Who was Jill Biden wearing for the state dinner? Sergio Hudson.
On Thursday night, Jill Biden dressed in one of her most audacious ensembles to date: a true-blue gown by Sergio Hudson, for the state dinner for Kenya. It wasn’t navy blue, or midnight blue, or neutral in the way the first lady generally prefers. It was a bolder blue, a sapphire blue, a pure shot of chromatic patriotism.
The glittering bare-shouldered column was embellished with sequins, crystals and bugle beads, with a slightly awkward wrap of sturdy satin around the arms and bodice. Hudson, the designer, is a 40-year-old Black American whose runway shows are spirited celebrations of the female body, and whose clothing the first lady has worn before. A strand of blue gems hung around her neck. With the dress’s swaggering lines and intense tone, Biden looked almost like she wanted to conjure the Statue of Liberty.
President Biden, thank goodness, decided to wear a bow tie with his tuxedo this time — he went with a tie for last month’s state dinner, for Japan — and the look was more traditional and, again, sturdy. Standing alongside Kenyan President William Ruto, in a classic tux, and Rachel Ruto, in a gorgeous steel-gray ensemble covered in ruffles and trimmed with a soft edge, the Bidens painted a picture of a first couple that embraces American tradition and imagery at a time when symbols of patriotism — especially the flag — have been used and abused by undemocratic forces.
State dinners are often a moment for “fashion diplomacy,” for the first lady and others to highlight the style and flavors of the guest country. Jill Biden has sometimes been so understated that she cedes the stage to her guest, almost like an act of black-tie humility.
But with her husband’s reelection campaign kicking into higher gear, the first lady is shifting tactics. At the state dinner for Japan, she leaned into sartorial unity, wearing an ombre Oscar de la Renta dress — gentle blues at the top, misty neutrals on the bottom — that seemed to urge a viewer’s eye toward the splashier bright blue gown worn by the Japanese prime minister’s wife, Yuko Kishida. The effect was visually gracious.
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Kenya presented a special visual opportunity for the Bidens. Clothes are clearly more central to the culture and economy in Kenya than they are in the United States. President Ruto has made several efforts to revitalize the country’s domestic apparel business, and in April, he announced an $11 million deal to boost exports of Kenyan textiles to the United States. As a part of their trip abroad, the Rutos stopped on Monday at the new Atlanta location of a Kenyan fashion boutique, Vivo Fashion Group. Rachel Ruto’s style is notable and vivid: She wears bright-colored fabrics in well-considered silhouettes. Dressing in Kenyan clothes is an expression of her husband’s agenda.
Their visit also provides the Bidens with an opportunity to speak to Black voters, whom President Biden has traditionally pursued and whose waning attention he is hoping to recapture for the election.
Jill Biden veered from her blue strategy once, when she greeted Ruto and his wife on the tarmac as they arrived Wednesday in Washington. The first lady wore a satin yellow dress by the French brand Rochas, with a pair of Dior slingbacks. Biden wears color frequently, but it’s usually blue or pink. Wednesday’s more unusual hue, a deep and rich saffron, stood out, suggesting she shares Rachel Ruto’s ease with bright fabrics. Rather than clashing, it gelled with Ruto’s green-and-red printed dress, which had a bow at the neckline. (The first lady’s Dior heels were a miss —$1,050 heels with a logo and a brand name just look silly. Blame it on too much “quiet luxury” talk.)
Who knows whether their teams are trading texts about color palettes, but Ruto’s style is well-documented, and Jill Biden could make an educated guess at what would look good next to her.
Otherwise, she has been remarkably on message: blue, blue, blue. She wore blue at the Wednesday press preview for the state dinner. On Thursday morning, as the Bidens welcomed the Rutos in an official ceremony, she wore a little periwinkle skirt suit with a shrunken portrait collar. That look is always going to recall Jacqueline Kennedy and her American prototype of glamorous democracy. Next to Ruto, who wore a wonderful black ruffled dress decorated with teal and pink flowers, Jill Biden looked like a postcard of a classic American welcome.
Other attendees at the state dinner dressed in Kenyan regalia — a celebratory and frankly optimistic vision in a dour political climate. The actress Michaela Coel looked radiant in a red and gold dress that she said belonged to a Sudanese friend. Caroline Wanga, the chief executive of Essence Ventures, wore a printed ensemble with a fitted bodice, her hair braided into a red threaded crown studded with cowrie shells. Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, wore a tie printed with the Kenyan flag. And Enoh T. Ebong, the director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, said her dress, scattered with beautiful circular forms, was by a Nigerian designer.
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Others seemed to embrace the opportunity to jazz up their usually staid formalwear: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) in a green and brown geometric print ensemble and a large scrolling necklace, and Hillary Clinton in a gold and black printed caftan. (Perhaps she’s reinterpreting the coastal grandmother for Westchester.) The evening’s entertainer, country singer Brad Paisley, wore a big white cowboy hat that competed in width and volume with the enormous white bow on the shoulder of his wife’s dress (1980s maximalism and cowboy hats — thank you, Beyoncé, for showing us country music can do both!). LeVar Burton and Al Sharpton looked so sharp that you should take a picture of them to your tailor the next time you need a suit fitted.
But for Jill Biden, this was not a night for looking frivolous. Blue is the color of stability, sturdiness and, of course, the Democratic Party. She was wearing her own polling projection for November.
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