Obama marks 10 years since tan suit furor with tweet praising Harris

Former President Obama commemorated the 10th anniversary of his tan suit controversy with a social media post praising Vice President Harris.

He posted side-by-side photos of him wearing his tan suit from 2014 and Harris wearing a tan suit at the Democratic National Convention last week. Ten years ago, his decision to wear a tan suit as he spoke about ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine sparked an online furor.

“How it started. How it’s going.  Ten years later, and it’s still a good look!” Obama wrote in a post on social media platforms X and Instagram.

He also shared a link to IWillVote.com, a website paid for by the Democratic National Committee to encourage Americans to check their voter registration status.

Obama’s fashion choice in 2014 sparked controversy among some pundits for not being serious enough, turning the suit into an iconic one as many social media users posted memes of the ensemble. Since then, social media users and other politicians have continued to poke fun at the online frenzy Obama’s tan suit caused.

President Biden appeared to pay homage to Obama during the former president’s birthday week in 2021 by also sporting a tan suit. Last week, Harris walked out in a tan suit just one day before Obama took the stage during the Democratic National Convention.

The New York Times noted that Harris’s choice to wear a tan suit on Day 1 of the convention broke from the traditional colors of red, white and blue. Many social media users connected Harris’s tan suit decision with Obama’s from about 10 years prior, with some suggesting it was an attempt by Harris to lean into pop culture.