Flashback: SOTU 2019

[demmiblue]

The Lessons of the Women in White at the State of the Union Address

For anyone who has ever thought that the use of clothing as a political tool was frivolous or overstated, or groaned at yet another piece insisting that a woman in a white pantsuit was making a statement, there was no better riposte than the State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

When the television cameras came up on the buzzing House chamber as Congress awaited President Trump’s entrance, the most striking sight was not the grandeur of the room (though it is pretty grand) or the nerves and excitement of the special guests, but rather the unmistakable block of Congresswomen practically aglow in white on the Democratic side of the aisle.

They were wearing white shirts (Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas) and white capes (Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York). Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota paired her white jumpsuit with a blue head scarf and red shirt — a statement of patriotism as clear as the Trump-Pence red-tie-blue-tie-white-shirt twofer), and many, many white jackets and suits, including on Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House. And there was no way that either the president or the viewing public could miss them or miss the message in what they wore: one of gender equality and pride, the long arc of history and the fight for women’s rights, commitment to an agenda and, in the background, joy. It was in front of him, when he looked out upon the room, and in back, as Ms. Pelosi wielded her gavel.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/fashion/state-of-the-union-white.html