Sheesh. This is a tough one, but someone has to write about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently letting the cat out of the bag regarding why she switched to almost exclusively wearing her signature pantsuits throughout her political career. A long-held secret.
In a recent interview with CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell, Clinton and her daughter Chelsea sat down at a diner and discussed their new eight-part Apple TV+ docuseries Gutsy, which is based on The New York Times bestselling book The Book of Gutsy Women.
After discussing various topics in the upcoming series, O’Donnell changed direction, saying to Hillary, “You also reveal why you wear a pantsuit?”
“YES!” the former presidential candidate responded. Chelsea chimed in immediately, telling O’Donnell, “You know, I didn’t know that story, it’s like, by far and away the greatest revelation I had” while her mother burst into laughter.
Clinton went on to describe the very moment in history — which occurred during a 1995 state visit to Brazil — that she chose to switch to something other than dresses, at least most of the time. During the visit, she had worn a cream-colored skirt suit. Apparently, some reporters in the room took “suggestive” photos of her from below, exposing part of her underwear, which ended up on billboards used for advertising lingerie. Gross.
“I was sitting on a couch, and the press was let in. There were a bunch of them shooting up,” Clinton said.
“All of a sudden the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down — I thought my legs were together — but the way it’s shot, it’s sort of suggestive,” Clinton explained. “And then I also began to have the experience of having photographers all the time. I’d be on a stage, I’d be climbing stairs — and they’d be below me. I just couldn’t deal with it, so I started wearing pants.”
She added: “I just couldn’t deal with it. So, I started wearing pants.”
If you dare, you can listen to her reveal the explanation at about the 4:00 mark in the video below:
That explanation was markedly different than one she provided in her 2017 memoir, What Happened. In it, Clinton wrote, “I did this because I like pantsuits,” adding that they “make me feel professional and ready to go.”
CNBC noted at the time:
They help her fit in with male politicians
Clinton says another benefit to having a uniform is finding an easy way to fit in with the rest of the guys.
“I also thought it would be good to do what male politicians do and wear more or less the same thing every day,” Clinton writes.
She writes that “as a woman running for President,” she liked the “visual cue” that she was “different from the men but also familiar.”
Clinton provided yet another excuse for choosing pantsuits as her primary wardrobe of choice, essentially calling it an anti-distraction strategy.
“A uniform was also an anti-distraction technique: since there wasn’t much to say or report on what I wore, maybe people would focus on what I was saying instead,” she wrote in her book.
Related: Former Clinton Advisor Has a Terrifying Prediction About Hillary
But the former first lady doesn’t always wear pantsuit armor these days. Clinton went viral in the worst possibly way recently after a photo was released of her out in public wearing what many have dubbed a “disease dress.” They’re not wrong, either, as the design of the dress — which isn’t flattering to her body composition in the first place — looks like some type of deadly virus pattern.
Good Lord, they let it out again…..Run pic.twitter.com/1htZJOR5pB
— Diane Lee (@DianeLe90002982) September 3, 2022
Others had different takes on Clinton’s latest look.
“HRC now giving FLOTUS, who wears repurposed shower curtains, competition by wearing ugly, repurposed upholstery fabric,” one user wrote.
Another added: “Pretty sure thats the tablecloth I threw out last time I visited my grandparents.”
With the fashion resources Clinton presumably has at her disposal at any given time, it’s baffling how her wardrobe choices are so strikingly bad that they continue to make headlines. It’s probably safe to say that she can go back to dresses now, though, as photogs are definitely not lining up to take “suggestive” lingerie ad shots of her nowadays.
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