Inauguration Fashion: What Did It All Mean?

They constructed again higher. From the second that President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris arrived on the reflecting pool beside the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday night time to the ultimate word of the digital live performance that capped the inaugural rites and celebrations, it was clear that they, and people round them, had been going to make use of each instrument at their disposal to underscore their message of recent begins and racial justice, assist and therapeutic. They would use each superstar performer, each ritual and, sure, each costume and coat and swimsuit that would set off a search, spark a pattern or seize an creativeness.

Even although within the run-up to the transition of energy, the message from each the presidential and vice-presidential camps was that they didn’t wish to give attention to garments (regardless that the manufacturers concerned had been sworn to secrecy), it was unimaginable to disregard how the brand new administration used what they wore to inform a narrative in a second when the eyes of the world had been on them.

It was writ within the vary of designers represented, within the rainbow of colours that might be seen by way of any display, within the layers of not simply clothes (hey, it was chilly), however that means. And in the best way the alternatives labored collectively to create a mosaic that wasn’t actually about vogue in any respect, however quite about values and signifying intent.

The vogue was simply the conduit.

Mr. Biden made his Inauguration Day entrance in a Ralph Lauren swimsuit, coat and masks — in, that’s to say, a wardrobe by a Bronx-born designer who constructed his repute on channeling the mythology of the American dream. Who, certainly, embodied it himself; who has dressed the United States Olympic team, helped restore The Star-Spangled Banner and worked with administrations both Democratic and Republican over the years. Who represents bipartisan tradition and heritage and industry.

With it, the president wore a blue tie (not so much a bright Democratic blue as a “true blue” blue) that harmonized with the blue tweed coat, dress and mask worn by Dr. Jill Biden. Her outfit had been created by Markarian, a brand founded only three years ago by a young designer named Alexandra O’Neill. Based in New York’s garment district, it was so fresh, it left even fashion folk scratching their heads.

First came the camel coat worn to the Covid memorial service, with its multitude of pleats falling from a wave at the back. It was created by Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss, a designer dedicated to putting Black Americans back at the center of the country’s cultural fables. He was among the first designers to organize distribution of PPE at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to raise money to help small businesses crushed by lockdown.

Next was the bright purple coat and dress at the swearing-in designed by Christopher John Rogers, worn with Ms. Harris’s signature pearls (these from the Puerto Rican jeweler Wilfredo Rosado) and the politico’s little flag pin. Born in Louisiana, based in New York, and still in his 20s, Mr. Rogers has a penchant for combining old-time dressmaker detailing with high-octane glamour. And finally, for the evening, there was the black sequined dress under a tuxedo coat by Sergio Hudson, a designer working and manufacturing in Ms. Harris’s home state of California.

So it went. There were numerous striking style moments: the red, white and blue celebrity troika of Lady Gaga in a giant Schiaparelli ball gown, Jennifer Lopez in snowy Chanel and Garth Brooks in jeans; the sunshine yellow Prada coat of Amanda Gorman, the youth poet laureate; Senator Bernie Sanders’ viral mittens. But most striking of all was the ubiquity of purple, which turned out to be practically the signature color of the inauguration.

Perhaps because it combines the red and blue of recent political schism into a unified whole (the theme of inauguration was, after all, “America United’). Perhaps because, along with white, it was one of the colors of the suffragists, and to wear it was to acknowledge the fulfillment of their dream embodied by Ms. Harris. Or perhaps because, as the National Woman’s Party (the original suffragist organization) wrote in a 1913 newsletter, “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause.”