Personal Style and Habits
Stone's personal style has been described as flamboyant.[148][149] In a 2007 Weekly Standard profile written by Matt Labash, Stone was described as a "lord of mischief" and the "boastful black prince of Republican sleaze."[3][150] Labash wrote that Stone "often sets his pronouncements off with the utterance 'Stone's Rules,' signifying to listeners that one of his shot-glass commandments is coming down, a pithy dictate uttered with the unbending certitude one usually associates with the Book of Deuteronomy." Examples of Stone's Rules include "Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art, sometimes for its own sake."[3]
Stone does not wear socks – a fact that Nancy Reagan brought to her husband's attention during his 1980 presidential campaign.[151] Labash described him as "a dandy by disposition who boasts of having not bought off-the-rack since he was 17," who has "taught reporters how to achieve perfect double-dimples underneath their tie knots."[150] Washington journalist Victor Gold has noted Stone's reputation as one of the "smartest dressers" in Washington.[152] Stone's longtime tailor is Alan Flusser. Stone dislikes single-vent jackets (describing them as the sign of a "heathen"); says he owns 100 silver-colored neckties; and has 100 suits in storage.[3] Fashion stories have been written about him in GQ and Penthouse.[3] Stone has written of his dislike for jeans and ascots and has praised seersucker three-piece suits, as well as Madras jackets in the summertime and velvet blazers in the winter.[137][141]
In 1999, Stone credited his facial appearance to "decades of following a regimen of Chinese herbs, breathing therapies, tai chi and acupuncture."[37] Stone wears a diamond pinkie ring in the shape of a horseshoe and in 2007 he had Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back.[3] As of 2007, he owned five Jaguar cars and five Yorkshire Terriers.[3] In 2016, he claimed in a Newsweek interview that at least two of his dogs have been poisoned.[153] He has said: "I like English tailoring, I like Italian shoes. I like French wine. I like vodka martinis with an olive, please. I like to keep physically fit."[154]
Stone's office in Florida has been described as a "Hall of Nixonia" with framed pictures, posters, and letters associated with Nixon. Exceptions are a poster of a stripper and a photo of him standing by a pool with a bikini-clad pornographic film actress, Nina Hartley.[3]