John Fetterman, The Carhartt Candidate: Clothing, Class, and Authenticity in U.S. Political Coverage

Myles Ethan Lascity ()
Additional contact information
Myles Ethan Lascity: Southern Methodist University

A chapter in Fashion Communication in the Digital Age, 2026, pp 283-299 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract At 6-foot-8, bald, and tattooed with a goatee, U.S. Senator John Fetterman does not look like a traditional politician—a fact that has been widely discussed in the media. The former mayor of small-town Braddock was known for his blunt talk and casual dress: often, gym shorts with sneakers and a Black Carhartt hooded sweatshirt. Journalist Virginia Heffernan (2022) wrote that Fetterman “looks like someone who, swayed by a different ideology, might storm the U.S. Capitol or at least lead a caravan of antivax truckers.” Nevertheless, Fetterman was named a style icon by both GQ and The New York Times. This chapter takes a critical discourse analysis to journalistic descriptions of Fetterman to see how he became closely aligned with the brand Carhartt and its invocation of working-class appeal. Such framing sheds light on the class aspects of politics, candidates, and personal appearance.

Keywords: Carhartt; Fashion branding; Framing; Personal adornment; Political branding; U.S. Campaigns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-99481-4_21

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031994814

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-99481-4_21

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().