Robin Givhan

unqualified guy can put on a dark suit and a red or blue tie, and he sort of looks like he's dressed for the part of power, right?

And with women, there hasn't been this sort of easy template.

Put this on, and it automatically sort of puts you into this sort of cliche power position.

And, you know, I sort of half-jokingly said that, you know, Hillary Clinton wore, you know, a million pantsuits in pink, yellow, marigold, and cantaloupe so Kamala Harris could wear, you know, a gray pantsuit and have it not be a big deal.

I mean, I think, you know, it took...

Hillary Clinton sort of creating, helping to create this template.

And it is very narrow.

And it is really challenging when you're a woman who doesn't necessarily sort of feel comfortable in that template, don't feel like it flatters you, or you just don't want to do it.

And then it becomes this matter of trying to figure out, okay, what is going to convey my power?

What is going to convey sort of gravitas and that crazy chemistry, right?

It has to be that mix of gravitas and approachability and authority, but also not too tough, but not too sweet.

And so it was just, it's always interesting to me

to see how women who are in positions of authority and who are, you know, moving on to like the next step on that ladder, to see how they define power with a feminine voice.

And, you know, I...

some certainly have gotten backlash from people who are like oh like why are you writing about women and what they're wearing and my argument is like i think we should be writing more about what men are wearing um because it also says a lot about you know who they are in perhaps in more subtle ways and um you know in the past as i've also said that i feel like women have um

you know, can use fashion in ways that are really helpful to communicating to the public.

But, you know, when I was just sort of watching as you, you know, were running, and I still remember that beautiful blue dress, I just thought that you had sort of found this way of

sort of evoking a sense of individuality, but also authority and modernity, which was really sort of another way of saying, you know, this is the future for progress, progressivism.

And I wanted to talk about that because it is something that I think is really important in our understanding of who gets to be in charge.

And it's important that we get used to