The presidential State of the Union address has always been a moment of political theater on a grand scale, full of soaring rhetoric and pageantry as well as policy and partisanship. Only recently has it also become a costume drama, with supporting players using visual cues to make their voices, and positions, heard — even though they aren’t officially supposed to be speaking at all.
Only recently, that is to say, have the clothes in the room played such an obvious part in the politics of the room. It is dress that goes far beyond the traditionally patriotic red-white-and-blue ties and suits that have been the default uniform of legislators past.
It began during the last administration, in 2018, when Democratic congresswomen donned black in solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus also wore kente cloth draped around their necks in protest of President Donald J. Trump’s statements regarding Africa and Haiti, and red pins in honor of the death of Recy Taylor, a Black woman raped as a child by a gang of white men who were never brought to justice.
It continued the following year, with the coordinated effort of female representatives to wear white in honor of the suffragists, recognition that they were the largest class of women to enter Congress, and a riposte to the West Wing. Happened again, in 2020, during the SOTU that took place during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, with many women members of Congress again wearing white.