Kaitlan Collins' White Suit and Trump's Dominance at CNN Town Hall

Kaitlan Collins, a former White House correspondent and co-host of a morning show, interviewed Donald Trump in a white pantsuit, joining a long line of women who have faced the former president in that symbolic armor. The white pantsuit has become a ceremonial public expression of female strength, with its roots in the suffragist tradition and associations with women's rights and voices. Collins' choice of attire separated her from her subject from the start, but her statements were not powerful enough to stop the Trump steamroller. The white pantsuit has become a ubiquitous sartorial statement, embedded in our visual library, and a symbol of female empowerment.