How Hillary Clinton's trouser suit has become more than just a fashion statement

Leave the “I voted” stickers and candidate badges to the amateurs. When the most committed Hillary Clinton supporters head to the polls to vote in the US presidential election today, you will know them by their pantsuits.

Early Tuesday morning, American women began sharing photos of themselves (and their daughters) wearing pantsuits on the way to the voting booths. It’s likely that many of them are members of Pantsuit Nation, a ‘secret,’ invitation-only Facebook group that has attracted more than 2.5 million members in under three weeks. “Wear a pantsuit on November 8. You know why,” the group tagline reads.

Or perhaps their outfits were inspired by Pantsuit Power, a video of a jubilant flash mob of 200 dancers in New York’s Union Square. The dancers wore (surprise, surprise) pantsuits, some of which were furnished by Topshop. Even naked-dress devotee Beyonce has embraced the style. The singer wore a Givenchy pantsuit to perform at a pro-Clinton concert on Friday night. Her backup dancers donned simpler MObama-blue suits, worn over custom “I’m with her” t-shirts.

It’s not just a case of women rummaging through the backs of their wardrobes, either. Searches for women’s pantsuits on shopping site Lyst have risen by 460% since January - a “massive resurgence” that has “confounded expectations”, says Lyst Editorial Director Katherine Ormerod, particularly since many shoppers have searched for pantsuits in unseasonal white.

Not so recently, trouser suits were easy to write off as sartorial crutches for female heads of state and executives keen to broadcast their ability to compete in a man’s world. But in an election in which the fashion statements could have started and ended with Trump's obnoxious "make America great again" trucker hats, pantsuits have come to symbolise alignment with a whole spectrum of feminist and pro-Clinton values.

Part of the rise of the pantsuit comes down to comparison. Nothing could be farther from the kept-woman associations of Melania Trump’s nipped, tucked, hobbling dresses than a suit cut to let its wearer stride across a rally stage. And no doubt Clinton is aware of pantsuits’ legacy as a uniform for women’s liberation.

short bridesmaid dresses uk | queeniebridesmaid cheap bridesmaid dresses