(NEXSTAR) — To celebrate the inauguration of President Joe Biden on Wednesday night, first lady Jill Biden wore a stunning white ensemble designed by New York fashion house Gabriela Hearst.
But the cashmere coat and silk dress carried a secret message: Flowers from every state and federal territory were embroidered across the bottom of the jacket and over the chest and arms of the dress.
“The message of Unity is the main inspiration for the creation of the Ensemble,” Hearst wrote on Instagram. “Unity makes strength and it is needed for the road ahead.”
The state flower of Delaware, the soft pink Peach Blossom, was embroidered at “heart level” and “from there, all the other flowers branch out.”
Each individual flower reportedly took two hours to embroider. The outfit was entirely designed and assembled in New York City.
Earlier in the day, Biden wore a teal dress, coat and mask designed by Markarian, a brand founded by designer Alexandra O-Neill.
She was joined by several influential women dressed in near head-to-toe purple.
Newly sworn-in Vice President Kamala Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren wore the color of bipartisanship Wednesday.
“Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving,” according to a newsletter from the National Woman’s Party in the United States on Dec. 6, 1913.
Harris, the first Black and south Asian woman to become vice president, wore designs by Black designers Christopher John Rogers and Sergio Hudson that included a violet jacket paired with her signature pearl necklace — an ode to her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority — and purple gloves.
