Kristi Noem's Out Of Place 'Fit For 2024 Campaign Event Is The Epitome Of Her Strange Style
For a 2024 campaign event, Kristi Noem turned up in an outfit that epitomizes her confused sense of style. The look featured baggy, light-wash jeans and tan sneakers, topped with an oversized blazer with a passel of large gold buttons. It was a classic case of Noem mixing formal and informal styling to poor effect. The top half of her body, with her heavy makeup and sharp, military-inspired blazer, seemed bound for a public appearance. But her oversized jeans and lace-up shoes made her look like a mom bound for her kid's Saturday soccer game.
Noem's outfits often have people talking for all the wrong reasons. As the former South Dakota governor's professional star has risen, she's embraced the extravagant fashion sense of President Donald Trump's inner circle, which seems intended to evoke the excesses of the '80s. Noem has also undergone a full style transformation to craft her in the image of a powerful political figure.
Kristi Noem has fully embraced power dressing
The old adage says you should dress for the job you want, but Kristi Noem has taken professional dressing further than most. Her version of workwear tends to involve suits and jackets made from heavy materials and featuring gaudy hardware. It's all a bit opulent, and leaves her looking like she never moved past an '80s sense of style. In particular, she leans heavily on a retro, highly gendered style of suiting, from her choice of fabrics to more feminine silhouettes. "It almost seems like a statement that there is a place for women in conservative circles, but only as women — a fashion and aesthetic rejection of efforts on the left toward gender equality or even gender neutrality," Peggy Heffington, history professor and author of "Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother," told the HuffPost.
But those are her more restrained looks, since she has also garnered a reputation for showing up to work in costume. Noem's most inappropriate cosplay outfits include prison warden and cowboy, and none of them feel very professional. "Not only is she virtually never wearing any kind of official government uniform for these appearances, but she seems to utilize the media attention to put on a fashion show," wrote one Reddit user.