On Saturday, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris joined a long list of women to use fashion as a political statement. In her victory speech after becoming America’s first-ever female VP, she wore a head-to-toe white outfit that included a pantsuit by Carolina Herrera, a silk pussy-bow blouse by Tory Burch, and her signature pearl jewellery. (No, the fact that these are female-founded brands is probably not coincidental.)
White has long been associated with the women’s suffrage movement that began in the 1840s and aimed to grant women the right to vote (which didn’t happen until 1920). Women would wear white dresses with white sashes in suffrage parades. White symbolized purity and they also wore purple to signify loyalty and gold to represent hope. It’s also a particularly timely homage because 2020 is the 100th anniversary of women securing the right to vote. Scroll down to revisit some memorable nods to suffragette white.
