With the presidential election days away, the contest has become a bit primal with both sides fighting for a win.
While many of the 50 million-plus early voters can be spotted by their red, white and blue “I Voted Early” stickers, First Lady Jill Biden and former first ladies Melania Trump and Michelle Obama have been sporting stripes of a different color.
All three internationally recognized women have sported animal-inspired looks in the past week. To be clear, Biden did so in the spirit of Halloween wearing a panda costume for Wednesday’s annual trick-or-treat event at the White House. On Oct. 27, Trump turned up at her husband Donald’s rally at Madison Square Garden wearing a zebra-printed Michael Kors coat. And the day before, Obama took to the stage in support of Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris in a custom Theory pantsuit that looked like a leopard-inspired print.
What does it all mean?
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Leslie Irvine, director of Animals and Society Certificate Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said Friday, “Today, we no longer believe that dressing like say, a tiger, gives us the power of a tiger. But animal prints and costumes still send strong cultural messages. Mainly, the wearer cannot be ignored. Whether by capturing some of the wildness of the leopard or the playfulness of the panda, the wearer is blurring the human-animal boundary in either a rebellious or a playful way.”
And animals have always had a role in human adornment including in Indigenous societies, where wearing animal skins and body parts had a spiritual role, in that the wearer harnessed some of the qualities of that species, Irvine said.
The Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of fashion and material culture Matthew Yokobosky said leopard, tiger and zebra are described today as neutrals, since they are available in all levels and prices of clothing. “But in the Middle Ages, animal skins and prints were associated with royalty and the elite, as they were challenging to procure or create,” he said, “Perhaps Melania and Michelle are playing both sides of the coin, evoking elitism while drawing from accessible brands like Kors and Theory.”
Yokobosky said Trump’s and Obama’s choices “seemed to be more about appearing exciting, eye-catching and fashion-conscious at presidential rallies, as they try to inspire voters. Jill’s costume seemed much less aggressive in her panda look.”
He said that as a former model, Trump,“know how to wear clothes to great effect.” Earlier this week Trump’s stylist Herve Pierre told WWD, “We thought the graphic black and white pattern would look good with an ocean of blue, white and red [at teh Madison Square Garden rally.]”
William & Mary’s director of the Institute for Integrative Conservation John Swaddle also flagged how the three women’s recent choices are “all easily recognizable,” as well as the panda being the global symbol for conservation as seen in the World Wildlife Fund’s logo. (FLOTUS also had a hand in bringing two giant pandas “Bao Li” and “Qing Bao” from China to the Smithsonian National Zoo.)
More than anything, Swaddle sees the animal-inspired choices as “a connection to nature and that connection crosses political divides,” he said. “Nature gives us the fundamental services for our society, no matter how we envision political systems. Nature gives us the food on the table, the clean water we drink, and the air we breathe. It gives me hope that these ladies feel that connection and choose to express it through their clothing. Nature can bring us together.”
Swaddle added, “We must work together to stem our current extinction crisis so that everyone can flourish. Everyone wins when nature is strong.”
