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Kamala Harris can do full glamour
At the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in 2024, the then-Vice President wore a gown designed by the same man who dresses Beyoncé. That alone makes this worth talking about. Leaving the pantsuit behind for the evening, Harris chose a floor-length, black sequined gown by LaQuan Smith with long sleeves and a high neckline. The look was a dazzling, deliberate pivot from her usual get-up, shimmering under the stage lights of one of the most significant gatherings of Black political leadership in the country.
LaQuan Smith, a Queens native, built his label on unabashed glamour and pulling from eclectic influences. He revealed to Cultured, “I pull from many sources of inspiration — everyone from my grandfather to Tom Ford, Lenny Kravitz, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and the Studio 54 nightlife era.” His designs often favor daring cuts and skin-baring silhouettes, but dressing Harris was a different kind of challenge, one Smith embraced. “She gravitates towards pieces that make a statement while staying true to herself,” he told Vogue. The tension between tradition and disruption makes their pairing so compelling. At the Phoenix Awards, Harris made a statement without compromising her authority.
Her bedazzled Levi’s jacket turned heads at Pride
Pride is part protest, part celebration, and what you wear can lean into both. For the San Francisco parade in 2019, Kamala Harris traded Washington formality for jeans and a denim jacket adorned with rainbow-colored rhinestones. The sparkles traced the stripes of the traditional Pride flag — a symbol that has come to represent the larger LGBTQ+ community.
The jacket, as her press secretary later confirmed on X (formerly known as Twitter), came from Levi’s, fittingly based in San Francisco. More than just a fashion house, Levi’s has a long record of activism woven into its seams as a brand supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. The company was the first in the Fortune 500 to extend benefits to same-sex couples, and it has filed legal briefs in favor of marriage equality. It also puts its money where its mouth is, backing organizations that support queer communities and pushing back against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Harris made a statement in purple to take the oath
Of course, the presidential inauguration is about the peaceful transfer of power. But it’s also a prime opportunity to raise the sartorial stakes (even though there were plenty of stars and politicians whose outfits totally missed the mark at Trump’s inauguration).
When Kamala Harris took the oath of office in 2021, she dressed for the history books. A vivid purple coat and dress by Christopher John Rogers, a designer known for energetic colors and clean tailoring. Rogers — a notable Black designer from Louisiana — had already dressed the likes of Cardi B, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Michelle Obama. The Vice President of the United States seemed like a natural evolution of that roster.
The choice of purple, too, was an interesting one. A neat blend of red and blue, was she pointing toward bipartisanship in a country still struggling to bridge its divides? Perhaps. But it was also an echo of the color used in the women’s suffrage movement. As the first Black, Asian-American woman VP, purple subtly tied her to the progress of those who came before.
She dressed modestly for church
Campaign trails wind through all kinds of venues, but some spaces ask for something different. Just days before the presidential election, Kamala Harris stopped at the Church of Christian Compassion for a “Souls to the Polls” rally in Philadelphia. For the occasion, Harris set aside the campaign-trail polish and chose something slightly more reverent and traditional. She layered a brown sheath dress under a matching tailored coat. A double strand of pearls and black pumps — both familiar fixtures in Harris’s wardrobe — added formality without flash.
The outfit saw Kamala make statements on faith and resilience, as well as collective power. “We carry real burdens,” she told the congregation, before reminding them, “… divine power works through our actions.” The politics of the moment dissolved into something deeper when she said, “We have the power to move past division, fear, and chaos.” Here, her style took a back seat to substance, and her words held the room.
Harris let spring’s color of the season shine
Easter Sunday calls for optimism, sartorial or otherwise. In 2025, Kamala Harris chose butter yellow for the occasion, her cheerful ensemble consisting of a knee-length dress and a long matching overcoat. She finished the look with neutral pumps, pearls, and a post to Instagram that read, “On Easter Sunday, we celebrate joy, hope, and our faith in renewal — even through the darkest of times. To all those celebrating today, our family wishes you a happy Easter.”
Here, the color mattered in particular, with butter yellow crowned as the on-trend color you should add to all your outfits for Spring/Summer 2025. This seemed to signal that outside the West Wing, she became a figure to watch in fashion. The look landed with style lovers and went viral in its own way. On Threads, one user asked for outfit ideas for an “elevated business” gala. One reply was swift: “I’m immediately picturing Kamala Harris’ Easter outfit.” The look was a strong bridge between her two publics: the politician bound by tradition, and the woman who, occasionally, lets her style do some talking.
