The Clothes That Unmade George Santos
The Republican congressman with fashion flair is partly undone by his expensive taste
George Santos knew how to make an exit.
“The hell with this place,” the New York Republican declared to a scrum of reporters
after his expulsion Friday from the House over allegations that he stole money from his own campaign and committed other misdeeds. He was just the sixth House member expelled and the first who wasn’t a convicted felon or a supporter of the Confederacy.
His navy overcoat was draped over his shoulders, making him look more like a fashion editor swanning into a waiting car than a now-unemployed politician. His pants were studiously slender, his blue sweater trim and on his feet were sneaker-soled loafers—the better for escaping inquisitive journalists at a brisk clip.
During his frenetic 11 months in Congress, Santos was that rarest bird in the halls of American government: a male politician who brandished an unapologetic norm-busting fashion sense. Santos was so into clothes that he was willing to flout campaign-finance law to shop. House ethics investigators found that he spent $6,000 of his congressional campaign funds at Ferragamo and dropped over $4,000 at Hermès. Santos made a $1,500 purchase labeled “Botox.”
As he made one final trip down the congressional steps, it was clear that Santos’s image was really all he had. He was an ineffective lawmaker and his résumé was littered with fabrications. But he had worn attention-hogging fashion while obscuring the truth about much in his life.
There he was last month, in a crimson red double-breasted blazer and Ferragamo loafers, looking like an undercover Italian-ifed Santa Claus. In October, he strolled away from a Long Island courthouse, his firetruck-red slip-ons nearly overshadowing that he was staring down
multiple charges of fraud.
On the topic of his cosmetic treatments, Santos was an open book. Leading up to his expulsion, he told reporters “I use cosmetic Botox and fillers. It’s not a secret. I mean, did anybody ever doubt that?” He was equally as candid about using the weight-loss drug Ozempic, saying on Meghan McCain’s podcast, “It’s fantastic…I love it.”
He was also the sole openly gay Republican in the House.
On the opening day of the 118th Congress, the freshman member matched his male colleagues in a staid, pattern-free dark suit. But even then he let a smidge of his inner sartorial rebel peek forth: Tucked under his suit was a cornflower-blue sweater
As the heat turned up on Santos’ legal troubles, his clothes matched the chaos. Out came the red sweaters, the plaid jackets, the square-ish sunglasses that made him look as if he were in some bizarrely cast “Mission Impossible” movie. With more details leaking out about his sundry biographical fabrications, a media circus swirled around Santos and he gamely dressed the part of a checkered-sportcoat ringleader.
He wasn’t exactly stylish. The Santos look could be described as well-dressed middle-school math teacher. He certainly didn’t make GQ’s “Biggest Fits of 2023” list. But the Republican politician had
a style
. One glance at his chancey crimson loafers and it was clear that this man had considered how he looked.
And so, while his political tenure will likely be most remembered for his cavalcade of fabrications (everything from his college education to his employment record at Wall Street banks to his family’s connection to events such as the Holocaust) on matters of his vanity Santos was abnormally, distractingly honest.
