Mugabe loses sense of dressing

The name Robert Mugabe and style used to go hand-in-hand, but in the last few months there seems to have been more changes in the 94-year-old man's life than just his political influence.

While British newspapers criticised his deeds they, however, fell in love with his sense of style as he used to dress better than the English gentlemen in London.

But in a bolt, just as he lost his political clout he seems to have also lost the dressing sense, if pictures taken at his blue roof mansion in Harare are anything to go by.

Though he still keeps to his gentlemen dressing, even at home, there, however, seems to be something amiss with the fitting of his clothes — Mugabe has changed from being a sharp dresser.

Since he was placed under "house arrest" on November 15, 2017, his dressing has been off the mark, unlike the dapper English gentleman that he has been known for being for decades.

As pictures of the first meeting between Mugabe and generals led by the then commander Defence Forces Constantino Chiwenga who is now the vice president of Zimbabwe, people started noticing changes in the way Mugabe dressed.

After meeting the generals, Mugabe attended a graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University (Zou), and unlike his usual self he had put on the same shirt and tie he had worn the previous day, or at least it seemed so.

The shirt looked like the same striped one and the blue patterned tie, and inside the blue gown he was wearing, there seemed to be the same jacket that he had also worn the previous day.

During his famous "asante sana" national address Mugabe also wore an-out-of-sorts jacket — like one from the archives.

He has been pictured wearing oversized trousers and jackets, with people questioning where his tailored suits he used to wear when he was the president have gone.

Talk about how times change.

The BBC in 2014 described Mugabe as a snappy dresser, with Savile Row suits, with matching tie and handkerchief. "…are what he is most comfortable in and were his trademark until his former spin doctor Jonathan Moyo gave him a makeover in the early 2000s and he started campaigning in brightly coloured shirts emblazoned with his face and sports caps."

As president, Mugabe always made sure he had a tie and jacket on, even when putting on his Zanu PF regalia.

But at any event Mugabe always scored as the gentlemen, hence his signature even inspired a designer fashion range.

The Mugabe signature became a brand itself with designers stepping on each other's toes just to personalise the brand.

He also made headlines in 2016 after sporting a jacket made of eye-popping fabric designed by his wife Grace and not  giving up his red power tie.

Mugabe has also been an unconventional kind of man.

And no one has ever succeeded in telling him what to wear.

In 2015 he was the odd man out as he stubbornly refused to put on an Indian attire like the rest of the African presidents on one of his numerous foreign outings.

He made news as the grey-suited man standing next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he stood in the photo with more than 50 leaders in colourful Indian attire.

Mugabe had over time also mysteriously worn two wrist watches.

His son Robert Junior is now a designer, developing a fashion label called xGx, he said he hoped to dress his parents.