Former first lady Michelle Obama addressed the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. Getty Images
Michelle Obama wore a nearly $3,000 pantsuit to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago while touting to attendees that her parents were “suspicious” of the wealthy.
The former first lady began her DNC speech by saying the last time she was in her hometown of Chicago was to memorialize her mother, the woman “who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency” and “who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice.”
All the while, she was wearing a black pantsuit jacket that is available for pre-order online by the New York fashion designer Monse for $1,690.
The online description invites customers to “pre-order our Resort 2025 Criss Cross Jacket as seen on Michelle Obama at the DNC.”
Michelle Obama paired the jacket with the matching trousers listed for $890.
Dressed in a navy two-piece ensemble designed by Monse, Obama not only looked fantastic but wrapped herself in layers of symbolism, choosing a deconstructed menswear-inspired look to deliver her scathing takedown of Republican candidate Donald Trump and full-throated support for the Harris-Walz ticket.
Monse creative director Laura Kim, who runs the fashion house with Fernando Garcia (the two are also co-creative directors at Oscar de la Renta) told Vanity Fair that she was excited that Obama turned once again to the label she notably reached for often during the final year of her husband Barack Obama‘s presidency.
Her team approached us and she purchased the look,” Kim told Vanity Fair over email. “As I got off the ferry in Fire Island a month ago her stylist, Meredith Koop, texted me saying, ‘Did you read my email? There’s an event coming up.’ I dropped my phone, knowing what this meant.”
Obama wore cropped tuxedo pants and a tailored, belted vest with criss-cross styling in the front, paired with a long black braid in her hair, Jimmy Choo heels, and David Yurman jewelry. Obama’s look, more than just visually gorgeous, was a fashionable representation of Harris’s persona and campaign.
“A core look for Monse are deconstructed suits to empower women and enhance their strength and femininity,” Kim said. “We love the criss cross lapel detail that wraps around to enhance the women’s curves.”
The United States hasn’t yet elected a female president, and in fact, Harris’s campaign itself is an apparatus that was originally designed for a man—President Joe Biden—and retrofitted around her, redesigned and reimagined to fit the new candidate just months before America heads to the polls. The same elements are in play, but the tailoring has been reworked, and different details brought to the front. Where Biden’s campaign leaned on the incumbent’s reliability and elder statesman qualities, the metaphorical traditional sports jacket and knotted tie, when Harris became the candidate, messaging became feistier, unafraid to side-eye the “weird” guys on the other side of the aisle. Deconstructed and re-seamed, a traditional suit jacket becomes Obama’s architectural sleeveless vest top; the tuxedo pants slimmed and cropped, the same elements tweaked to an entirely different end result.
