In the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, clothing says a lot

• When Harris became the likely Democratic nominee, gender became a more central part of the race.
• Experts said that Harris' clothing balances how to be "feminine, but not too feminine."

If Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump ever stand next to one another on the debate stage, viewers watching from their living rooms will notice — even if subconsciously — what the two candidates are wearing.

With reproductive rights as a key campaign issue and Trump's historic string of misogynistic comments, questions of gender have pulsed under this election cycle. But when President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection and Harris became the Democratic nominee, those questions moved into an unavoidable spotlight.

Trump's "loud aesthetic" contrasts Harris' more muted styling.

Clothing and image have always been an important part of politics, going all the way back to the earliest days of the English monarchy, said Derek Guy, a menswear writer best known for his popular Twitter account. The traditionally masculine suit has been and still is a fixture of the American political scene. And in that scene, which has long been visually and literally male, Harris has had to carve out a place for herself as a woman of color.

"I think the question of gender in the political space would be more about how dress has changed as women have entered it and how they've either adopted or challenged the masculine uniform of politics," Guy said. For Harris, that has taken the form of a subdued but recognizable femininity, experts who study political science and fashion told Business Insider.

Trump has tailored the traditional masculine suit to fit both his body and his brand. Guy said that Trump often wears navy blue Brioni suits, which are reminiscent of 1980s power silhouettes. The shoulders are padded and extended to give him a slimmer, more masculine figure. Around his neck, Trump opts for a shiny, satin, bright red tie.

It is, according to Guy, a "loud aesthetic."

Harris, on the other hand, is far from loud in her clothing. Sparsha Saha, a lecturer at Harvard who is co-authoring a book on the political meanings and effects of dress styles, called it "unremarkable, but also feminine."

For women in male-dominated fields, styling is often an attempt to prove worthiness and authority, said Shauna Shames, an associate professor at Rutgers University and co-author of the upcoming book, Dressing for Sex: The Democratic Paradox Revealed by Clothes.

"Most female politicians will start with an assumption of credentialing, showing that they are competent," Shames said. "The clothing is a good signaling device to show competence."

The Harris campaign did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Trump's campaign celebrated his styling choices, as spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "President Trump has the most style of any President in history."

An old controversy reinforced the importance of styling.

For Harris, the attempt at "credentialing" has meant looking like a lawyer at a high-profile firm. She often wears designer pantsuits in traditionally safe colors and neutral Manolo Blahnik pumps, though also has a known affinity for Converse sneakers. In a nod to her sorority at a historically Black college, Harris will typically don a string of pearls. For significant events, like the inauguration, she'll sometimes wear clothing by Black designers.

According to Shames, the whole look incorporates traditional femininity and perceived professionalism, which is often coded as male and white.

"Maintaining the feminine look, which I think is strategic, while balancing being a professional woman, a woman on the go, a lawyer," Saha said. "Being tough. She wants to send all of those things across and I think so far she's done that very well."

"She has developed an image that is incredibly powerful but also is not trying to erase her femininity," Joseph Altuzarra, the designer behind many of Harris' pantsuits, told the New York Times in 2021.

Harris faced a clothing controversy early on in her vice presidential tenure, when she graced the cover of Vogue magazine in her own jeans and sneakers. People immediately called the look too casual and said it did not confer enough respect.

The fallout likely taught her that, for better or worse, styling has real consequences, Saha said. Women in politics, and the professional space generally, must toe the line between associating with masculine leadership traits and dressing in accordance with expectations for traditional femininity.

"It's called a double bind. How do you seem feminine but not too feminine?" Saha said. "And that's her style. I think her clothing style is that. Feminine, but not too feminine."

Trump's clothing does not need to thread the needle in the same way — indeed, this year's Republican National Convention leaned on traditionally masculine tropes. Shames said that red, his signature color, encodes masculinity.

Clothing communicates values and is a necessary consideration.

Guy, however, sees Trump's trademark style as more closely related to industry than gender. He typically wears suits tailored to engineer a classically masculine physique, but his overall look mainly conveys the wealth of traditional real estate businessmen. Some of Trump's clothing choices — especially the bright, shiny tie — fly in the face of classic menswear, but work because of his specific brand of power.

"You can never really remove the person's styling from the person wearing it," Guy said. "If we never had Trump, if any other person wore this, it would just be considered cheap, tacky, and gaudy."

Given his background in reality television, Saha said that Trump understands the game of quick visual communication and knows that clothing can send signals about values. Harris knows the same, Shames said. Aware that people will inevitably scrutinize her, especially as a woman of color, the vice president wears strategic outfits.

"It's beautiful clothing that communicates competence, it communicates sophistication, but it does not distract from what she's doing or saying," Shames said. "I think she has learned that she has to deal with the attention. She can't not be looked at, but she wants to minimize the gaze."

As Trump has rewritten the political playbook in recent years, and this election cycle has upended what many consider normal, the importance of gender and clothing has remained stubbornly consistent, Guy said. Now, with Harris heading the Democratic ticket, the question of how to signal gender to voters is playing out before our eyes, at rallies and in television ads.

Trump has had years to carve out his particular visual brand, which, like much of his politics, "reflects the dismissal of traditional conservative good taste," Guy said. Harris, however, is still fine-tuning her look, as style columnist Rachel Tashjian noted in the Washington Post. She is, according to Saha, likely very aware of the message her styling sends given Trump's tendency to attach appearance-based slogans to his opponents.

The tensions are not alien to lower-profile politicians or even the everyday voter, Shames said. Many can understand the crisis of getting dressed for an event and struggling to figure out how they want to be perceived.

"This is not way underneath the surface. It's sitting right there. The politicians I've talked to know about it, are very aware, wrestle with it on a daily basis," she said. "We're all thinking every day about clothing."