--- title: Hillary Clinton Concession Speech Purple Pantsuit's Meaning description: Hillary and Bill Clinton chose outfits with deep, royal purple accents as a means of delivering a very powerful political message. canonical: https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-09T21:27:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:49.271Z og:title: Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech og:description: The color has numerous significant meanings og:url: https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3602cf7412e266a/6988ade5cf40a84394c45846/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit-concession-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4560 og:image:height: 2565 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-CLINTON og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech twitter:description: The color has numerous significant meanings twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3602cf7412e266a/6988ade5cf40a84394c45846/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit-concession-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8396e571-5d5b-46df-8c46-d3271ce50bc6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Emily Kirkpatrick / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Emily Kirkpatrick / People Contributor Nov 9, 2016 9:27 PM UTC  US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump as her running-mate Tim Kaine(R) and former president Bill Clinton look on in New York on November 9, 2016\. / AFP / JEWEL SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump as her running-mate Tim Kaine(R) and former president Bill Clinton look on in New York on November 9, 2016\. / AFP / JEWEL SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images by [Emily Kirkpatrick / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Emily Kirkpatrick / People Contributor Nov 9, 2016 9:27 PM UTC 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](http://people.com/politics/hillary-clinton-headquarters-disbelief-as-donald-trump-wins-florida/). On Wednesday afternoon, [Hillary Clinton](http://people.com/tag/hillary-clinton/) got on stage to make her [final, live concession speech](http://people.com/politics/hillary-clinton-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](http://people.com/tag/donald-trump/)‘s detractors have often cited. As [_Vanity Fair_](http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/11/hillary-clinton-purple-concession-speech?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) 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_](http://people.com/style/hillary-clinton-concession-speech-suit/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/"},"headline":"Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech","datePublished":"2016-11-09T21:27:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:49.271Z","description":"The color has numerous significant meanings","url":"https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3602cf7412e266a/6988ade5cf40a84394c45846/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit-concession-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emily Kirkpatrick / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3602cf7412e266a/6988ade5cf40a84394c45846/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit-concession-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-CLINTON","caption":"US-VOTE-CLINTON","creditText":"JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4565384/hillary-clinton-purple-pantsuit/","name":"Why Hillary Clinton Wore a Purple Pantsuit to Her Concession Speech"}}]}] ```