Grand theories of warfare and international relations will come and go. Flashy quantitative techniques for analyzing congressional votes will rise and fall.

But one thing about the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association remains eternal: Anxiety about how political scientists dress.

At Lawyers, Guns, and Money, the U. of Kentucky’s Robert Farley laments that “the uniform remains substantially unchanged; navy blazer with brass buttons, button down shirt with no tie and t-shirt showing at the neck, pleated slacks.” His commenters chime in with a long list of hypotheses about which subfields within political science are the worst offenders, and why.

Farley’s comment was prompted by this video blog, in which (beginning around 4 minutes in) Tufts’ Dan Drezner and The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle reflect on the fashion sense of economists and political scientists, and wonder whether female academics suffer more for their choices.

For what it’s worth, your humble correspondent stepped away from the conference late yesterday afternoon to buy a pair of black corduroys.