Michelle Obama’s DNC 2024 Outfit Is Loaded With Symbolism

“Something magically wonderful is in the air,” Michelle Obama proclaimed at the 2024 Democratic National Convention Tuesday evening, where the former first lady addressed a jubilant crowd ready to rally behind Kamala Harris. “Hope is making a comeback,” she added.

Another magically wonderful thing was Obama’s always-on-point fashion sense. 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.”

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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.

In an Instagram post touting Obama sporting the line’s Resort 2025 look, the caption said the former first lady “embodies the Monse woman in every way, exuding the strength and confidence that are at the core of our brand.” Those qualities are exactly what Obama radiated, her oration firing up the crowd in her hometown of Chicago.

In a night that saw Harris’s husband, potential First Mensch Doug Emhoff describing the candidate as a “joyful warrior,” too, Obama’s ensemble served as a sartorial representation of the fighting spirit that Harris and Obama have in common. Her hair in its long, swinging braid evoked a powerful, polished femininity, and the structural crossed front and riveted belt almost seemed like a nod to armor.

For a trusted and powerful surrogate like Obama, in short, it’s the perfect superhero getup—the general sent to rally the masses, readying the party for its next battle.