Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's hoop earrings flashed prominently at her swearing-in in January. In addition a white trouser suit, already stood the wardrobe of the American congressmen - including message. Do not mediate with words, but with fabric and earrings. In White 100 years before her suffragettes demonstrated for the introduction of women's suffrage in the US, said the 30-year-old behind.
The hoop earrings, on the other hand, should encourage the currently disadvantaged. After the ceremony, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: "The next time someone tells bronx girls to take off their creoles, they can simply reply that they are dressing like a congressman."
Sibeth Ndiaye, government spokeswoman for Emmanuel Macron, also dresses up against clichés. At press conferences, the 39-year-old wears a turquoise dress with a flamingo pattern, sometimes a blue version with a parasol print. Political opponents compared this color joy malicious with the Teletubbies or circus costumes. The usual dress code simply did not work for them, Ndiaye once said in an interview: "I'm chubby, I looked like a sack of potatoes." So she grabbed a pair of scissors and made her wardrobe herself.
ludovic MARIN / AFP
A good mood to wear: With her colorful wardrobe, Sibeth Ndiaye turns over what is worn in the French government
In Ocasio-Cortez and Ndiaye Power Dressing no longer means mouse-gray, broad-shouldered blazer and triple-folded string of pearls. As with more and more politicians. Theresa May, the former British Prime Minister, also waved in high-heeled shoes or dress with leopard print in the cameras, Chancellor Angela Merkel experiments at least in color. As different as the wardrobes come along, so uniform is their message: Self-esteem to put on looks different now.
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The trouser suit through the ages: Marlene Dietrich meets MuglerFor a long time, the men's suit stood for materialized authority - straight cut, unshakeable in its appearance. "We have combined politics with masculinity and a masculine power claim - with a certain kind of talking, gesturing and a certain clothing culture," says Viola Hofmann. In her doctoral thesis on "The Costume of Power" she examined the political wardrobe from 1949 to the second millennium. At that time, the motto was: If the suit is pragmatic, so does the wearer. Just no patterns, gimmicks, flightiness.
Chanel was the first to use the men's wardrobe
"Women had to reinvent themselves in this culture through their clothes," says Hofmann. When it first went into higher political positions in the 1980s, women should adapt to the male environment - and with it, their dress code. It was not allowed to be too masculine. Costume was announced. In 1970, the SPD MP Lenelotte von Bothmer was the first woman wearing a trouser suit to march in parliament - criticism was hailing. From then on, shoulder pads met ultrafeminine darts and pencil skirts. "On the one hand, they should not be women, on the other hand they had to be women," says fashion theorist Barbara Vinken.
Women in trousers were nothing new. Coco Chanel wore men's trousers in her twenties. The origin of what was later called Power Dressing says Vinken. In the sixties, Yves Saint Laurent put women in tuxedos - a symbol of androgyny. The trouser suits with dramatically broad shoulders of a Giorgio Armani and Thierry Mugler became the image of the eighties.
Not only the trouser suit can stand for authority
But what was celebrated in fashion, had to prevail off the catwalks. The more often Angela Merkel appeared in the pantsuit, the more established the idea of Angela Merkel in her pantsuit - and the next convention could be tackled. Who says that the trouser suit symbolizes authority - and not the sheath dress?
This is also where Ocasio-Cortez and Ndiaye come in. Power dressing means courage for fashion, says the theorist Vinken. "And to show courage: I can also speak through my clothes." A message made in fabric or jewelry quickly becomes a noteworthy statement in our world of images.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's hoop earrings did not dangle by chance as a subtle but cleverly used sign of feminism in one of America's most important political events. Sibeth Ndiaye displays her individual designs demonstratively radiant, undeterred by the critics. Sometimes the look is just more pointed than a big, sweeping speech.
