CHICAGO – The dress code did not call for khaki, but nonetheless the tan suits were out in full force for the glittery opening of Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago on June 18.
Late-night talk show icons David Letterman and Stephen Colbert, and the Obama Foundation board chair, Martin Nesbitt, all arrived at the event in same-same khaki suits.
The men’s suits, of course, alluded to Obama’s notorious tan suit, which he wore in August 2014 at a news conference about the United States’ response to the Islamic State group. Whatever Obama said that day about the goings-on in Syria is lost to popular memory. Instead, it was the tan outfit that drew all the attention and hand-wringing.
Obama’s decision not to wear the more expected navy or black suit on that occasion ignited days of breathless scrutiny, particularly from members of the Republican Party and the conservative media ecosystem, many of whom deemed the outfit insufficiently formal for the West Wing. For days, politicians and pundits embraced a new job: fashion police.
“The suit was a metaphor for his lack of seriousness,” former representative Peter King, a Republican from New York, told Newsmax at the time. Lou Dobbs of Fox News thought it was “shocking to a lot of people”. Mainstream publications assessed the merits of the suit itself, with GQ and New York magazine deeming it “sad”.
Obama’s defenders pointed out that past presidents, including Ronald Reagan, had worn tan suits in the Oval Office, particularly during Washington’s sweltering summers.
The upshot was that not since Abraham Lincoln’s stovepipe hat has a single article of clothing been so closely associated with a US president. Coverage lasted for days, and the tan suit controversy received its own, quite thorough Wikipedia page.
“It was inspired by a very good friend of mine, who made tan suits famous,” Nesbitt said during a speech on June 18 during which he stepped back from the lectern to show off his tan suit in full. “And I don’t know about the rest of you all, but I thought he looked pretty good wearing his, so I decided to wear one myself.”
The former president appeared to approve: As Nesbitt took the stage, Obama could be heard saying, “I love that tan suit.”
Nesbitt and Colbert committed to the bit, wearing striped ties that echoed the one Obama wore with his suit more than a decade ago. Letterman, now well into his “can’t tell me what to do” retirement, paired his with a more insouciant T-shirt.
That these men opted for khaki exemplified how the left has embraced the suit, contorting it into a knowing reminder of the scrutiny that Obama faced while in office. This attitude did not take long to set in. In 2019, The Daily Show, where Colbert was once a correspondent, did a satirical segment on the tan suit, mockingly declaring, “No president has ever done anything worse.”
Out of office, Obama winked back at #khakigate when in 2022 he joked that Robert McCurdy, who painted his official portrait, “talked me out of wearing a tan suit”.
Other Democrats have since worn tan suits, including former US vice-president Kamala Harris, who opted for one during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in 2024. Back then, journalist Vanessa Friedman wrote that the connection to Obama could not have escaped Harris.
As for Obama’s actual tan suit, it is not on display in the library. The former president gave it away. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
