Fashion And Politics: Jill Biden’s Dress Makes A Post-Debate Statement

At a Democrat presidential race rally in North Carolina, the First Lady’s frock said it all.

To the political strategy that might in the future be called “transparent efforts to change the narrative and repair the damage done to Joe Biden in the first presidential debate,” add the dress that First Lady Jill Biden wore to accompany her husband to his next-day rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As President Joe Biden attempted to address some of the concerns about his age and energy on Friday, his wife, a political spouse who often seems to choose clothes that recede into the background, took her place by his side in a navy-blue crepe dress plastered with one word over and over again: “Vote.”

Given the many post-debate reaction stories that focused on viewers’ anxious feelings about the President’s shaky performance, that could not have been a coincidence.

Especially given the fact that Jill Biden has often seemed reluctant to engage in the game known as first lady fashion diplomacy, largely wearing clothes by designers she feels comfortable with rather than ones with any obvious tactical connection to an event. For her to choose a dress so guaranteed to call attention to itself, and to do so at a time when any attention that is not about her husband’s age is probably good attention, is a statement in itself.

After all, there could be no doubt all eyes would be on the President in his first rally after the debate, in part to judge whether his weak showing the night before would be repeated. Or that the pictures of that rally would be disseminated far and wide.

And that, as a result, what his wife wore, as with every detail of his performance, would send a signal not just to the general audience, but also to the political pundit class that has been calling for the President to step aside — the one that has noted that the key influencer would be his wife. He might have been speechifying, but that dress did the talking. It was by Christian Siriano, a designer known for his inclusive approach to fashion and who created the iconic blue dress then First Lady Michelle Obama wore at the 2016 Democratic convention. In an email, Siriano said the First Lady’s team had reached out to him about a month ago to request a new version of a “vote” dress he had made for his spring 2021 collection.

Rebecca Feinglos, founder of @Grieveleave, a grief support platform, said she was wearing one of the original Siriano “vote” dresses when she met Jill Biden at an event a few months ago. The first lady “asked me where I got my dress,” Feinglos wrote in an Instagram post, “and I was so excited to tell her its story.”

This is the third time in the past four years that the First Lady has worn a garment with a message written on it. In 2020, before the last presidential election, she wore a pair of Stuart Weitzman knee-high boots that also read “vote.”

And in 2021, at the first Group of 7 meeting in Britain after the President took office, she wore a jacket with the word “love” on the back.

The choice was widely interpreted as a riposte to the jacket Melania Trump notoriously wore during her husband’s administration with the words “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” scrawled on the back. Now, the matchup is back, and so are words on clothing. It is, perhaps, only to be expected. Jill Biden is an English teacher.

She knows exactly how much succinct language matters — even if it is on a dress.

More Fashion

Is fashion political? Yes.

Free Radicals: Who’s Shaping Wellington Now? Meet The Creative Vanguard Taking Over Our Capital. For these six creatives who call Wellington home, their passion is shaped by a city synonymous with celebrating culture, creativity and community

Style Liaisons With MP Chloe Swarbrick. Talking sneaker subtlety, unpacking threads of representation and wearing values on your sleeve.

After Jacinda Ardern, Politics Will Never Look The Same. Ardern understood that fashion is a political tool — one she wielded expertly, writes Vanessa Friedman.

How Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan’s Pioneering Style Paved The Way For Politicians Today. Pioneering politician Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan’s relationship to fashion is relevant for today’s political climate, as a woman who acutely understood the power of public image.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

Written by: Vanessa Friedman

Photographs by: Haiyun Jiang, Erin Schaff, Doug Mills for the New York Times.

©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES