If you could time travel to the ‘90s and tell yourself that Hillary Clinton would become even more of a career politician than her husband, your past self would likely assume you are simply lying. Back then, Bill Clinton was president for two successful terms (aside from a major scandal), and Hillary was mostly known as his First Lady. Since Bill left office, though, Hillary went on to serve as a Senator and Secretary of State before unsuccessfully running for President and losing to Donald Trump.
Along the way, she was attached to many scandals, including everything from the Benghazi attack controversy (opponents claimed she could have done more to save lives) to the private email server controversy (the one that helped sink her presidential dreams). Because of this, there are some who would consider Hillary Clinton the portrait of scandal, but would you believe that on one occasion, her literal portrait caused the biggest scandal of all?
To understand why, it’s important to take a trip to the past, including Clinton’s iconic look and her evolving political ambitions. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the scandal involving Hillary Clinton’s official White House portrait!
Hillary Clinton’s trademark look
As noted before, the White House portrait scandal doesn’t make much sense if you don’t know the history leading up to it. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an astute student of all things politics to understand this tempest in a teapot. Instead, you just need to understand what made Hillary Clinton both famous and infamous in the ‘90s: her pantsuit.
It’s not exactly a big deal now, but decades ago, the public and the media had a very specific idea of how women should dress…namely, in dresses and other explicitly feminine articles of clothing. Therefore, Clinton’s choice of pantsuit instantly became a political statement that she wouldn’t be playing by the old rules. What most people realize, though, is that she originally embraced this different style of dress for a very practical, very sad reason.
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The sad reason for Clinton’s pantsuit preference
On her AppleTV+ series Gutsy, Hillary Clinton dished about a great many things, including her ongoing preference for pantsuits. She pointed out that it wasn’t initially a major political statement she was making. Instead, it was a practical decision borne out of a fairly traumatic event in her past.
Once upon a time, Clinton did wear dresses and skirts most of the time, and she ended up paying the price. Specifically, she had an incident with a creeper who managed to take an upskirt photo against her will. Realizing that her fashion choices left her vulnerable to this kind of thing, Clinton made the very practical decision to start wearing pantsuits all the time. Simply put, if she no longer wears dresses or skirts to public events, she no longer has to worry about other creepers trying to photograph her in compromising positions.
Becoming an unexpected ‘90s fashion icon
To hear Hillary Clinton tell her story in Gutsy, she never exactly intended to become a fashion icon. Instead, she decided that if she was going to make the pantsuit her signature look, she’d make it look good. Accordingly, she recruited Donna Karan of DKNY to design what would later be known as her cold shoulder dress for a White House dinner. This is pretty standard political stuff…simply put, when you’re going to be a prominent part of a major state function, you always want to look your best.
Fortunately for Clinton, her slick new suit went well beyond simply looking good. As she described on Gutsy, “Next thing I knew, I was on the front page of the New York Times. I guess it made a statement.” That statement most certainly resonated with young women of the ‘90s who viewed Clinton as the most prominent female icon during the birth of third-wave feminism. Of course, others hated how stridently she pushed back against retrograde ideas about male and female roles, all of which led up to the controversial debut of her official White House portrait.
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Hillary Clinton’s White House portrait that caused major controversy
In 2004, Hillary Clinton made political history in a way that was unexpected. At least, media pundits claimed it was unexpected, though given everything we know about the FLOTUS turned Secretary of State, we don’t know what else people were expecting. In short, when Clinton’s Senatorial White House portrait was unveiled (her FLOTUS one was unveiled a decade earlier), she was wearing one of her signature pantsuits.
Previously, female senators and politicians of all stripes had worn dresses or skirts for their White House portraits. This meant that Clinton was breaking the unspoken rules of how things were traditionally done, emphasizing that she would wear whatever she wanted rather than whatever others wanted her to wear. And love her or hate her, Clinton’s fashion statements and history as a powerful, outspoken female leader have inspired (and continue to inspire) other women who have followed her into the male-dominated world of politics.