“Fashion is a tool of communication” and Kamala Harris has brought light to it ever and since she came into politics.
Everything we use, wear, hear and even what we eat is political. The current Vice-President and the candidate for this election,‘24, Kamala Harris, is proving it by showing that the choice of clothing we wear can speak for itself.
Before we dive into fashion, who really is Kamala Harris?
Who is Kamala Harris?
The daughter of immigrants, Kamala Harris, was born on October 20th, 1964 in Oakland, a city in California known for being attractive to all social groups, since it has a cheaper lifestyle in comparison to San Francisco (a neighboring state). With her father being Jamaican and her mother, being Indian, Kamala always highlights her origin, how she was born and raised in a popular place in the USA and how was her rise in politics.
As a lawyer and affiliated with the Democracy Party, Kamala was a United States Senator for California from 2017 to 2021, and Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, being the state’s first female Attorney General. During her years in the Senate, she became a controversial figure for always standing and defending workers and women’s rights, e ethnic minorities and the power of the syndicates.
Historic references in the style
“Fashion is a communication tool and politicians, in general, use this tool well to communicate what they would like to convey – both during elections and during government – and with her (Kamala) it wasn’t different”, says the fashion consultant owner of “Vestindo Autoestima” and engaged in politics, Priscila Citera. To do so, the public prosecutor makes use of fashion and historical references in it, as do most politicians.
Harris tries to build the image of temperance, authenticity, self-confidence, accessibility and friendliness, but ready to action by using shades of black, dark blue, burgundy, white and blue babies in suits and pants. “Historically, the more masculine we appear, the stronger we seem to be. No wonder, we wear blazers, pants, dark clothes, in straight lines to talk about authority and occupy the space of power”, reinforces Citera. In this way, the politician equilibrates her feminine style, in order to catch the attention of the female population and some more masculine pieces of clothes to achieve authority.
In addition to that, Harris looks are drawn by black designers, such as Kerby Jean-Raymond, Christopher John Rogers and Sergio Hudson and planned to represent something. For instance, her worldwide recognized Carolina Herrera blank suit used in Biden’s inauguration, in 2020, when she spoke as vice-president, her goal was to honor all women that came before, as well as, the suffragist movement, in which this color was chosen by 300 women standing up for the right to vote in London in 1908.
Another example is her remarkable purple suits and dresses that represent her purpose of making politics for everyone, as it is a mix of Republican Blue and Democrat Red.
Fashion and identification
Furthermore, the pussy-bow blouses and the classical pearl necklaces are symbols of her history and visual identity to build a kinship with the nation. The former is a badge of the new wave of female workers in the 70s and 80s to mark their presence in the US workforce, as the skirt suits were considered “appropriated” since they made women look more like men.
“We used to dress in suits with a skirt and a jacket, with a button-down shirt and a little bowtie”, Meg Whitman, one of Proctor and Gamble’s first-ever female executives, says in the 2013 PBS documentary “Makers: Women Who Make America”. “That was our interpretation of a man’s tie… It was our attempt to be feminine but fit into a male world”, she adds.
The latter, on the other hand, is more personal to Harris. It makes reference to her Alpha Kappa Alpha student Sorority, at Howard University. The first group of black women students in the university was created in 1908 and has the tradition of giving the participants a 20 pearls necklace to keep the memory of the founders alive, known as “Twenty Pearls”.
“Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach. Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are”, is one of the messages she aimed for people to remember through her words and looks.
To achieve her mom’s message she has always kept her style – even after becoming a Presidential candidate – in a way to express consistency, decision, honesty and compromise more with her proposals than the impact of her way of dressing. Moreover, white shirts, blue jeans, and Converse shoes are constantly present in her public appearances, making the public see themselves there and feel closer.
Fashion really helped Kamala win the hearts of electors?
According to Priscila Citera, “The same thing that helped her gain supporters in 2020, jeopardized her now: remembering that she is a woman through her clothes and her speech because the world is not ready for a woman in power.” Since the United States never had a female president, an image of it needed to be created there. Kamala Harris was responsible for it and for connecting herself deeply with people with her speeches and promises.
However, the contemporary world is becoming more conservative, bounce the fashion consultant. In the USA, Trump and his allies took advantage of it by reproducing discourses such as “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen”, which the Democratic candidate couldn’t confront properly either by speeches nor by fashion.
“Clothes are very little, clothes are the first impression. You need more than just clothes to do politics”, she finishes.
————————
This article was edited by Malu Panico.
Liked this type of content? Check Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!