President Donald Trump continues to use tape to keep his tie together

While pundits were quick to debate the shoes and clothes of first lady Melania Trump, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and many Democratic lawmakers at the joint address to Congress on Tuesday, there was one person who made it through the night with flying colors, from a fashion standpoint: President Donald Trump.

As CNN, USA Today and Town & Country all noted, Trump, who has been criticized for his fashion choices in the past, looked noticeably sharper Tuesday, sporting a tailored suit that he kept buttoned, along with shorter sleeves and a blue-and-white tie that was far more subdued that his usual bright red.

But just a few days after his warmly received outfit, Trump was back on the road and back to sporting his traditional look — a black suit with a red tie that extended several inches past his belt, as seen above. And thanks to a gust of wind that caught Trump at just the right moment as he descended the staircase from Air Force One, we now know Trump has also continued one of his most bewildering and, some say, embarrassing fashion choices: taping his tie to ensure it stays together.

Trump has used this method in the past to prevent the ends of his tie from separating, as magazines like Esquire and GQ have noted.

The reason for this is likely twofold. For one, because Trump consistently ties his ties so that they hang so low, the shorter end in the back barely reaches the loop that is intended to keep the two ends together. Allowing separate ends to flap in the breeze, as Time Magazine depicts it here, is considered a fashion faux pas.

But as some sharp observers have noted, Trump appears to use two pieces of tape on his ties, leading to speculation that he also attempts to tape his tie to his shirt to keep it in place. If this is in fact the case, then the system has failed on several occasions, leading to the pictures that revealed the tape in the first place.

Yet what baffles most observers is that Trump simply doesn’t use a tie bar or clip, which would keep both ends of his tie and his shirt connected, to rectify the problem. At one point, Trump even sold signature tie clips as part of his fashion line, though they are no longer available.

Media reports consistently describe Trump as concerned with how he and his administration looks, with Axios reporting that he criticized White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s fashion choices, leading to Spicer donning a noticeably sharper suit soon after.

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 8:04 PM with the headline "President Donald Trump continues to use tape to keep his tie together."