King Charles demonstrated that sunglasses make the monarch on his royal tour of Australia in October and, on Thursday, Rupert Murdoch showed they work just as well for media moguls.
While leaving News Corp’s offices in Melbourne’s Southbank, en route to a solemn visit to the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea six days after it was firebombed, the 93-year-old added sunglasses to his evolving style signature of suit and sneakers. The below-the-neck combination made its debut at Murdoch’s wedding to his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova, in June, but sunglasses are a recent addition.
While Charles favours $530 flesh-coloured Moscot sunglasses for official events, judging by the distinctive frame it appears that Murdoch was willing to splash out $1480 at luxury Los Angeles eyewear label Jacques Marie Mage.
Rupert Murdoch is seen leaving the Herald Sun building in Melbourne on Thursday with his wife Elena Zhukova.Credit: The Age/Luis Enrique Ascui
The sunglasses signify the senior citizen’s unexpected drift towards stealth wealth style, popularised in the television series Succession, which is said to be based in part on the Murdoch family.
For the series’ final season, actor Jeremy Strong, who played thwarted potential media heir Kendall Logan Roy, commissioned Jerome Mage, founder of Jacques Marie Mage, to create custom sunglasses for his character inscribed with the initials KLR. Last month, Strong released a limited-edition range of sunglasses for the brand.
Rupert Murdoch is seen leaving the Herald Sun building in Melbourne with columnist Andrew Bolt.Credit: Calum Jaspan
“Basically, I wanted to create what I felt were the perfect pair of sunglasses,” Strong told US GQ. “To me, Jerome’s work is best in class and so the chance to do that with him – with the level of craftsmanship and vision at his disposal – was just a pure pleasure.”
There was no sign of the initials KRM (Rupert is Murdoch’s middle name) on the statement sunglasses.
Murdoch’s pale grey single-breasted suit, with an unbuttoned white shirt, black sneakers and sunglasses was a more relaxed spin on his headline-grabbing wedding outfit. Sneaker-loving US President Joe Biden may have inspired that look, but on Thursday Murdoch more closely resembled Michael Caine (The Batman movies era rather than Alfie and The Italian Job).
Anyone who has been to an RSL or doctor’s waiting room recently can tell you that a 93-year-old wearing a suit, sneakers and sunglasses is as groundbreaking as florals for spring, but it’s the combination of expensive accessories and their model that raises overgrown eyebrows.
There’s a way that the King and Murdoch present themselves in public that demands more attention than a hungry content creator pacing a media wall.
When it comes to presentation, Charles is still a crown above the competition, wearing impeccably cut suits made from exquisite fabrics that skim the body.
The more relaxed silhouette of Murdoch ignores the regal approach, instead combining the 2016 trend known as Dadcore and Coastal Grandma Chic of 2022. Dadcore was all about elevated basics such as sneakers and jeans, think Jerry Seinfeld, while Coastal Grandma Chic was anything Diane Keaton.
Having just released her own range of glasses with US brand Optic, Keaton would approve of the frames, while Murdoch’s sneakers deserve a Seinfeld shrug.
Let’s see if Grandadcore Chic takes off in 2025.
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