Yes, what Mr. Biden wears matters, too. His aviators have become practically his doppelgänger; the blue tie he wore on Saturday night, representative both of his party and the blue skies to (they hope) come. Presidents have always used clothing as part of their political toolbox. John Kennedy distinguished himself from the generation that came before by opting for single-breasted suits instead of the more formal double-breasted styles favored by Roosevelt and Truman.
Barack Obama did the same by often abandoning the tie. George W. Bush wore his cowboy boots as a badge of origin and attitude. Donald Trump used his overly long, five-alarm-red ties to signal masculinity and send everyone down a master of the universe wormhole.
But what Ms. Harris wears, and will wear, could matter more. Why should we pretend otherwise?
(A website, WhatKamalaWore, has already sprung up to keep track.)
As Dominique and François Gaulme wrote in the 2012 book Power & Style: A World History of Politics and Style, clothing, from its earliest origins, was developed to communicate, even more clearly than in writing, the social organizations and distribution of political power.
And when the person possessed of that power is a pioneer, when she is defining a new kind of leadership, understanding those lines of communications and how to employ them is key. Not because she is a woman, but because she will be the first woman vice president.
Hillary Clinton came to understand this, over a career in which at first she seemed to dismiss fashion and then, as first lady, to resent it, before finally embracing it as a useful tool.read more
Kamala Harris in Her White Suit
