Style-section politics.(The media)(semiotics)

Michael Jackson, says Robin Givhan, the fashion correspondent of the Washington Post, "appears incapable of wearing anything that does not resemble a costume, no matter how serious the circumstances." It seems that the King of Pop showed up for his trial on the charges of child molestation dressed like, well, the King of Pop. On the trial's second day, for instance, he wore

 
   a dove gray brocade vest over a red shirt. Instead 
   of a necktie--which he had skipped the 
   day before as well--he wore a medallion at his 
   neck. It wasn't a bolo, which is typically a thin 
   cord held in place by a sliding metal loop. 
   Jackson's neckwear was vaguely militaristic  ...