Why Ralph Lauren has become Hillary Clinton's image-maker for the milestone moments in her Presidential campaign

Hillary Clinton wearing a Ralph Lauren suit at the first TV Presidential debates of the US Election 

The stakes were high for Hillary Clinton at the first televised presidential debate last night. After her recent bout of pneumonia and the consequential questions about her health, Clinton needed to show the world that she was raring to take on Trump for the fight for the White House.

She did this with meticulous preparations; hours of debate practice (sparring with the likes of  Alec Baldwin, who reportedly played Trump in rehearsals), poring over pages and pages of policy documents - and commissioning US designer Ralph Lauren to create one of her signature pantsuits in the fieriest shade of red.

Clinton opted for red lipstick to complement her Ralph Lauren suit

Yes, her choice of outfit (accessorised with subtly chic jewellery by Julie Vos) carried major importance, because have no doubt about it, whatever any figure in public life wears comes with meaning and shapes our perception of them (whether they - or you - like it). Clinton gets that and plays to it.

Clinton's choice of red brings full circle a message first laid out in her debut post on Instagram, more than a year ago now. It showed a rail of red, white and blue tailoring and was captioned with the title of her book Hard Choices. Wry and knowing, the post signaled that Clinton was a step ahead of everyone else in understanding that what she wore - and, yes, how her hair and make-up were done - would be pivotal in creating the public image to win this election. 

Consequently, Clinton has chosen suits designed by Ralph Lauren, probably the most-established and best-known American designer, for three key moments in the presidential campaign thus far.

“Colour can change your attractiveness entirely and how people see you,” says Nina McLemore, a workwear designer whom Clinton has called upon numerous times in the past. Credit: REX

At her campaign's opening rally in June 2015, Clinton wore a cerulean blue Ralph Lauren suit with tapered-trousers, a slim lapelled jacket which hit flatteringly below the hips and a matching plain round neck top.

Then appearing at the Democrat Convention to accept the Presidential candidate nomination, Clinton opted to wear a white Ralph Lauren suit. Given white is the colour of protest associated with the Suffragettes and Clinton was celebrating the achievement of being the first woman ever to be nominated by a major political party for the American presidency, her choice of outfit was widely interpreted as a feminist statement.

Clinton in white Ralph Lauren as she formally accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party Credit: EPA

Monday night's red means that Clinton has now covered off every colour of the flag with her Ralph Lauren wardrobe. But regardless of the trio it completes, red - a colour that stands for power and visibility - was a potent statement in its own right. It's not a 'good girl' colour, it says that the wearer has attitude and determination. For the Chinese, it also denotes luck and good fortune. If the white suit was about revelling in a moment of victory and taking a deep breath, red said that Clinton was determinedly on fighting form. 

Choosing a bright colour was also a way for Hillary to stand out against the much taller and bound-to-wear-black/navy Trump (there had been some wrangling before the debates about the size of the lecterns they would stand behind, given she is almost a foot shorter than him).

“Colour can change your attractiveness entirely and how people see you,” Nina McLemore, a workwear designer whom Clinton has called upon numerous times in the past, has told The Telegraph of why the Presidential candidate isn't afraid to use embrace block, primary colours.

“What a woman wants is skin that has a pink touch to it, not grey or yellow which is what black does. I’ve given many talks to law firms accounting firms. I walk in and 70-80 per cent of the people are in black so of course they don’t stand out.”

Given Clinton is almost a foot shorter than Trump, a red suit helped her stand out Credit: Getty

The collaboration with Lauren is fitting for another reason. In 2014, Clinton awarded Lauren with the James Smithsonian Bicentennial medal for donating millions of dollars to help preserve the delicate 'Star Spangled banner', the American flag raised at Fort McHenry, Baltimore in 1814 to celebrate victory over British forces. The flag inspired Francis Scott Key to write a song that eventually became the United States national anthem.

Lauren, who has long used the stars-and-stripes flag as a motif in his all-American work, said he wanted to protect a crucial part of American history - and no doubt he'll feel the same way about being involved in dressing one of the candidates in what's shaping up to be one of the most hotly-contested presidential elections. 

Yet, some critics have observed that Lauren might not be the smartest choice of designer for Clinton to associate herself with.

"There’s a possible weak spot in the relationship," wrote Vanessa Friedman in The New York Times when Clinton wore Lauren to launch her campaign.

"Because for a candidate who has been pushing her connection to, and understanding of, the middle class — and whose speech while wearing the pantsuit was largely about closing the income gap — Ralph Lauren is a relatively inaccessible brand. An average Ralph Lauren Women’s Collection pantsuit, which this was — not, in other words, a style from the more accessible line, Lauren Ralph Lauren — is a few thousand dollars... That is out of reach for most voters."

But whilst it's true relatability is always an issue for politicans who are schooled to remember the price of a pint of milk, out of all the big name designers Clinton could have chosen, Lauren is the most accessible of them all with his diffusion lines. The woman or man in the swing states Clinton is trying to appeal to will hear Ralph Lauren and think of their jeans and polo shirts. And besides, no-one is criticising Trump for wearing wildly expensive tailoring. (He is, by the way - and his wife Melania wore Dolce & Gabbana.)  

As for matching red lipstick to her red Ralph Lauren suit? US make up legend Bobbi Brown approves. "Whatever works in make-up to give you confidence, for some women it's concealer, for others it's a red lipstick," she told The Telegraph of the look, which attracted comment online during the debate. "Personally, I wouldn't be confident in a red lipstick because it doesn't suit me, but I feel my best with concealer and eyeliner. I always say you're either a red lipstick person or not. I don't think women should wear red lipstick if it doesn't suit them to try and feel confident. I thought the red lipstick worked for Hillary, I thought she looked good."


Decisions of political clothing are Hard Choices, as Clinton has observed, but she chose well last night.