For businessman-turned-politician Mitt Romney, “looking the part” isn’t necessarily a good thing. At a time when the presidential candidate is being pilloried as a vulture capitalist by rivals from both parties — yesterday’s revelation about his low income-tax rate is just more fodder for an already healthy fire — he also sports the hair of a vulture capitalist. It recalls the slicked-back style of “Wall Street’s” infamous Gordon Gekko.

When slicked-back hair is associated with the likes of a corporate raider like Gekko — Maureen Dowd wrote just last week that Republicans in New Hampshire were “painting Romney as a ruthless Gekko, complete with a 1980s-era slicked-back mane” — it’s safe to say the signals that it sends are negative. That’s particularly the case in the current, Wall Street-wary climate. But where did the slicked-back style originate? What other cultural connotations does it command?

Slicked-back hair has gone in and out of fashion since at least the 18th century, when a more dramatic iteration of the style was popularized by Madame de Pompadour, mistress of France’s King Louis XV. In her “Encyclopedia of Hair,” Victoria Sherrow says the ancien regime socialite “set a trend among women by wearing tall hairstyles built around a wire frame,” explaining that “pomade was used to set the style.” The male version of the look “is combed back off the face without a part, forming a mound of hair above the forehead … Elvis Presley wore a version of this hairdo during the 1950s, as did movie idols, including Marlon Brando and James Dean.”

A similar history is rehearsed by Ellen Mirojnick, the costume designer for 1987′s “Wall Street,” when she explains the inspiration for Gordon Gekko’s style. Mirojnick has often said that Gekko’s overall look sprang more from her own romantic impulses than from the realities of late-1980s Wall Street — and that, as a result, the character looked more like a movie star than a genuine high financier (elements of Gekko’s style have since been adopted by real-life Wall Street money-men).

“[In past centuries,] men slicked back their hair to accommodate the wigs they wore,” Mirojnick notes. “After the wigs went away, slicked-back hair was really associated mostly — before gangsters — with a general category of movie stars and actors; it goes back to the ’20s, with Rudolph Valentino,” who often wore his hair slicked straight back or parted on the left.

“The inspiration for [Gekko's] hair came from Michael Douglas, and that inspiration was sparked by Pat Riley,” who then coached the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. “[Michael Douglas] brought that idea to the table, and I brought this romanticized, glamorous, movie-star kind of Duke of Windsor/Gene Kelly combination of the golden age of Hollywood. That was my inspiration, truthfully … I didn’t look to anything but how movie stars dressed elegantly in the ’40s.”

Where Mirojnick is concerned, the Romney-Gekko comparison is a hard sell. “The difference in Romney’s hair and Gordon Gekko’s hair is that Romney’s has a part,” she says; Gekko’s hair, on the other hand, is swept straight back. In her eyes, much can be gleaned about both characters from this disparity. Romney’s style is more “specific,” “manicured” and “meticulous,” whereas “if you look at [Gordon Gekko's] slicked-back hair, sometimes it looks messy … It doesn’t look perfect; it just looks like he put stuff in his hands, put it through his hair, and combed his hair. It doesn’t look polished like Romney’s does.”

“Gordon had a fluidity; Gordon had a swagger,” Mirojnick elaborates. “You didn’t see him armored, I don’t think. I just think [Romney] is so put-together and so specific that it appears to be all armored. There’s nothing relaxed about him. Whereas Gordon … allowed you to come in.”

The suggestion of fastidiousness certainly fits with Romney’s public image; whole “Saturday Night Live” sketches have already been devoted to the candidate’s perceived stiffness. A New York Times piece on the eve of the Iowa caucuses even suggested that precise organization is characteristic not only of Romney himself, but his entire campaign.

Image consultant and political style blogger Christina Logothetis says she doesn’t think Romney’s look necessarily channels Gordon Gekko — or even other familiar slicked-back characters such as “Mad Men’s” Don Draper. It does, however, radiate executive polish: “I think it does generally place him in the category that he gets placed in anyway, which is of this very polished businessman … That being said, it’s also just very functional for him; it keeps his hair very neat.”

