Karoline Leavitt goes sage to comment on a very trending old letter

Pale green was her colour. Or, to be more accurate, “sage green”, as the brand described it. For her latest press briefing, Karoline Leavitt wore a pantsuit in said shade from New York label Alice and Olivia. A one-woman show for her boss’s ‘America First’ initiative, Ms Leavitt picked an American brand, but as with most of her clothing choice as front-of-House sophist, her Alice and Olivia suit is proudly made in China. The jacket curiously shares the same name as the diner-style American restaurant chain, Denny’s. It has been described as a “boyfriend blazer”, which usually means purposefully loose, as if nicked from a beau’s wardrobe. Underneath the blazer, she wore a white top with a wide neckline that did not enhance her decolletage, but underscored her favourite crucifix pendant.

Alice and Olivia was established in the Big Apple in 2002 by CEO and creative director Stacey Bendet, a native New Yorker. While she is the principal owner, the brand also has a partner in Andrew Rosen, the founder of the fashion label Theory. Although touted as an American brand, Theory is, in fact, foreign own. The company was partially sold to Japan’s Fast Retailing two years after Alice and Olivia was founded, and, in 2009, was completely own by the parent company of Uniqlo. Its creative director is former head designer at The Row, Francesco Fucci, an Italian. Mr Rosen has been described by American media as a “third-generation garment industry entrepreneur”, and his grandfather, Arthur Rosen, was a Russian immigrant who founded the Puritan Dress Company in 1909.

A one-woman show for her boss’s ‘America First’ initiative, Ms Leavitt wore an American brand, but as with most of her clothing choice as front-of-House sophist, her suit is proudly made in China

Not that such a backstory mattered to she who drinks from Donald Trump’s protectionist and anti-immigrant Kool-Aid, or more likely, Diet Coke, dispenser. Her internal alarm for blatant hypocrisy must have been switched off, or totally unplugged. Ms Leavitt’s middle of the road styles are primarily selected to project a conservative, serious, and “professional” image. However, there could be another message in her choice of the loose suit, and it has nothing to do with trends. Ms Leavitt was addressing a packed press room after the letter by Mr Trump to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the so-called “Birthday Book”, compiled a year after Alice and Olivia was founded, was rolled out to the masses. The combination of the subject matter—a letter featuring a crude outline of a nude woman—and Ms Leavitt’s orthodox choice of clothing created breathtaking synergy.

You would have seen that letter by now. Even when the text has been analysed as if Steinbeckian prose, many followers of the saga are still intrigued by the signature. It looks uncannily like Mr Trump’s, no doubt placed to mimic a woman’s pubes. But Ms Leavitt was adamant that it has nothing to do with the president. She was adamant that he “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it” and that the administration considers the entire narrative surrounding the document to be a “hoax”, but not, surprisingly, the documents themselves. She did not say why anyone would put just one fake letter in a bound book of many other letters. Nor did she comment on the drawings or that she personally found them offensive. But her choice to wear a more conservative, body-obscuring outfit was possibly a way of visually and symbolically distancing herself from the sexually explicit nature of the document she was aggressively defending.

The combination of the subject matter—a letter featuring a crude outline of a nude woman—and her choice of clothing creates breathtaking synergy

You have to admire her laser-like focus on the only thing she seems to know, just as she has a weakness for suits that are, conversely, not laser-cut. In fact, her sustained concentration on a single point is admirable: that the letter and the drawing are not authentic. She said that the White House “would support” a forensic examination of the letter, but that is not the same as “supports” and is not an agreement for one to be conducted, nor did it mean that an examination had been completed and ready for the press to peruse. As of now, there have been no public reports of a formal, independent forensic analysis of the physical letter and signature being conducted. Mr Trump’s legal team has filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report on the letter’s existence. The lawsuit, which seeks US$10 billion in damages, is ongoing.

The frumpy sack-as-suit is noted for its lack of frills, unlike the ones she favoured before, such as those by the China-made, British label, founded by a Malaysian, Self-Portrait—their necklines and pockets gaudily trimmed. The current choice is like her arguments: simple and stripped of any passementerie of evidence. That aside, there was also the colour “sage”. It is a soothing and peaceful shade of green, generally picked for use in spas and wellness spaces. Ms Leavitt’s brand of press-briefing choreography is an antithesis to serenity, but a bonus to the noisy political theatre. Sage is also used to describe a profoundly wise person. It is also associated with sage, the herb, which has a long history of use in medicine and spiritual practices, and gives the colour a connection to wisdom, experience, and intelligence. There was no sagacity or anything healing in Karoline Leavitt’s turnout. The choice she made could be seen as forward-looking, but only in the rear view, if reflected.