammar Al-Gaddafi is always matching his hats and dresses and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, with his comedy hair, platform shoes and amazing over-sized sunglasses. Sometimes he even turns out in just his bathrobe — that’s a dictator with sartorial attitude.

DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI

An unexpected meeting...

Well, who would have thought? This is not an ordinary sight - An American President and Hugo Chavez, leader of 'rogue' nation Venezuela. Historically (read: Under the Bush administration)

these two countries wouldn't have got along, but of course PBO changed all that. 

The meeting in Mexico has been compared to when JFK meet Nikita Krutshev, former leader of the Soviet Union, in the 1960's.

Hugo Chavez Celebrates a Red Decade

It is now ten years since Venezuela's Hugo Chavez came into power and the jury is still out on this guy. There is no doubt that he initially did some good things and fought for the poor people of Venezuela, but lately his nation wide support has been diminished and he lost votes in a recent election.  

The fact that he is lobbying to change the law to allow him to run for another term gives him dictatorship potential. But whatever you think of him there is no doubt he has an interesting wardrobe. Currently, there is no one else who's using so much colours - in this case red - as a political, rather than fashionable, statement.

An unusual, but nice and folksy, shirt and slipover combo. But the red beret is ever-present and hinting at his military power, yet oozing red socialism.

In red again, next to his political hero. I just think he should look towards Castro for his fashion as well - Fidel's wardrobe rocks!

Apparently he can do smart as well, but even then a red tie is a must. No surprises there.

It looks like Venezuela has its own Banksy...