M's 1992 Style Advice for Candidates

"If the mud-slinging on this campaign gets as heavy as the pundits predict, all the runners are going to need a few changes of clothes." 

"When he appears on TV, it's hard at first to know if you're watching Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas or just an average televangelist."  Blazer, shirt, jeans and tie from Hugo Boss, shoes by Edward Green.

"Bush needs to bring that preppy look up to 1992 with a softer, three button blazer and uncreased birds-eye gray trousers." Blazer, trousers, shirt and tie by Donna Karan, shoes by Edward Green.

"Quayle dresses like an old bureaucrat, and seems about as imaginative and lively." Jacket, trousers and shirt by Baracuta.

"Tsongas looks serious, acts serious, talks serious and patently yearns to be taken seriously, that's too serious." Suit, shirt and tie by Jhane Barnes.

"Jerry Brown needs to appear as a solid citizen, and there's nothing flaky about this vested, pin strip suit." Suit, shirt, tie and socks from Ralph Lauren.

"Bob Kerrey looks as bland and sounds as exciting as a local sportscaster in a small to medium market." Jacket and trousers from Krizia Uomo, shirt and tie from Tango by Max Raab.

"Wilder dresses sharp -- maybe a little too sharp for a Virginia gentleman." Jacket, trousers, shirt and tie by Nick Hilton

"If Duke wants more than the redneck vote, he's got to get street smart. And this outfit should suit him prefectly; he's used to wearing hoods." Denim jacket, hooded shirt and denim jeans from Mossimo.

"Franklin Roosevelt loved seersucker suits.  If it worked for FDR in '32, why not Mario Cuomo in '92?" Suit by Avery Lucas, shirt by Gieves & Hawkes, tie by Robert Talbott, shoes from Cole Haan.

By Robert Bryan with photographs by Greg Watermann

Probable Maximum Loss: Cole Haan

Esquire Gentleman Magazine, Spring / Summer 1993

Probable Maximum Loss or PML is an insurance term I always called the "Ka-Boom" factor. PML is a basic underwriting strategy where an insurance company figures it's total maximum loss in a building, location, region or... shoe maker.

Cole Haan started in Chicago in 1928 and were, by the time I knew them in the '80s, the classic shoe choice. Whether a simple calf tassel loafer (my first post college shoe) or their perfect correspondent in buck and tan calf -- Cole Haan was classic. You didn't wear tassel loafers -- you wore Cole Haan tassel loafers.

In 1993, Cole Haan introduced the venetian loafer you see in the advertisement above. It was a clean looking shoe made in their Maine factory. In 1988, Cole Haan was bought by Nike and shortly afterwards closed their Maine plant and moved all manufacture off shore. How odd that Cole Haan became, if not the first, one of the earliest shoe companies to embrace off shore while leaving pricing the same.

Today, pricing remains high for what you get but design has really suffered as seen here. The plastic injected shoe so commonly associated with Donald Pliner is seen across the Cole Haan line. This may have more to do with the small world of shoe design talent but I think it stems more from what Asian factories are comfortable making. Who knows. I don't pretend to know a lot about making shoes. I do understand Probable Maximum Loss. You know? Ka-Boom!