Kimmy - Best Dressed In The World!?

The Daily Telegraph brings exciting news from the far east. It claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is a fashion force to reckoned with. We knew that! According to the local commie rag, Rodung Sinmun, Kimmy inspire people all over the world with his sartorial decisions. "The reason is that the August image of the Great General, who is always wearing the modest suit while working, leaves a deep impression on people's mind in the world. To sum it up, that is because his image as a great man is so outstanding." It's an odd thing to say, but it gets better. The paper quotes a "French fashion expert" (probably the cleaner at Vogue), who says: "Kim Jong-Il mode which is now spreading expeditiously worldwide is something unprecedented in the world's history". I want the jacket, I want those sunglasses and I wan that haircut!

Kindly sent in by loyal FiP reader Danica Lo

Happy Birthday Kim Jong-il!

Happy Birthday dear Kim, Happy Birthday to you! You're 68 today. Hope you're well - you've been looking a bit under the weather of late. Not to worry mate, 68 ain't no age, only a number. You're only as old as you feel...


I do hope you've had a good day. Set a prisoner free to celebrate, rather than setting off a bomb of some sorts. And cheer up a bit, will you - you're only 68 and undisputed dictator once in a lifetime!

GQ's Worst Dressed of 2010 - Kimmy, Gordy, Boris and Sarkozy

The end of 2009 saw journalists listing everything from best curry to worst hurry, and admittedly, I did it as well. The Best Music of 2009 - HERE! Now it's 2010 and that means new lists. This one is from GQ and concerns the Best and Worst Dressed of the new year. Don't ask me how they know in what way these people will dress in 2010 - maybe they know something I don't. True, some of them are quite predictable; Johnny Borrell (number 9 out of 10) will be "too white and too tight" this year as well...

For us - political fashion buffs - four are three people that interests us. Number 8 is NK's Kim Jong-il. GQ says his "ensembles are about as likeable as his policies". I would argue he's a lot more rock 'n 'roll than most politicians, at least sartorially speaking. He wear high heels, for God's sake. So does Nicolas Sarkozy and, wait for it, he's number 3! Both guys have their (lack of) height in common.

Boris Johnson is at number 4. His charm tour of the world and London might have paid of in electoral support, but he's still a floppy haired Tory according to the monthly lifestyle magazine. But there are no doubts about where GQ's political alliance lies, and there are no David Camerons anywhere to be seen. The coveted Number 1 spot goes, therefore, to our PM Gordon Brown. For no other reason then that he dresses - and is - boring. Imagine what they would have said if Bordon came into work in DSquared jeans, Romain Kremer top and yellow Acne tassel loafers...  

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/the_magazines/this_issueslideshows/100104-2010-gq-worstdressed-list.aspx?idx=9

Swedish department store PUB have decided to not sell NOKO jeans, which are made in North Korea. The Stockholm store gave quit the brand half an hour before the store opened and the launch of the black jeans. PUB's director, Rene Stephansen, said: "For us this is not a question of Noko Jeans – this is a question about a political issue that PUB doesn't want to be associated with. He added that the store was "not the forum" for a conversation about about Kim Jong-il.

NOKO jeans' Jakob Olsson responded that "I sincerely hope (PUB) will remove everything labelled 'made in China' as well." His colleague Jacob Åström added: "This is not a support project [for Kim Jong Il], but is a way for us to get closer to the country and, in a controversial fashion, shake this isolation up a bit." 

Talk about PC Gone Mad...

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

Bill vs Kim

Former POTUS Bill Clinton has gone to see Kim Jong-il in North Korea to negotiate the release of two US journalists. As the two giants prepare to meet, we square them up against each other in a way only the Internet can help with - i.e. the pictures they never wanted you to see...

Who the man?

Obama Kills a Fly and Threatens to do the same with North Korea's Kim Jong-il, while wearing a nice grey suit, crisp white shirt a blue tie...

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

Kim Jong-il is a doll, isn't he?

Kim Jong-il is really getting old, as this recent picture show. Kindly enough the Guardian is judging his health demise against the Kimmy doll in Team America...so far so good!

Kim Jong-il back in shape?

After months of rumours about his health and possible heart attacks, the Korean Central News Agency has published this photo, which shows NK's dictator inspecting a swimming complex...in his pyjamas? We knew he had an eccentric style but this takes the price, Kim. And remember, take off the glasses if you plan on jumping in...

Get Well Mahmoud (or die)

These are not great days for rogue leaders. Both Kim Jong-il and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are feared to be unwell. The North Korean's health has been discussed here before and his status is still unwell. Mahmoud is, apparently, burnt out. The poor bugger has been working hard in his wind breaker, at least to look like a taxi driver on lunch break. 

His outfit is a clever attempt to fit into his electorate and to be 'one of them'. It's clever because, unlike Kimmy, Mahmoud is popularly elected and has to win the next election, scheduled for 2009. We say: Good health to you (kind of) and get yourself a tailor while you're at it...

Kim Jong - are you ill?

As his health - and even death - is specualted upon, we take this oppurtunity to highlight the impeccable style of Kim Jong-il's Comedy Communism. Our Dear Leader (or at least North Koreas) has not been seen since mid-August and recent pictures of him are thought to have been taken last summer. Is he ill, is he dead? Or maybe he's just chill-axing on Aya Napa, raving away through the night in his sunglasses, platform shoes and crazy haircut?

What ever the case - live or dead - Kim Jong-il is a legend on the international fashion circuit and the only true competition to Fidel Castro as the king of Comedy Communism...Enjoy these shots of our Dear Leader:

I'm not sure the last one is the real deal, but wouldn't that be great though? Cheers Kim!