Arabella Byrne

The dos and don’ts of the inauguration outfit

  • From Spectator Life
Will Joe Biden wear his signature aviators? Image: Getty

Given recent events on the inauguration scaffolding, Jill Biden may do well to wear a bullet-proof vest to watch her husband become the 46th President of the United States and be done with it. But Inauguration Day calls for some serious sartorial politicking and it seems unlikely Dr B will want to miss out. Long before Michelle sashayed her way to the 2013 ceremony in that Thom Browne coat, Thomas Carlyle spoke of the power of clothes in his 1834 Sartor Resartus: “Society is founded upon cloth” he said simply, and most women in the world would agree with him. Yet what the First Lady wears as she stands shivering next to the President in the DC winter is so much more than just cloth, it is the boundary between the First Lady and the social world, a medium for us to visualise the structures of power as it changes (gloved) hands.

Inaugural fashion has long held the attention of the crowd for its sheer performativity; rarely are clothes asked to work so hard. In 2017, Melania kept it classic with her cashmere powder – or should that be ice? – blue Ralph Lauren dress and jacket, accessorized with matching heels and gloves. The messaging was as monochromatic as the outfit: American designer, America First, with a pointed nod to Jackie’s 1961 ensemble and all its echoes of prelapsarian femininity. In an act of fashion bi-partisanship Ralph Lauren also dressed Hillary – the other woman on the podium that day – in a signature white “pant-suit” that recalled her classic campaign ensembles that spawned a fan-base for their androgynous rendition of trouser-wearing power women hoping to reach the top spot. To Hillary’s almost inevitable chagrin, the other women dressed in white were the Trump daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany. As a colour, white strikes many notes; for female politicians, it should be considered a uniform requirement, redolent as it is of the Suffragettes.

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