Getty Kamala Harris and her husband
New Vice President Kamala Harris donned a purple coat for her swearing in on January 20, 2021. Who was the designer?
The designer’s name is Christoper John Rogers, according to Harper’s Bazaar.
You can see photos of Harris’s outfit throughout this article. Harris was sworn in alongside President Joe Biden, who became the nation’s 46th president. She is the first Black, Indian, and woman to become vice president of the United States.
Hillary Clinton also wore purple, and former First Lady Michelle Obama donned a vibrant, red pantsuit, as bright colors ruled the day.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Designer Was Inspired by Louisiana Church Attire
GettyKamala Harris and her husband.
According to Harper’s Bazaar, Rogers “is young, Black, and queer, is a rising star in American fashion. The 27-year-old, who founded his New York label in 2016, was raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and studied fashion at the Savannah College of Art and Design.”
He told NPR that he was inspired to create bold monochromatic designs by the way women dressed at church in Louisiana when he was growing up.
“There was a big emphasis on head-to-toe monochromatic dressing,” Rogers told NPR. “So, if the jacket [was] red the skirt was red, the bag was red, the hat was red — or green, or violet, or marigold. That sense of color and the taking up of space with hue really inspired me.”
GettyKamala Harris
Growing up, he watched an episode of Project Runway and wanted to be a fashion designer.
“For the school charity fashion show … we went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of black clothes, and we took them apart and resewed them together with inexpensive fabric from Hobby Lobby — and we just, like, made it work.”
Vice President Harris Was the Children of Immigrants
GettyKamala Harris
According to her White House bio, “Vice President Harris was born in Oakland, California to parents who emigrated from India and Jamaica. She graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of Law.”
The bio continues, “Vice President Harris and her sister, Maya Harris, were primarily raised and inspired by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her own right, received her doctorate the same year Vice President Harris was born.”
GettyKamala Harris
The site quotes Harris as saying of her mom, “My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’”
She was exposed to the Civil Rights movement early on.
“Her parents were activists, instilling Vice President Harris with a strong sense of justice. They brought her to civil rights demonstrations and introduced role models—ranging from Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to civil rights leader Constance Baker Motley—whose work motivated her to become a prosecutor,” the bio reads.
She is married with two stepchildren.
“Growing up, Vice President Harris was surrounded by a diverse community and extended family. In 2014, she married Doug Emhoff. They have a large blended family that includes their children, Ella and Cole.”
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