The Internet Is Loving Kamala Harris’s White Suit
The vice-president elect wore a statement look as she delivered a victory speech in Delaware
Kamala Harris sparked a buzz from Twitter tonight before she even uttered a word of her victory speech. The moment she stepped on stage in Delaware—to a Mary J. Blige song, no less—viewers were fixated on her vice presidential attire: a white pantsuit and silky, pussybow blouse. She also traded in her signature Converse sneakers for nude heels.
The ivory look, reportedly from Carolina Herrera, is being viewed as an homage to women suffragists in the early 20th century, who wore all-white attire while fighting for the right to vote. In recent years, women in politics have made similar sartorial references, like Democratic Congresswomen in 2018, who wore white to the State of the Union address, or Hillary Clinton, who wore a white pantsuit when she became the first female presidential nominee for a major political party in 2016.
Fashion historian and writer Shelby Ivey Christie also pointed out on Twitter that “monochromatic dressing is the mark of celebration in the Black community,” noting another layer of significance in Senator Harris’s ensemble.
Viewers applauded the wardrobe choice.
THAT WHITE SUIT AND MARY J BLIGE @KamalaHarris #KamalaHarrisVP pic.twitter.com/Zg7Sfqh3Yp
— Yara shahidi (@YaraShahidi) November 8, 2020
DRESSED IN ALL WHITE LIKE THE FIRST BLACK VP SHOULD BE pic.twitter.com/sbrXvrbttL
— Sylvia (@SylviaObell) November 8, 2020
Kamala in the Olivia Pope power suit
— Jeff (@JeffJSays) November 8, 2020
White suit.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) November 8, 2020
Madam Vice President in the dope white suit!
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) November 8, 2020
COME ON, WHITE SUIT!!!
— Ashley Nicole Black (@ashleyn1cole) November 8, 2020
Come through white suit( a nod to the suffrage movement ) and walking out to Mary J… what a moment pic.twitter.com/4rmg2KCZR6
— Loni Love (@LoniLove) November 8, 2020
enjoying this white suit but also the reclamation of the pussy bow blouse
— rachel syme (@rachsyme) November 8, 2020
Y'all see @KamalaHarris in the white suit?! WOMAN POWER!!!!!
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) November 8, 2020
MADAM VICE PRESIDENT IN THE WHITE SUIT
— Lauren Alexis Fisher (@LaurenAlexis) November 8, 2020
ROCK that WHITE SUIT Madama Vice President! pic.twitter.com/WYuPxyOaPi
— LaTosha Brown (@MsLaToshaBrown) November 8, 2020
Kamala was like, let’s swap white power for a white power suit instead.
— Benj Pasek (@benjpasek) November 8, 2020
the white suit! pic.twitter.com/y6Js0NeUTr
— Cleo Constantine Abram (@cleoabram) November 8, 2020
Kamala Harris in suffragette white and what I believe is a pussy bow, because she wants to give fashion decoders something to work with
— Constance Grady (@constancegrady) November 8, 2020
.@KamalaHarris speaking in all-white, paying homage to suffragettes, begins her first speech as the Vice President-elect. pic.twitter.com/Mp2BtcXPmn
— Averi Harper (@AveriHarper) November 8, 2020
The obsession over the vice president-elect’s outfit was soon replaced by wholehearted praise for her speech. Senator Harris, the first woman, first Black woman, and first South Asian woman to be elected vice president, invoked suffragists and women who made history before her.
“All the women who worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century: 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now, in 2020, with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard,” she called out. “Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision—to see what can be unburdened by what has been—I stand on their shoulders.”
Written by Erica Gonzales. Image courtesy of Instagram/@meera