Hillary Clinton Made the Pantsuit Trendy for American Women in 2016

Pantsuits: Hillary Clinton takes the stage at the DNC.
Hillary Clinton takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo: Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton may not have won the Electoral College this election, but she won the popular vote — and apparently so did her pantsuits. According to Lyst, searches for women’s pantsuits have grown 460 percent since the start of the year. Ladies and gents, “the white suit effect” is upon us.

On Election Day, Clinton supporters turned out at the polls in pantsuits, the nominee’s signature look, to cast their ballots. To accept her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in July, Clinton opted for a now iconic white number from Bronx-born American designer Ralph Lauren. Since sporting the look, Lyst notes, the searches for white pantsuits, which were 56 percent less popular than black before the DNC, became the most popular color — now 7 percent more popular than black pantsuits.

Polyvore also sees a similar trend. In the two weeks after the third presidential debate, searches for pantsuits on its website rose 500 percent, and there has been an 80 percent increase in searches for the look over the past six months.

It’s clearly Americans who are driving these skyrocketing pantsuit sales. Lyst mentions that 95 percent of the searches for pantsuits came from the U.S., and Americans buy 79 percent more pantsuits than the rest of the world.

We think it’s safe to say that, fashion-wise, 2016 was the year of the pantsuit for women in the USA.

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