Oooh, we swore we weren’t going to do this. We’ve devoted entire podcasts to talking about why we don’t want to use our God-given talents to break a look down and read it for filth when the wearer is a female politician (short answer: Because no one ever asked us what we thought of Dick Cheney’s suits). We’ve also devoted entire podcasts to explaining why, after eight years of documenting and assessing nearly everything she wore in public, we retired our First Lady style coverage once Michelle Obama left the White House (short answer: Because she understood the symbolism of the role, the power of seeing a Black woman embody it, and the ability to tell her story through fashion in a way no other FLOTUS ever had). We had no plans to talk about any of the fashion at the DNC, because talking about the style choices of women in power automatically reduces their roles by imposing gender expectations on them. Women must be presentable in public life at all times and usually in the most conservative of ways. Men in public life almost never have their capabilities questioned because of their choice of accessories or their sense of fit and proportion.
To be clear, we’d never argue that talking about fashion is pointless or merely frivolous. We’ve based our entire careers on the idea that it’s good and worthy to understand how fashion works, how it is received and perceived, and what that means when someone is using it to promote a specific project, role or image. But there’s an expectation that people like us, people whose fashion commentary is based more around quips, burns, and the occasional bit of unasked-for advice, will apply that same style of writing to people like Kamala Harris at a moment when she’s making history, and the idea simply didn’t appeal to us.
But then our girl Shelley O stepped out onto that stage in this little number:
Michelle Obama in Monse
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And our mouths dropped open. That may just be the best she’s ever looked in her public life. To our way of thinking, this is easily one of the most stylish looks she’s ever worn and it stands out to us for several reasons. The first is that this is not how former FLOTUSes tend to dress. It has an edge to it that almost all political wives attempt to avoid in their public persona. There’s power in the design; not just in the way it highlights her much-discussed arms, but in the way it literally breaks down and reconstructs the elements of the absolute symbol of power fashion in the western world: the men’s suit. The sleeves are gone, the belt is studded and the lapels are bandoliers. This is a woman not only arraigned in the vestments of power, but clearly ready to go into battle. And to top it off – literally – was that glorious braid, which proudly and fabulously signals her Blackness in a way she didn’t feel comfortable doing when she was in the White House. To reiterate: Michelle Obama has a PhD-level understanding of the semiotics of fashion. Everything you see here was very deliberate. We don’t know if there was coordinating going on behind the scenes, but this look wound up being a perfect counterpart to Vice-President Harris’s look as she accepted the nomination:
Kamala Harris in Chloé
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Last month, when Kamala first stepped up as Joe stepped back, we devoted a podcast to talking about some of this stuff and included a bit of advice for the soon-to-be official Democratic nominee: Don’t wear the white suit. We followed that up in a discussion with the Boston Globe a few days ago, urging her again to avoid wearing what we felt had become a cliche. As a symbol, it became too associated with Hillary’s campaign (and subsequently with feelings of loss and failure) while also getting watered down by a whole bunch of other female politicians, from Nancy Pelosi to Marjorie Taylor-Greene. There is power in a Black woman wearing all white (and there are cultural reasons for doing so that have nothing to do with suffragettes), so we’d never suggest that she never wear it; just that she not step out onto that stage wearing it.
For good or for ill (but most political watchers say it’s to her benefit), Kamala isn’t making a point about the historic nature of her candidacy. There’s virtually no rhetoric about her relationship to the history of Black or Indian people in America or mentions of glass ceilings in her stump speeches so far. If you listened to her speech, it was pure meat-and-potatoes, middle-of-the-road, ready-on-day-one, rah-rah patriotism. The point was not to walk out there and claim her place in history. The point was to walk out there, in her silk press and her shoulder pads, looking like an executive and commander, embodying the classic professional style maxim of dressing for the job you want. She picked up all of the symbols of power that Michelle Obama deconstructed, and reappropriated them around herself.
But okay, yes: The pussy bow was a sassy little touch; a sartorial fuck-you to the pussy grabber, if you will.
Style Credits:
Kamala Harris: Chloé Navy Blue Suit and Crepe de Chine Blouse
Michelle Obama: Monse Navy Blue Crisscross Jacket and Tuxedo Pant from the Resor 2025 Collection | Jimmy Choo Kitten Heels
Styled by Meredith Koop | Hair by Njeri Radway
[Photo Credit: Annabelle Gordon/CNP/INSTARimages, CNP/INSTARimages, Getty Images]
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