By Emily O’Neil ’21
Inauguration Day 2021 was an impactful event given all the historic events occurring within the past year, and the inaugural day fashion lived up to the occasion. From diverse designers to monochromatic looks, the fashion of January 20, 2021, displayed important, unifying messages to those around the world. The women of the day truly stole the show with their outstanding, bold fashion choices.
First, adorning a monochromatic look is the new First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. She championed a young American label to inauguration day sporting a look designed by Alexandra O’Neill founder of the up-and-coming New York-based label Markarian. Doctor Biden’s look was an ocean blue, completed with a matching-colored mask. A press release issued by designer Alexandra O’Neill says the selection of blue was “to signify trust, confidence, and stability,” as detailed by the LA Times. In picking an American-made label, the First Lady sent an imperative message that she will use her role to magnify the work of up-and-coming designers, much like former First Lady Michelle Obama used to emphasize.
The newly inaugurated Vice President, Kamala Harris, wore a purple monochromatic look to the swearing-in designed by African-American designer Christopher John Rogers while also wearing her signature pearls from Puerto Rican jeweler Wilfredo Rosado. Harris has displayed that she is planning to use her role to amplify designers of color throughout her time in office.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, also present at the inauguration, wore another purple monochromatic look, a plum-colored suit by Los Angeles- based, African-American designer Sergio Hudson. Additionally, wearing a monochromatic purple set was Hillary Clinton adorning a vibrant Ralph Lauren pantsuit enhanced with an eye-catching neck ruffle and layered under a black overcoat.
Why, one might ask, were shades of purple were apparent throughout the crowd on the inauguration day stage? They displayed a uniting message. For one purple is the color created when blue and red are combined displaying President Biden’s agenda to work to create a unified whole in America, with the theme of the inauguration being ‘America United’.
More outstanding perhaps is the acknowledgment of a fulfillment of a dream now embodied by Kamala Harris. Purple is one of the colors of the suffragists and as the National Woman’s Party, the original suffragist organization, proclaimed in 1913 – “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause.” Perhaps this sea of purple was a nod to the work and progress women and suffragists have made since the twentieth century.
These tone-on-tone monochromatic looks displayed by these impactful women gave a clear message – unity, diversity, and stability are front and center whilst young emerging fashion designers have also found some new friends within the White House. The women of the day exhibited important messages through their designers and color choices while also delivering stunning fashion looks for this year’s inauguration of the 46th President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.