Kamala Harris looked every bit presidential on day one of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last night. She wasn’t wearing the standard dress code of red, white, and blue, either; the Democratic nominee stepped onstage in a tan suit and white crêpe blouse by Chloé. It was an interesting and perhaps intentional sartorial choice by Harris, considering the controversial history of tan suits in the White House.
Who could possibly have an issue with tan suits, you ask? Conservatives, of course, and lots of them! Back in August 2014, then-President Barack Obama caused outrage among the Republican Party when he dared to break unspoken presidential protocol by wearing — wait for it — a tan suit during a news conference about Iraq and Syria.
It didn’t take long for right-wing TV reporters, political commentators, and internet trolls to weigh in (they were strangely passionate about the so-called controversy). Long Island Republican representative Peter King even said the suit proved Obama’s “lack of seriousness,” adding, “There’s no way, I don’t think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching.” Ten years later, most of us are still trying to figure out what is so scandalous about a boring beige suit.
Harris’s look was well received on social media, with many of her supporters reading between the lines. “She’s wearing a tan suit … I can’t stop laughing. SO good. #VOTEforKamala #DNCConvention2024,” one person posted on X. Political commentator and author Tim Miller wrote that she is “baiting Fox into an entire week of tan suit coverage.”
It’s entirely possible that Harris’s tan suit was a coincidence. But if it was, in fact, an intentional style choice, it was certainly a clever one. Other notable fashion moments on night one of the DNC include Harris’s stepdaughter Ella Emhoff wearing the viral Chappell Roan–inspired trucker hat that the official Harris Victory store describes as “the most iconic political hat in America” and United Automobile Workers president Shawn Fain wearing a shirt that said, “Trump is a scab. Vote Harris.”
