The Figure-Hugging Outfit That Usha Vance Looked Totally Stunning In

Usha Vance has veered left, and she has veered right — politically, sartorially, and maybe existentially. Before becoming a vice-presidential spouse, she moved in reliably liberal circles at Yale, at Cambridge, and at the progressive San Francisco law firm she worked at until 2024. She remained a registered Democrat until 2014 — the year she married JD Vance.

Her wardrobe reflects something of that same drift. Usha has alternated between outdated outfits – too stiff, too underwhelming –- and subtle attempts at current fashion. That said, Vance's most on-trend ensembles since JD took political office have managed to maintain a sense of timelessness. At a Police Week breakfast hosted by the couple in May 2025 — an event meant, in the veep's words on Instagram, to "recognize the brave men and women who serve and protect our communities every day" — she landed, unambiguously, on the latter. The dress Vance wore was from Marie Oliver, a North Carolina-based label known for graphic prints and understated elegance. Originally retailing for $298, it lives at the aspirational end of the mid-market. In a soft navy jersey, printed with a topographic pattern, it skimmed her figure without tipping into provocation.

Its high mock neck and long sleeves gave it a demure structure. At the waist, a metallic braided rope belt interrupted the print cleverly to add definition to her figure – offering a welcome hint of shine in an otherwise muted palette.

For Usha Vance, this wasn't a fluke. The Marie Oliver dress was another addition in what is starting to look like a chromatic thesis: she likes blue, and, evidently, blue likes her. At the 2024 Republican National Convention (fitting, since that was 2024 was the year of the primary colors), she stood at the podium in a cobalt Badgley Mischka dress from the brand's pre-fall collection that year. Off the rack and originally $395, it was a dramatic detour from the reserved, everyday silhouettes we had seen her in before. The gown flaunted an interesting asymmetrical neckline and a saturated hue that asserted itself well against the LED-saturated stage.

Then, at the 2025 Commander-in-Chief Inaugural Ball, Usha Vance delivered one of her most theatrical outings to date. Standing beside her husband under the presidential seal, she wore a custom strapless Reem Acra gown in layered, shimmering shades of blue. The bodice was corseted, scattered with vertical sequin beading before cascading into a sheer tulle overlay of sapphire, navy, cornflower and slate.

Even in Paris — a city that rarely yields its fashion spotlight to visiting Americans – Usha Vance looked entirely at ease in the hue. Meeting President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte, Macron outside the Élysée Palace, she wore a satin dress by Favorite Daughter, a line co-founded by Hollywood sisters Erin and Sara Foster. Retailing at $298, the dress featured subtle pleating at the shoulder and waist. It was, once again, blue — this time in its most diplomatic shade. If red is the color of valor, and white the color of purity, then blue — in Usha's wardrobe — is what happens when good style trumps the party line (or, at least, the party color).