Would Logothetis advise a male client running for office in 2012 to try the slicked-back look? She says it could pose problems. “I would definitely flag it as something that starts to associate a person with images of wealth … It also calls attention to the fact that this man is using styling products, and that isn’t usually perceived well. We all remember the trouble that candidates have had in the past when how much they pay for a haircut comes out in the press.” As a rule, it’s better for a candidate to look natural and minimally styled, no matter how much work has actually gone into his or her appearance.

Glenn O’Brien, a style writer for GQ and author of “How to Be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentleman,” agrees. “I think that in politics, you’re supposed to be real; you’re not supposed to be styled and groomed. And Mitt Romney sort of looks like he’s been groomed professionally. It’s like John Edwards’ $400 haircut; if you look narcissistic — if you look like you pay too much attention to your appearance — then I think that’s sort of supposed to be a bad thing.

“Aesthetically,” O’Brien goes on, the slicked-back style “is about control. It’s not a natural look … I guess there’s a certain kind of executive look of being finished, being done, that it connotes.” O’Brien adds that Jon Huntsman, Romney’s one-time rival for the GOP nomination, also has a slicked-back hairstyle. But since Huntsman’s overall look is less “artificial” than Romney’s, it’s harder for observers to pick one physical trait and use it as part of a larger attack.

Are the slicked-back style’s present pop-culture associations primarily positive or negative? It’s easy to make the latter case. “Downton Abbey” heartthrob Matthew Crawley is (so far) one exception to a general rule that sees slicked-back hair assigned most often to the antagonists in popular film and television. Mirojnick laments the fact that slicked hair is so often connected with villains, noting that while she finds the style to be a powerful and romantic physical trait in leading men, “there are people who will go on the other side of the coin and historically will say that characters with slicked-back hair are the antagonists in films, whether they be villains, whether they be greedy, whether they be untrustworthy, whether they be killers, whether they be shysters — any of the above.” The phenomenon is pronounced enough to have earned a satirical citation in the Onion:

According to statistics released by the [National Organization of Men with Slicked-Back Hair], five out of every six characters with slicked-back hair are cast as the primary antagonist. Of this group, 29 percent are depicted as greedy and manipulative Wall Street sharks, 22 percent as cold, emotionless murderers, 19 percent as evil coaches or mentors, 12 percent as corrupt mafiosi, 8 percent as undead creatures who feast on human blood, and the remaining 10 percent fall into the general category of jerks/pricks/John Travolta.

Whatever cultural forces have dictated the popularity of the slicked-back hairstyle over the years — and however it might come across in the political arena today — when I ask D.C.-based image consultant Yasmin Anderson-Smith what she thinks of Romney’s look, her mind immediately jumps not to Gordon Gekko or Don Draper, but to the candidate’s father, George, who wore his hair slicked back (and parted) long before “Wall Street” was released. Perhaps in Romney’s case, she suggests, there is a more basic, time-honored fashion formula — like father, like son — at work.

It’s just baby clothes, for God’s sake. What’s the big deal? Or, as Sasha Brown-Worsham declared on the Stir, those “Moms Freaked Over ‘Sexist’ Onesie Need to Chill.”

Indeed, in a world in which little girls are peddled crotchless thongs, push-up bras and Playboy bunny-themed accessories, Gymboree’s controversial onesies declaring that baby boys are “Smart Like Dad” while girls are “Pretty Like Mommy” seem like pretty small potatoes. Yet when images of the outfits hit the Web, the outraged Moms Rising advocacy group created a petition noting “there’s no option to purchase a Smart Like Mommy onesie for boys or girls.” They urged Gymboree to “stop selling children’s clothing that promotes harmful gender stereotypes immediately.”

The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. presented its Spring 2012 Collection on Monday, Oct. 24 at the Ace Hotel.

The evening was a benefit for 826NYC and featured a collection of original and one-of-a-kind crime-fighting attire for superheroes created by various designers — Opening Ceremony, Christian Joy, Renata Morales, Chromat Garments, Matt Singer, Complex Geometries, United Bamboo and others.

