How Kamala Harris has given pant-suits her own tinge

Close your eyes. Imagine the President of the US. Try imagining them without a suit. You will have no frame of reference. This is because all US Presidents have been men. Women Presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton have also selected suits as their go-to. It is safe to say suits are Presidential and America loves its suits. Don't forget it had a sitcom, Suits, lasting for nine seasons. But in Kamala Harris and her suits there is a larger story. It is not just about being presidential, it is about sending out a message, telling a story.

We all tell a story. By what we say, how we smile, what we choose to do at each moment and even what we wear. As we make these choices, a story is being told. In Kamala Harris and her pant-suits, which are her choice of clothes, there is a story too.

Everything about her has changed and become larger than life since Joe Biden quit the presidential race and endorsed her. Celebrity endorsements, millions of funds raised on Zoom calls and social media campaigns.

Amid all this, her clothing choice has remained a constant.

The changes in her life and campaign can be explained by the necessities of a US Presidential ticket and the stakes which come along with it. But what about her sartorial choices?

Harris, among the first Indian-origin women to make it as an Attorney General and Senator, has always worn pant-suits. However, there are messages being conveyed now.

BARACK OBAMA REFERENCE IN KAMALA HARRIS'S TAN SUIT

Her tan suits became the centre of attention at the Democratic Convention (DNC). The political sphere in the US has been critical of Presidents wearing light-coloured suits. This happened during the Obama administration when he addressed the press in a tan suit and spoke about the need to crackdown on the terror outfit, Islamic State.

When Harris wore the tan suit, many saw the symbolism in her sartorial choice. Barack Obama's speech at the DNC conveyed to many how Harris would be the inheritor of the political movement he had taken forward, reported The New York Times.

Harris is aware of this too.

KAMALA HARRIS AND HER SUITS: POWER WITH GRACE

But as far as pant-suits and Harris go, she has worn them since the beginning of her political career. Even here, there is a story.

When Harris became the Attorney General, Barack Obama was the President in 2011. In her term as a Senator, Donald Trump was the President of the US.

Power dressing became a tool for Harris in a man's world. Suits, worn without exceptions, by all senators, governors and Presidents were the rule for anyone who wanted to make it big in US politics.

Harris understood her assignment.

Her official portraits, first as an Attorney General and then as a Senator, show Harris in her suit. It was the same: suit jackets, blouses with soft-toned pearls.

Power but with a touch of feminine. With knowledge of her context and a little bit of her own.

KAMALA HARRIS AND THE PEARLS OF WISDOM

Harris and pearls happened before suits became her go-to. This started in her days as an economics and political science major at Howard University. She was part of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the foremost black sorority in the United States, and pearls were an intrinsic part of the sisterhood, reports WWD.

“How you present yourself as a woman in leadership is an issue every woman in leadership has to consider,” Ashley Allison, the chief executive of Watering Hole Media and a former Biden-Harris campaign adviser told the NYT.

She adds that clothes have become a part of the feelings the electorate holds for a leader.

Harris is not the first Presidential candidate to wear pants-suits. Hillary Clinton did it first.

But critics considered her pant-suits "too bold". They had a bit of a costume effect, they said.

NEITHER TOO BOLD, NOR TOO DULL, JUST KAMALA HARRIS

For Harris, she dresses like a corporate woman in a nation which loves its suits. She wears it like a regular woman. Neither bold nor dull. Just American. Just Harris.

The Barbara Lee Family Foundation even called this the "imagination barrier". When people are asked to close their eyes and imagine a President, it is mostly white, straight and male, reports NYT.

Then, Harris, by wearing suits, adding a little bit of her tinge to it, is defining what a woman President means as she goes campaigning.

Harris is carefully trying to weave a story through the fashion needle.

She wore Black designers for Biden's inauguration. When Biden had declared victory, she wore a white Carolina Herrera suit to honour the women who came before her.

Harris has blended her clothing with her personality. One of the reasons she sports dull tones is because she has a loud personality, say experts. And it's not just about that laugh.

“We know perfectly well that she’s going to be scrutinised for her appearance more than a male candidate,” said Alison Hunter of the Barbara Lee Foundation. “We found in a study done two years ago that voters have even less tolerance for flyaway hair and a wrinkled collar for a woman candidate than a man.”

For this reason, women on the political stage barter some kind of compromise. It is all the men's suits in fruit salad colours.

Harris has taken a different approach.

HOW KAMALA HARRIS HAS DESTROYED THE STEREOTYPE

In one of her interviews to Forbes, Harris famously said, "I eat no for breakfast."

In her fashion choices as well, we see that "no" for the dress codes stereotypically assigned to women.

She used pastel colours but goes back to the black, brown and blue suits. She also wears sequins to work events. At once, she is one of them but knows that she stands out.

She knows she has a story to tell, and clothes are just one of the mediums for that. In that, she stands out just a little to keep telling her story but does not let her clothes become the centre of attention.

The focus is on the person, who is Harris, and not her clothing choices. She uses it occasionally to tell her critics she can make a statement. Even more, she can tell a story.

It is the story that is at the heart, not the suit. This story wasn't about her pant-suits, but Kamala Harris and how she's threading her story.