The Guardian - Fashion • Jan. 31, 2026, 9:15 a.m.

Ditching the traditional suit and tie for understated all black ‘is as calculated as any Westminster suit, just aimed at a different audience’ With Labour blocking Andy Burnham from returning as an MP, the so-called “king of the north” came out wearing a simple black V-neck jumper with dark denim jeans. The Greater Manchester mayor, appearing at the launch of a Class Ceiling report at the city’s Whitworth gallery on Monday, looked quietly, subtly, the outsider.

It might not sound like much. But that is the point of Burnham’s largely unnoteworthy look, which tends to involve Left Bank intellectual-adjacent black-on-black.

In direct contrast to his tie-wearing colleagues in parliament, Burnham’s style feels particularly symbolic. Continue reading...

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