Pete Hegseth Accused of Getting His American Flag Suits Made in Thailand
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is fond of wearing apparel bedecked in American flags, but the origin of his clothing may be less patriotic, according to a popular menswear influencer.
Hegseth has frequently been photographed wearing flag lapel pins, tie tacks, belt buckles, socks — not to mention the countless photos of him holding open his suit jacket to show off a flag-print lining fabric.
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In a recent interview with right-wing personality Benny Johnson, Hegseth bragged about following what he calls the “three flag rule” to dictate his fashion choices.
Derek Guy, who runs the men’s style blog Die, Workwear! and social media accounts under the same name, has weighed in on political topics before. He shared Johnson’s tweet and pounced on a photo of one of Hegseth’s flag-lined jackets that zoomed in on the label.
“This suit appears to be from Book A Tailor, a company that produces its clothes in Thailand,” wrote Guy, urging Hegseth, “instead of covering yourself in USA flags, would you be interested in supporting US tailoring shops that employ US cutters and coatmakers?”
“I can help for a fee,” he cheekily offered.
The photo Guy shared showed the label of Hegseth’s jacket said “Book A Tailor,” a company that he had touted when he was a Fox & Friends Weekend host, telling his co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt that “they do a nice job,” describing how “you order it, you put all your things in, they send you a suit, it’s pretty cool.”
Guy provided more details on how Book a Tailor operates, posting a screenshot from a 2016 interview with Jacomo Hakim, the company’s CEO, in which he was unapologetic about hiring tailors in Thailand to make the suits:
[Interviewer:] Do you think some people might turn their noses up at the fact that measurements happen in one place, before being sent to Thailand for the suit to be made? Isn’t having everything done in-house best?
[Hakim:] You’re completely wrong because some of the best tailors in the world are Thai tailors. They’re better than those in London and the US.
The only difference – in a way – is that a person doesn’t need to go all the way to Thailand for measurements.
In follow-up tweets, Guy alluded to Hegseth’s on-air promotion of Book A Tailor, writing that he was “shocked” by “seeing how many wealthy people get crappy clothes for free in exchange for promotion, when they could patron a quality clothier and get good clothes by paying money instead of humiliating themselves through shilling.”
“A $5,000 bespoke suit is probably nothing to you if you’re a millionaire, just as a $5 chocolate bar is nothing to me,” he added. “I wouldn’t shill for crappy $2 chocolate bar when I’m perfectly capable of buying the chocolate I want.”
In response to a critic, Guy elaborated that his issue was Hegseth’s “virtue signaling,” and that “wearing a US flag as a lining signals patriotism, but buying US-made clothes from US cutters and tailors actually supports US jobs, which is more substantive.”
Numerous other commenters pointed out that Hegesth’s use of flag lining for his suits seemed to violate the U.S. Flag Code, a non-binding advisory part of the federal statutes that codifies the rules and customs for the display and care of the flag. Several sections of 4 U.S. Code § 8 could apply in this situation: (d) says the flag “should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery;” (g) “should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature;” (h) “should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything;” and (j) which says “[n]o part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform,” with exceptions for lapel pins (“worn on the left lapel near the heart”) and flag patches to be “affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations.”
It does not appear that Hegseth or the Department of Defense have responded to Guy’s tweets. Hegseth’s current pinned tweet shows a photo of him holding up a fist and a caption that reads, “Never back down. #AmericaFirst.”
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