With Election Day approaching, candidates are courting voters with everything they’ve got: targeted ads, texts, taunts and stump speeches. As a fashion historian, I think an overlooked aspect of electioneering is clothing, which is a silent, powerful way for candidates to tell the American public who they are.

With Election Day approaching, candidates are courting voters with everything they’ve got: targeted ads, texts, taunts and stump speeches. As a fashion historian, I think an overlooked aspect of electioneering is clothing, which is a silent, powerful way for candidates to tell the American public who they are.

Once upon a time, when you complimented someone’s skirt or dress, there was a solid chance she’d reply with, “Thanks, it has pockets!” These days, you’re more likely to be met with a different response, or rather a correction: “Thanks, it’s actually a skort.”

Even though Karen Read did not testify in her Massachusetts trial for allegedly killing her boyfriend, her body language and reactions throughout past two months can tell a larger story, according to experts.

When Garrett Spence was in middle school, back in the early 2000s, he made the same appeal to his mom year after year at Christmas: Could she please, in her annual replenishment of his sock and underwear supply, just get him the really short socks? No, not the quarter-length kind that cut a clean, straight line across his ankle an inch or two above his low-tops. Shorter than that. The kind that would be almost entirely obscured by his shoes — crucially, without having to be rolled down.

Bridgerton is back, and Season 3 leading lady Nicola Coughlan is setting the record straight about her waist. The 37-year-old actress, who plays Penelope Featherington on the hit Netflix series, has done a lot of talking about her body since Part 1 of the latest season premiered on May 16. In response to some allegations that her waist was Photoshopped onscreen, she told People that her appearance is actually a result of wearing a corset.

Bridgerton is back, and Season 3 leading lady Nicola Coughlan is setting the record straight about her waist. The 37-year-old actress, who plays Penelope Featherington on the hit Netflix series, has done a lot of talking about her body since Part 1 of the latest season premiered on May 16. In response to some allegations that her waist was Photoshopped onscreen, she told People that her appearance is actually a result of wearing a corset.

At the French Open, Serena Williams wore a custom-made black catsuit. On Aug. 24, the president of the French Tennis Federation said the outfit “wouldn’t be back.” It “went too far,” he continued. It didn’t “respect the game and the place.” Among Williams’ defenders, the pushback was swift – the decision indicative of how female athletes face more scrutiny and are held to outdated dress standards.