Ald. Edward Burke has been named to the “A List” of Chicago’s best dressers by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine.
This is no surprise to anyone who’s seen Burke on the City Council floor, or visited his office. Politics is a profession of bland dressers -- black or navy suit, power red tie -- but Burke is always well-tailored and well-accessorized. He favors pinstriped suits, and often wears a matching green tie and handkerchief, because, you know, he’s Irish. In the summers, he shields his pink Celtic skin with a snappy white fedora. But the best evidence of Burke’s foppishness is his cufflinks, which are monogrammed with the initials EMB.
Burke is well-dressed, but not necessarily fashionable. The Ed Burke style is meant to let you know he’s a millionaire who can afford expensive suits, not that he reads GQ. He hasn’t bought a new pair of eyeglasses since the ’80s. And those glasses he wore during Council Wars? Either of the lenses could have replaced the windshield in a Cooper Mini. If Burke really wants to be stylish, he’ll dig out the narrow-lapeled suit he’s wearing in this picture taken in 1968. Ameya Pawar, the 31-year-old from Lincoln Square, is the only alderman who wears suits so simultaneously modern and retro.
