Kamala Harris has already perfected the pantsuit. Now is his chance to change the way power looks
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Kamala Harris has a uniform. Most days, you’ll find him in a box, a broad-shouldered suit similar to that worn by his rival.
His choice of sarcasm makes sense. Harris is interviewing for a job that has been held for 248 years by 44 whites and one black. All of these presidents spend their days wearing black suits—an outfit that Western men have worn for centuries to convey power and respectability.
Over the past decade, women who have run for president have chosen this case very carefully. But if Harris wins the election and becomes the nation’s first female president, she will be in a position to completely change our collective imagination of what power can look like. Yes, as a woman of South Asian and Jamaican descent, her face alone will stand out from all the men who have come before her. But he will also have the opportunity to use clothes to emphasize other aspects of his personality. She can, if she wants to, show more feminine clothes or show the customs of her immigrant parents.
While Harris’s fashion choices may seem trivial at a time when the future of democracy is at stake, visuals are politically important. The image of power it generates could help rewrite the norms about who is allowed to ascend to the highest office in this country. And he can help pave the way for other juniors, making them even more special in the years to come.
Hillary and Her Rainbow Suits
Before Harris, the closest woman to the presidency was Hillary Clinton. And Clinton did a lot to push the boundaries of what political women could wear.
In the ’80s, as women began to enter the workforce in large numbers, many chose to wear a “power suit” with exaggerated shoulder blades. By wearing what was traditionally male clothing, women were telegraphing to take over traditionally male jobs and work in a breadwinner role.
However, women in the political arena still feel pressured to wear skirts. Throughout the ’80s, female lawmakers who dared to wear pants down were often criticized for not adhering to an unstated dress code. During the years when Clinton supported her husband’s White House campaign and his presidency, she often wore clothes with a feminine code, such as dresses and headbands.
It wasn’t until 1993 that a group of female senators—Barbara Mikulski, Nancy Kassebaum and Carol Moseley Braun—all defied the dress code by wearing pants on the Senate floor. This prompted Congress to create a legal guideline that allowed women to wear “combined pants” for the first time.
Ten years later, in the early 2000s, Clinton began to take up political positions, first as a Senator in 2001 and then Secretary of State in 2009. In these new roles, she was instrumental in shaping the way a woman is in charge. he can look. Clinton became famous for wearing boxy pants. At first, she stuck with solid dark colors, like black and blue, which allowed her to fit seamlessly into rooms full of men wearing similar clothes.
This was a strategic move. During her decades in the public eye, the media constantly dissected her wardrobe, often unkindly. But by wearing the same outfit as her male counterparts, she shut down most of the gossip, allowing the media to focus on her skills and policy decisions.
However, in the 2010s, Clinton seemed to make a deliberate decision to skip the black suit. He began to be seen wearing suits with more texture and color. He appeared at the United Nations in 2012 and at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2013 wearing tweed suits that took a page from Chanel. In 2013, the day President Barack Obama signed a presidential memo Clinton helped design promoting the empowerment of women and girls around the world, she was by his side, wearing a suit in a bold shade of teal.
This new sartorial direction seemed designed to highlight the contrast between Clinton and the men on her political trail who wore mostly dark suits. (Indeed, when Obama wore a tan suit to a press conference in 2014, it caused an uproar, with Republicans calling him “unpresidential.” He quickly returned to wearing black suits.) Clinton was subtly putting femininity and self-expression back into her clothing. , which makes women appear in positions like them. They didn’t need to pamper male politicians.
By the time Clinton ran against Trump in 2016, she was famous for her rainbow of pants. In side-by-side photos of the two candidates, Clinton’s clothes were clearly bright and colorful, sometimes turning pink and yellow. She used to wear bright earrings and scarves. Clinton didn’t want voters to ignore her gender; he invited them to hug. The only problem is, he didn’t make it.
Can Harris Write The Playbook Again?
This is an interesting world into which Harris enters as the Democratic front-runner for President. The current generation of up-and-coming women in the Democratic Party—including Gretchen Whitmer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have all taken a page from Clinton’s fashion playbook of colorful, tailored suits. Harris is no different.
Harris accepted the pants, but also chose more color than what is usually worn by men. At recent meetings in Atlanta and Philadelphia, he wore a blue suit. In Dallas, she wore a pink suit to talk to the sorority sisters. Even when he wears black suits, he wears pearls. The point is not to ignore the fact that you are a woman. The point is to convince America that a woman can rule.
The question behind this entire campaign is whether the American people are ready for a female president. There is reason to believe that things could turn out differently for Harris than they did for Clinton in 2015. The country has evolved over the past decade. Many young voters and women voters are happy to be part of the movement to elect a woman to the White House.
If Harris becomes President, she will be in a position to rewrite the playbook for women in power. Clinton has worked hard to find ways to bring her personality to her clothing choices, without overstepping the bounds of what most Americans would consider presidential. If he wants to, Harris can push those boundaries even further.
Over the years, we’ve seen glimpses of Harris doing this. He likes Converse sneakers, which he has been wearing for years, paired with skinny pants and a blazer. In 2019, she had an iconic fashion moment when she arrived at the San Francisco Pride in a shiny rainbow Levi’s jean jacket. He is known for his selection of stylish sunglasses, from Biden-style aviators to elegant frames with yellow rims.
Think what else he can show her when the election is behind her. When he stops worrying about winning over voters, he can focus on helping Americans rethink what power looks like. Maybe he could respect his parents’ traditions. Imagine if Harris appeared one day wearing a suit made of sari fabric, or a scarf made of Caribbean fabrics? This can be more than just a form of self-expression. It would be a testament to America’s limitless opportunity that a child of immigrants could rise to the highest office in the land.
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