Kamala Harris hasn’t officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president—she will do so on Thursday—but her surprise appearance at the DNC Convention last night was brimming with meaning.
The Vice President emerged on stage in Chicago to speak in support of President Biden, wearing a tan suit designed by Chloé’s buzzy creative director, Chemena Kamali. With less than a year on the job, Kamali has been wracking up celebrity endorsements since taking over the reins at the French brand—everyone from Beyoncé to Jennifer Lopez have worn her Boho designs recently. Harris’s Chloé outfit featured a traditional suit jacket, lined with black buttons, and wide-leg dress pants that pooled beneath her. The Vice President paired her tailoring with a white pussy bow blouse.
Harris’s suit quickly made waves on social media, with users drawing comparisons to an outfit President Barack Obama wore in 2014. During a news conference regarding ISIS in Syria, the former President donned a tan suit that drew ire from conservative pundits. Fox News called Obama “unpresidential.” Former Congressman Peter King absurdly told reporters “There’s no way, I don’t think, any of us can excuse what the president did.” Obama, and much of the general public, poked fun at the conservative outrage regarding his choice of suit. And, as every bit of Harris’s wardrobe is carefully chosen, it looks as though she did, too. Though her suit erred more taupe than tan.
Harris is no stranger to Kamali’s Boho chic designs, having worn an emerald green cape dress to a State Dinner earlier this year. Her gown was designed with a floor-length silhouette and statement sleeves. After decades working behind the scenes (including an earlier stint at Chloé under Phoebe Philo), the buzz that the German-born Kamali has been generating since being appointed as creative director in October 2023 has been one of the biggest stories in fashion this past year.
Truly, it’s no wonder Harris would wear one of Paris’s most talked-about designers—even if it is tradition for Presidential candidates to don American brands (to be fair, her opponent is known for his own penchant for European suits). Aside from her own style bonafides, at one point, it was rumored that Harris was working with the celebrity stylist Karla Welch who counts Justin and Hailey Bieber as clients.
Throughout her rise to the Vice Presidency, Harris has developed a wardrobe unlike any other major political figure in American politics. During her and President Biden’s 2021 inauguration, Harris donned a purple coat from the New York brand Christopher John Rogers. Purple, of course, is viewed as a sign of bipartisanship. She’s also championed a diverse sect of American designers like Sergio Hudson (she’s taken a special liking to his bold power suits), Pyer Moss, and Joseph Altuzarra.
And with Harris rearing to accept the Democratic nomination for president in two days time, there’s no telling as to what she has up her sleeve next.
In Christopher John Rogers
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