Presidential scandals just hit different in 2014 — we called this one “The Audacity of Taupe.” Then-President Barack Obama was feted as a cool guy with surprisingly good style for a world leader; first lady Michelle Obama had been a fashion icon, and the young family in the White House injected a Camelot-like vibrancy to the notoriously dowdy Washington, D.C. scene.
Yet when the president emerged on Aug. 28 to discuss foreign policy, the headlines slipped past the possibility of military action in Syria or tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Obama wore “a beige-colored jacket and a gray, striped tie,” as PolitiFact put it. “Yes we tan!” some wags joked on social media; “Taupe and Change” quipped others. Other commentators dissed the decision to wear a military-adjacent color, given the topic of the press conference; one Republican Congressman called it “unpresidential.” Presidents of both parties going back decades have worn tan suits, including Ronald Reagan, with no controversy — also before social media and cable news.
The infamous tan suit became a punchline for years to come, even as some Democratic politicians came to embrace the look, as then-Vice President Kamala Harris did during her own nominating convention to the presidency in 2024. The suit itself is not preserved or presented at the Obama Presidential Center, but during the opening ceremony on Thursday, multiple guests and celebrities paid tribute to the look. As for Obama himself, his own verdict on the fit? “Listen, I own that tan suit proudly, brother!” he recently told comedian Stephen Colbert (who is sporting beige himself at the ceremony).
Here are our favorite tan suits among the crowd at the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremonies.
