The XX Factor

Is An Electric Blue Blazer the Ruby Slippers of the Political Sphere?

Enough of what Kagan thinks about gay marriage or gun control , let’s talk about what matters: what the woman is wearing . Yesterday she showed up to court in an electric blue blazer with a black shirt under it, which, coincidentally (OR NOT) is strikingly similar to what Sonia Sotomayor wore for her confirmation hearings (see the comparison pic here .) And they’re not the only women who’ve fallen for the look. According to Above The Law , in recent years there have been many important women who’ve chosen to drape themselves in electric blue for a momentous event. David Lat points out that Fox news correspondent Megyn Kelly unfortunately wore an electric blue blazer at the Sotomayor hearings on the same day Sotomayor herself donned it, and Judge Diana Sykes , oft mentioned in the same breath as Supreme Court nominees, picked the distinctive ensemble for a lecture earlier this year. What is going on here? Is the electric blue blazer endowed with magical powers for female success?

In other weird fashion coincidences, Senator Patrick Leahy wore a suit yesterday AND a suit today AND a suit every day during the Sotomayor hearings last summer. Someone please explain what this all means.

Photograph of Elena Kagan by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.