This text initially appeared on Vogue Enterprise.
“I ponder what vogue she’ll be serving this week,” learn a message in my Instagram inbox forward of the Democratic Nationwide Conference occurring this week in Chicago, the place Vice President Kamala Harris is ready to simply accept the celebration’s nomination for president.
My reply: “Properly, she’s not a pop star!”
As issues go in the US, most issues ultimately turn into leisure: sports activities, music, movie, politics. Trend is inextricably linked to every of those tenets of tradition, seldom within the form of a runway look however all the time within the type of model. A lot will be stated about whether or not we should always talk about Harris’s model decisions—discourse that picked up on the nationwide scale when she turned President Joe Biden’s working mate for the 2020 election. Are we scrutinizing her decisions extra as a result of she’s a girl? Sure, sadly. However to say that what Harris wears is inconsequential is to disregard the refined but unavoidable messaging any politician’s sartorial decisions carry.
You actually do care, don’t you?
Politics is an optics sport—on this, politicians are akin to pop stars—and what they put on speaks to us as their constituents. Tim Walz wears a Midwestern-dad camo hat, which the Harris-Walz marketing campaign become sold-out merch; President Biden wears cool-guy Ray-Ban aviators religiously; and Barack Obama as soon as wore an notorious tan swimsuit, topic to petty controversy again in 2014. Suffragists wore white, New York consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral for carrying a Telfar bag, and Hillary Clinton made the pantsuit a metonym for her presidential marketing campaign in 2016 (keep in mind Pantsuit Nation?).
Even when there isn’t any meant message, we—as within the folks but additionally the media—assign one as a result of it’s inevitable to learn into how folks in energy look, for higher or worse. (Dare I invoke the notorious phrases “I actually don’t care, do u?”)
What Harris wears issues, not for whether or not she’s fashion-forward or on pattern however as a result of how she chooses to current herself to the world says one thing concerning the nation. This strain is immeasurable and maybe unfair, however it’s inextricable from her position. (Donald Trump’s ill-fitting fits and too-long ties say one thing concerning the nation too.)
Trend diplomacy
Accepting the nomination final night time on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, Harris wore a customized navy two-piece swimsuit and pussy bow shirt designed by Chemena Kamali for Chloé. It’s the third time the vice chairman has worn the label, following a inexperienced robe and matching cape to attend a state dinner on the White Home this previous Could and one other swimsuit on Monday night time. A double-breasted model of the jacket is described on the Chloé web site and some luxurious retailers not as tan, like among the media has reported, however…watch for it…coconut brown.