All proceeds from the evening went to benefit 826NYC, allowing them to continue to help students complete their homework, get into college, improve their writing skills, rediscover themselves as artists/authors/filmmakers/musicians, and collaborate with a community of volunteers who care about their success.

826NYC asked the designers to provide their superheroes with names and a brief description of their superpowers and abilities. 826NYC also had some of the children who frequent the writing center provide their thoughts on these new superhero creations; the descriptions were read aloud as the costumes were auctioned off.

SEMIPRECIOUS by Renata Morales
“What the cow? What the — What’s this? It looks like a ghost zombie. ” (Ivan, 7 years old)

KRYPTONIAN CASUAL from Complex Geometries
“Maybe this is a superhero that would control the snow and lightning. She would wear this dress with silver gloves. She was born in the snow as a normal baby. And then she was bitten by a piranha, which gave her water powers. The thunder powers she got from getting struck by lightning when she was just a day old.” (Tarryn, 8 years old)

MAGNITITA! by Christian Joy
“It’s a magnet guy or girl. It looks like a girl, and she has magnet hands and a suitcase. If there’s metal, she can stick it on her face with the magnet. And then she would go throw it on people. I don’t know how she takes things off her face. Maybe her face is only a magnet, but her hands can be magnets and regular hands. Because if she was all magnets, she would have nothing to take it off with.” (Heerang, 6 years old)

CAT SAMURAI by United Bamboo
“With a samurai, people would get stuck with the pointy end, and then they would get hurt. It should be like a knight with the horse and those sticks. They could put the shield in front of the sun, and then it would bounce off it and will go on the person, and the person would blink their eyes like crazy.” (Heerang, 6 years old)

826NYC is a free writing center for students ages 6-18 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is located behind a swinging bookshelf at the back of a superhero supply store. For more information on them visit 372 Fifth Avenue, or online at www.826nyc.org.

KRYPTONIAN CASUAL by Complex Geometries

MAGNITITA! by Christian Joy

AGNITITA! by Christian Joy

SAMURAI CAT by United Bamboo

SEMIPRECIOUS by Renata Morales

SEMIPRECIOUS by Renata Morales

Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

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Elizabeth Taylor’s allure was such that it probably didn’t matter what she wore; particularly in her younger years, she would arguably have been attractive in almost anything. And yet, her monumental wardrobe is testament to the fact that she left nothing to chance, choosing outfits and accessories that accentuated her good looks with their own stylishness and class.

Click through the following slide show for a short preview of the hundreds of fashion-related items from Taylor’s personal collection that are set to be auctioned by Christie’s this winter (and take note: before they go on sale, standout pieces from the collection will tour the world; an exhibition will hit Los Angeles in October, and New York at the beginning of December). Among other things, you’ll see a surprisingly simple yellow chiffon wedding dress; an embroidered robe that Taylor wore to Grace Kelly’s 1969 “Scorpio Ball;” and an eye-catching Versace jacket — worn by Taylor to two AIDS benefits — that features the face of its photogenic owner herself.

For full details of the Christie’s collection (which also includes Taylor’s jewelry and other personal items), including tour and sale dates, click here.

View the slide show

JCPenney became the latest retailer to make itself the target of protests this week when it offered a T-shirt, aimed at preteen and teenage girls, emblazoned with the words “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother does it for me.” As has happened with similar offerings over the last decade, protests fell swiftly into shape. A Change.org petition denouncing the shirt garnered thousands of signatures, bloggers like those at Gawker Media’s Jezebel  turned the tacky offering into a national story, and inevitably, JCPenney announced that it was pulling the shirt from its back-to-school collection.

1. Unnecessary tour of the day: “The Real Housewives” Live Tour will feature women from all of the different manifestations of Bravo’s reality show as they perform … what exactly? Do any of them have actual talents? I had hoped this was to be a musical production of some sort, with costumes by Shereé Whitfield and wigs by Kim Zolciak, but apparently it’s just going to involve the women taking their reunion episodes on the road.