People who love looking for symbolisms in fashion were able to find many at yesterday's Inauguration Day ceremony in Washington, DC. While President-elect Joe Biden went for a sober navy blue suit and topcoat by iconic American designer Ralph Lauren, his wife, Incoming First lady Dr. Jill Biden, opted for up-and-coming (it was founded in 2017) New York-based American label, Markarian by Alexandra O'Neill.
The designer created for her a custom-made wool tweed coat and dress in ocean blue, a colour pointing at peace, trust and stability, trimmed with a dark blue velvet collar and cuffs and decorated with Swarovski pearls and crystals embellishments around the neckline. She also wore a matching face-mask as protection from Coronavirus.
The look was made in the Garment District in Manhattan and O'Neill's team – comprising six people – worked on it since late December (the label also made some of the designs donned by Biden's grandchildren). By choosing the label Dr. Biden honoured the New York manufacturing industry, remembering in this way also those businesses that were hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris opted instead for a purple (a colour associated with unity - Hillary Clinton wore a dark pantsuit with purple lapels and a purple blouse when she admitted defeat to Donald Trump in 2016) Christopher John Rogers ensemble accessorised with a custom pearl necklace by Wilfredo Rosado. The desire to champion small independent labels was already clear at the pre-inaugural event on Tuesday night at the Lincoln Memorial.
This quiet moment was conceived as a tribute to the 400,000 Americans who died of COVID-19 and was a simple yet due ceremony to remember and mourn.
For the occasion Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wore a coat by Pyer Moss with an Oscar de la Renta dress and Dr. Jill Biden a purple ensemble from Jonathan Cohen.
Michelle Obama often chose to wear young designers during her time at the White House and yesterday the Former First Lady continued this tradition wearing a Sergio Hudson burgundy coat, turtleneck and trousers (the Black American designer also created a sequin cocktail dress with a floor-length silk tuxedo overcoat as the evening look Kamala Harris wore at yesterday's concert View this photo).
In all these looks there was an emphasis on coats. Now, while it is January and it's cold, so coats come as a natural choice, in this case they seemed to channel feelings of protection and warm comfort after very controversial and difficult times.
Besides, most of the prominent figures and guests (from the President and Vice-President to Biden's grandchildren) went for monochromatic looks that seemed to emphasise unity (the fact that there were different guests sharing the President's spotlight felt this election was the result of a genuine team effort, rather than the achievement of just one person) and inclusivity. Inclusion was cleverly represented also by the first Black female Fire Captain in the U.S., Andrea Hall who delivered the Pledge of Allegiance in American Sign Language as well.
Unity was a theme of Biden's speech - "Without unity, there is no peace; only bitterness and fury," he said. "No progress; only exhausting outrage. No nation; only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge" - and of Amanda Gorman's poem.
Los Angeles-based 22-year-old award-winning poet Gorman actually stole the show. Named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the age of 16, Gorman earned the (first) title of National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and she became the youngest inaugural poet yesterday (she follows in the steps of some of the greatest, among them Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander and Robert Frost) after she caught the eye of Dr. Jill Biden a few years ago.
Gorman recited her powerful poem "The Hill We Climb" in a sunny yellow coat (this is one of the shades of the year according to Pantone, but in this case it was a reference to Dr. Jill Biden who once saw Gorman reading one of her poems in a yellow dress), white blouse and simple black pencil skirt.
She accessorised her look with a thick bright red satin headband with a triangular logo that revealed that this was a Prada ensemble, but Prada fans easily guessed it as the young poet admires Miuccia and has also collaborated with the brand in the past (she starred in the final episode of "What We Carry", a video series centered around Prada's efforts to go sustainable, and she travelled to Slovenia with Arthur Huang of National Geographic to learn more about the recycled nylon used in Prada's Re-Nylon bags).
Other symbolic touches included a ring with a caged bird, a nod to Maya Angelou's autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", and earrings gifted to her by Oprah Winfrey (a personal inaugural tradition she started with Angelou herself to whom Winfrey gifted the Chanel coat and gloves that Maya Angelou wore when she recited her inaugural poem in 1993).
Gorman was the perfect choice to give voice to the younger generations and she also made a sort of indirect fashion statement with some political connections: younger guests at the Inauguration mixed indeed in their looks American and European designers, almost to hint at more relaxed relations between the US and EU after the tensions of the last four years.
Harris' stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, who studies design at Parsons (and went for a Thom Browne ensemble on the previous day) wore a Miu Miu tartan coat with crystal-encrusted shoulders in the '40s style (a silhouette favoured by Miu Miu) over a burgundy dress by New York label Batsheva.
Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez also opted for European fashion houses: Lady Gaga sang the National Anthem in a grand Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry gown with a voluminous bright red silk faille skirt, fitted cashmere navy blue jacket and an oversized golden dove with a branch of olive in its beak, a symbol of peace, pinned on her jacket; Jennifer Lopez glowed instead in a white Chanel ensemble, a combination of designs from the A/W 19 (silk ruffled high-neck blouse and sequinned wide-leg pants) and A/W 2020 collections (long tweed coat).
Last but not least, photographers spotted among the guests somebody who, in a matter of minutes, became an unlikely fashion icon - Bernie Sanders. Socially distancing, sitting alone and looking unfazed the Senator from Vermont sported a functional jacket from Burlington-based snowboarding company Burton (that he often wore on his campaign) and knitted mitten made by Jen Ellis, a teacher from Essex Junction, Vermont. Ellis gifted them to the Senator a couple of years ago and in a tweet she stated they were made of repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles (you can contact her in case you want a pair: [email protected] - or follow her on Twitter). So Sanders was probably the best champion of sustainable fashion at the ceremony.
The antithesis of glamour, Sanders started trending and eventually went viral becoming instant meme material. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum even announced yesterday that it's taking preorders for an inaugural-version bobblehead of the Vermont Senator (expect his look on Demna Gvasalia's next Balenciaga runway).
Social media users incorporated the image of Sanders in the most hilarious pictures and collages, and he ended up becoming the protagonist of hilarious memes that saw him featured in works of art, animated films, video games, pictures from the Yalta Conference or iconic photographs like the famous picture portraying New York construction workers lunching atop a skyscraper. Guess that's what happens when you say you don't care about fashion - you end up becoming an accidental icon.
Inauguration Day has gone, but now comes the real deal for Biden and Harris and there are some hard challanges ahead, from tackling the Coronavirs pandemic to unemployment, homelessness, hunger and the recent attacks on American democracy.
On his first day in office Biden signed 17 executive actions - 15 will be executive orders - including halting the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, rejoning the Paris climate agreement and making mask wearing and social distancing mandatory in federal buildings and lands. Looks like Gorman was right then when she stated in her poem " (...) while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated."
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