Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech

Early this morning, after a year of heated rhetoric, divisive language and fierce Facebook battles with friends and family members alike, America’s contentious election season has finally come to an end. On Wednesday afternoon, Hillary Clinton got on stage to make her final, live concession speech, thanking her followers for all of their hard work on her behalf. And for this landmark occasion, the democratic nominee and her husband chose outfits with deep, royal purple accents as a means of delivering a very powerful political message.

The first theory behind this particular choice of color is obvious enough. Purple is the shade you get when you combine red and blue, i.e. the middle ground between the democratic and republican parties, a position of compromise, something that will be very necessary in the coming days and years ahead if we plan to get anything done and reunite as a nation after these bitterly fought campaigns. It could also be a nod to the swing states, those hotly contested voting battlegrounds that she so needed to turn solidly blue last night.

Another theory is that Clinton wore the suit in solidarity with the LGBTQ community, a group who have long united under the color purple, and the anti-bullying movement, an issue that Trump‘s detractors have often cited.

As Vanity Fair suggested, the color could also be paying homage to the suffragette movement, since that color, along with white and green, make up the movement’s flag. It could also be harkening to the Methodists, of which Clinton is a member, who consider purple to be a symbol of both royalty and penitence.

This article originally appeared on People.com