Michael Anton, a former senior national security official during Donald Trump’s first term, found himself thrust back into the public eye amid speculation over who would replace Mike Waltz as national security adviser following Waltz’s reassignment, or what Vice President JD Vance framed as a “promotion” to a UN ambassadorship. While names like Steve Witkoff, Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller were floated, Anton’s name stood out — not just for his political writings, but also for an entirely different reason.
Known to many in political circles for his 2016 “Flight 93 Election” essay, in which he likened Hillary Clinton’s potential presidency to a hijacked airplane, Anton was also widely recognized within a niche yet passionate corner of the internet dedicated to classic menswear. Under the online alias “Manton,” Anton was a dominant voice on StyleForum, an online community where discussions of Neapolitan tailoring, English tweeds, and Austro-Hungarian shoes unfolded with almost religious fervor. He once described the site to The Intercept as “a dorm room environment where even people like me, who are old, can feel 19 again.”
Anton posted more than 41,000 times between 2002 and 2016, mostly on tailoring. Although he occasionally diverged into politics, food, and philosophy, his primary focus was on the arcana of men’s fashion. His contributions, even on style, often revealed the same philosophical and ideological rigor that marked his political commentary. Ironically, his vision of taste stood at odds with the fashion sensibilities of many in Trump’s camp — including Trump himself, whose long red ties and boxy suits represented precisely what Anton disdained.
In 2006, Anton authored The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style under the pseudonym Nicholas Antongiavanni. Modeled on The Prince, the book delivered classic menswear advice while critiquing public figures’ fashion missteps. He lambasted Tucker Carlson’s bow ties as pretentious, Johnnie Cochran’s double-breasted jackets as vulgar, and Donald Rumsfeld’s wardrobe as cheap and ill-fitted. Even Dan Rather, whose tailoring he conceded was technically competent, was dismissed as an uninspired mimic of Edward R. Murrow. These sharp critiques extended to Trump, whom Anton implicitly criticized for his gaudy sartorial choices, especially his bright red satin ties.
On StyleForum, Anton emerged as a respected and, at times, controversial figure. He created and dominated some of the most enduring threads on the platform. One such thread, “Unfunded Liabilities,” explored obscure fabrics and sourcing channels among bespoke enthusiasts. Another idea he championed, the “BlazerSuit,” attempted to bridge the formality of a navy suit and the versatility of a blazer. The jacket featured open patch pockets, rounded lapels, and brown horn buttons — a concept Anton developed in the hopes of increasing wardrobe flexibility, though it sparked ongoing debate within the community.
Anton’s posts often took on a philosophical tone. Even simple questions about pocket square combinations led to extended treatises referencing Plato, Aristotle, and Fred Astaire. He treated every style debate with intellectual rigor, applying philosophical frameworks to the aesthetics of lapel widths, shirt collars, and button stances. In 2012, he launched a thread titled “Whnay’s Good Taste” in a last-ditch effort to restore what he saw as declining standards. In this thread, members posted pictures of their outfits for Anton’s critique, which was typically blunt and often brutal. To one user, he remarked, “Worst tie I have ever seen.” To another: “Way too busy, terrible collar, ugly tie, bad square, start over.”
His greatest influence on StyleForum and menswear discourse may be his advocacy for a dress code he called Conservative Business Dress, or CBD. Initially a satirical jab at a forum troll, CBD became a full-fledged doctrine that championed restraint, coherence, and tradition over flamboyance. While Italian sprezzatura reveled in artful disarray and English dandyism favored theatrical flair, Anton’s CBD sought invisibility and subtle mastery. Inspired by figures like Beau Brummell, Anton believed true style came from fidelity to established norms — the kind of understated elegance found in mid-century American elites or London financiers.
CBD, as Anton envisioned it, involved more than just clothing; it was a philosophy. A proper ensemble might include a dark worsted suit from a high-end English mill, a white poplin shirt with a modest spread collar, a subdued silk tie, and black oxfords or dark brown derbies. He discouraged mixing casual and formal elements, arguing against the use of navy trousers as odd pants or the pairing of black shirts with tailored jackets. Red ties — particularly the kind favored by Trump — were a frequent target of his scorn. “Trump = don’t,” he once wrote succinctly in 2012.
As a moderator of “Whnay’s Good Taste,” Anton treated the thread as a sanctuary for high standards in menswear. Yet, his vision often clashed with newer forum members. Some, like a user named Tactical, repeatedly posted outfits featuring bright red ties in open defiance of Anton’s stated principles. To Anton, these acts were not just breaches of taste but intentional vandalism. He once compared the thread to a defaced monument: “They think their graffiti constitutes a beautiful mural. Whatever, the outcome is the same. Most of the wall is ugly as shit and cleaning it up would be a full-time job.”
Anton’s encyclopedic knowledge of menswear was impressive, especially when filtered through a historical lens. He often referenced long-forgotten sources like Apparel Arts, a 1930s style manual for the American elite. However, his judgments tended to be binary, distinguishing strictly between what was correct and what was unacceptable. While he rightly observed that black shirts had criminal or outsider connotations in many Western cultures, he failed to recognize that different classes and communities have developed their own legitimate style languages — ones that may not trace their lineage to Ivy League traditions or Savile Row.
Following Trump’s victory in 2016, Anton’s presence on StyleForum faded. Although he returned sporadically, the forum had changed. Many of the early contributors had left, and newer users were less deferential. In the increasingly politicized atmosphere, some even accused Anton of being a Nazi. Threads he once rigorously policed — on taste, on CBD — continued, but without his authoritative voice, the community’s cohesion began to slip.
Though his influence waned, Anton occasionally returned to discuss tangential topics like wine, high-end kitchen knives, and his growing disdain for urban centers like San Francisco and New York. Still, his era of dominance had ended, and the stylistic codes he once enforced now existed as fading doctrine rather than living gospel.
Christian Chensvold, a fellow menswear writer, once met Anton and offered a final reflection: Anton was pleasant in person, but the intensity of his aesthetic convictions marked him as someone whose views on taste — like his politics — were anything but moderate.
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