Look of the Week: A nod to Obama? Searching for symbolism in Kamala Harris’ tan suit

(CNN) — In American politics, a tan suit is no longer just a tan suit.

So, when Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention wearing one on Monday evening, the country’s collective memory — or social media’s, at least — instantly recalled one of the shade’s defining moments: Tan-gate.

A decade ago, almost to the day, President Barack Obama enraged a handful of conservative commentators by briefing the press in a light-colored suit. Critics felt his sartorial choice was out of keeping with the gravity of the topic being discussed (namely the US military’s response to a then-flourishing ISIS).

At the time, New York Rep. Peter King told CNN that the suit was a metaphor for Obama’s “lack of seriousness.” Vociferous birtherist Lou Dobbs meanwhile, slammed the outfit as “un-presidential” on Fox News, suggesting on air that it may be transmitting some sort of hidden message, possibly to America’s enemies.

Whether or not Harris intended to evoke a moment now associated with Republican-baiting is a matter of debate. Perhaps that was the point. But when the vice president entered the stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom” wearing a tan pantsuit and laughing (another source of jibes from her opponents), she almost appeared to be daring critics to call her un-presidential.

Posting to X, comedian John Fugelsang wrote that the outfit would “trigger all the right people.” Meanwhile, former spokesman for Jeb Bush and expert in opposition research Tim Miller suggested she was “baiting Fox (News) into an entire week of tan suit coverage.” Novelist Michael Marshall Smith described the wardrobe decision as “deep cut trolling.”

A less confrontational explanation is that the suit, which Harris paired with a white lavalière blouse, was a fun allusion to an ultimately trivial piece of political history. In a slow August 2014 news week, media outlets embraced tan-gate with headlines like “Yes We Tan!” and “The Audacity of Taupe” (playing on Obama’s slogan and memoir, respectively) and digging up old images of Republican President Ronald Reagan wearing a similar shade. Indeed, if this DNC had been a week later, Harris could have hit the 10-year anniversary on the nose and really set social media ablaze.

Such a nod would be in keeping with a presidential campaign that has thus far benefited from seemingly intentional, meme-able cultural references — from Harris’ embrace of Charli XCX’s “Brat” green to campaign hats that appeared to resemble those produced by pop star Chappell Roan.

Emerging fashion credentials

Of course, the choice of shade may have been purely coincidental. It was not even the only time Harris wore a tan suit in the past week, having done so in Maryland last Thursday when she appeared alongside President Joe Biden for the first time since he announced he will not stand for re-election (though, that time, she paired the two-piece with a black top a chunky gold necklace).

Several online commentators also argued that her DNC outfit was darker than Obama’s, and was in fact camel, not tan. French label Chloé, whose creative director Chemena Kamali custom-designed the wool two-piece, simply described the shade as “brown.”

Color aside, there was plenty else to be read into Harris’ choice of outfit. For one, it marks what appears to be her blossoming relationship with Chloé and Kamali, who in May dressed the vice president in a custom floor-length gown and matching jacket cape for a White House state dinner.

The emerging partnership may be mutually beneficial. Chloé is having something of a cultural moment, with Kamali garnering praise for reinterpreting the codes of modern womenswear since taking the helm in October. In many ways, Harris is her ideal model: A powerful woman of color aiming to dress for an office that has, until now, only known menswear.

For Harris, meanwhile, associating with the French label may help subtly rebut her reputation for unadventurous dressing. Since taking office in 2020, she has sported many variations of the same pantsuit, in various muted colors and for all manner of occasions. But while her DNC suit was still broadly a signature Harris cut in a safe, inoffensive shade, Chloé’s wide lapels and gently flared, floor-length pants made it feel somehow less corporate.

This may be as far as Harris pushes the envelope. And perhaps for good reason. Hillary Clinton, who took to the DNC stage on Monday wearing a not-too-dissimilar shade of cream, wrote in her 2017 memoir: “As a woman running for president, I liked the visual cue that I was different from the men but also familiar. A uniform was also an anti-distraction technique: since there wasn’t much to say or report on what I wore, maybe people would focus on what I was saying instead.”

With Harris set to deliver her keynote convention speech on Thursday, she may, similarly, be hoping her early tan-suited cameo satisfies style commentators and leaves her politics to do the talking.

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