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Suiting Up
Our fashion experts give the once-over to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos’s business-casual style.
| General Appearance Jeffrey Banks: “His outfit is appropriate, since Amazon’s a more casual company, but he could look a little sharper. A blazer and trousers is fine, but if you’re going to do that they’ve got to be really nice pants, not khakis. That’s what every twentysomething wears to a casual workplace. You don’t want to dress like the people who work for you. You want to look like the CEO.” |
Banks: “It would be great if he had a cotton gabardine suit in a light tan or warm khaki color with a warm-toned shirt, blue or teal. A suit looks more pulled together, and that’s how the CEO of a company should look: pulled together.” |
| Shirt Banks: “The shirt is all wrong. It’s messy.” Leslie Frank: “I’m not sure if his microphone is preventing his shirt from lying flat, or if it’s ill-fitting. He could choose a 100 percent cotton wrinkle-free shirt — terrific for travel. He could find one on Amazon.com!” |
Color Frank: “Bezos appears pallid, and a great blue shirt would bring some energy to his coloring.” |
| Shirt Banks: “The shirt is all wrong. It’s messy.” Leslie Frank: “I’m not sure if his microphone is preventing his shirt from lying flat, or if it’s ill-fitting. He could choose a 100 percent cotton wrinkle-free shirt — terrific for travel. He could find one on Amazon.com!” |
Jacket Banks: “I’d make that jacket fit more because it looks too big on him, and he looks not particularly tall. If he decided to go with a slightly shorter jacket length, his legs would look longer.” |
| Pants Frank: “This is a summer outfit, but cotton will wrinkle — so he might instead consider a summer-weight microfiber trouser.” Banks: “Those trousers are way too big and sloppy, and they’re too long. The synthetic fibers will hold a pleat, but to me, that just looks like you’re wearing golf pants.” |
Pants Banks: “A flat-front, slimmer pant is going to make him look slimmer and taller. A dress cotton pant will also have a half-lining in the front, which will hold the crease and help it look less rumpled and wrinkled. Your pants should just break over the top of the shoe in front, and there should be a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch above the heel.” |
| Belt and Shoes Banks: “Fashion today is about breaking rules, but there’s one rule you can’t break as a man — your belt and your shoes must be the same color! You can’t do a black belt and brown shoes. That’s really sloppy.” |
Belt and Shoes Frank: “A casual leather belt in the same antique brown tone as his shoes would be a better fit.” Banks: “A monk-strap shoe is more casual than a dress oxford. It’s a great international style, and Amazon is a global company.” |
Leslie Frank
A former fashion merchandiser, Frank is the cofounder of Project Solvers, a New York–based fashion-industry staffing firm.
Jeffrey Banks Menswear designer Banks is a member of the emeritus board of directors at the Council of Fashion Designers of America and has twice been on the International Best-Dressed List. He is the coauthor of Tartan, Romancing the Plaid (Rizzoli, 2007).
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