Christina Beam: Obama's style worth following

we all well know, the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 will usher in a new era of leadership in the nation.

But what fashion observers are truly excited about is the changing of the guard in style for the American man.

President-elect Barack Obama, and his rolled-up shirtsleeves and casual elegance, has inspired a bit of a fashion frenzy among menswear observers.

"The election of President Obama — with his youthful, clean-cut good looks — offers a valuable opportunity for a national top-to-toe makeover," wrote Sameer Reddy for Newsweek in a piece railing against what he described as Americans' tendency toward elastic waistbands and preference for being comfortable over looking nice.

"When Obama takes office Jan. 20," Reddy continued, "Americans will, with luck, create their own new New Look, modeled after his elegantly simple and straightforward wardrobe and manner."

Is the look of the American male really in such sorry state? Let's examine my husband, a willing case study.

To begin with, he still owns the shirt he wore on our first date. In fact, he wore it last weekend, not long after our eighth anniversary.

Aww, you say. Isn't that romantic? And it is, I guess, save for the fact that that first date took place during a three-week courtship our sophomore year of high school, in 1995. And the shirt was hideous even then.

This is not an exaggeration: It is a short-sleeved button-down number in the color scheme of rainbow sherbet. It features horizontal stripes, and between each stripe, patterns of diamonds, flowers and scratch marks. Also, it's too short, and I think a button may be missing.

But his grandmother bought it for him at the nicest men's clothing store in our North Dakota hometown, and so he's convinced it will remain a nice shirt, until it dissolves.

That's a common philosophy I see among my male friends: If it worked for me in 1994, it must still work for me now — the prime example being tapered, relaxed-fit, light wash jeans.

But we've all seen the high school yearbook pictures of "Barry" Obama, with his combed-out helmet of hair and collar the size of two small airplane wings. For the good of the nation his fashion sense evolved; perhaps ours can, too.

Now and then my husband also wears apparel that would fall into the category of "sleepwear" when he leaves the house. Sometimes he's just out to shovel the walk, sometimes he's out to pick up a gallon of milk.

Recently he left for the store wearing a white undershirt, tennis shoes and poker-themed pajama bottoms. The only redeeming item was his black leather jacket.

"I bet you're among the top 15 scrubbiest guys out about town tonight," I said, shaking my head as he left.

"Nah. You know those guys that go to the store all smelly with a scruffy beard, a ripped up camo jacket and gray sweaties that are stained?" he said. "I bet there are at least 10 of them out there right now."

"That's why I said top 15."

"Yeah, but I bet there are another five that are worse than me but not quite that bad."

"So top 16?"

Then he called me from the store to give a sartorial report: There were at three other men there wearing pajama bottoms, he said, and a fourth with gray sweatpants on, though it was unconfirmed if they were stained.

"It's a sad state of the nation," I replied.

I learned early on in our marriage that Erik just grabs whatever is at the front of his closet, so I periodically rearrange the order of the clothing, putting the odd-patterned shirts and pants featuring the phrases "All In!" or "Royal Flush!" at the back. Sometimes he goes rogue like Dick Cheney on me, but I'm doing what I can.

I've also started to encourage him to roll up his sleeves, in a neat, folded, purposeful way, just like Barack Obama. This accomplishes at least two things: It disguises when dress shirts are ill-fitting on his extraordinarily long arms, and it makes him look like he's ready to get down to business.

Not unlike our President-elect.