CULTURE

Barry Jenkins Is the Number-One Fan of Nancy Pelosi’s Viral Max Mara Coat

"This look kicks soooo much ass."


Barry Jenkins
Joe Scarnici/Getty Images

After masterfully standing her ground during a contentious meeting with President Donald Trump about his proposed border wall, Nancy Pelosi left the White House on Tuesday in an incredibly chic coat and sunglasses that immediately spawned an outpouring of memes, GIFs, and, with Barry Jenkins leading the charge, a quest to identify the designer of her coat. On Tuesday evening, Jenkins tweeted out one such GIF, writing, “Has anybody figured what coat this is she’s wearing? I waited to ask this question, let the seriousness of the situation be properly discussed but… that color is LEGIT.”

The next day, his question unfortunately still unanswered, Jenkins expounded further upon his love for Pelosi’s red-orange wool coat, which reached just past her knees and featured a funnel neck with buttons positioned left of center (aha!). “What I love about this coat is what it says about the supposed impotence of fashion…This look kicks soooo much ass,” he tweeted. “And it kicked HIS ass. To [wit]: you can close your eyes right now and likely imagine what 45 was wearing—the greasy wrapper on a Royal Castle Burger; the annoying cellophane on those cheap airline earbuds when you forget yours; a wet napkin.”

Jabin Botsford/Getty Images

Jenkins went on to compare the likely next Speaker of the House to Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale. “What she wore was so declarative it could not be erased,” he wrote. “And she knew exactly what she was doing wearing THIS coat on THIS day coming out of THAT room, placing THOSE shades on JUST so. This is diplomacy in motion, soft power wielded like a machete through the diligent, decisive act of dressing. They’ve never been JUST clothes.”

Fortunately for all involved—and to Jenkins’s delightThe New York Times reported on Wednesday that the coat was a Max Mara creation that Pelosi had initially debuted at Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration. Though the coat is no longer in production, Ian Griffiths, the brand’s creative director, told the Times that they were pleased that Pelosi chose to wear that particular coat, and that they were considering relaunching the style. “You develop an emotional relationship with a coat like nothing else in your wardrobe,” Griffiths said. “I can imagine why Ms. Pelosi chose to wear it for this important moment, and I’m honored.”

For the record, the sunglasses were reportedly by Armani, while Pelosi’s shoes were Stuart Weitzman.

Jenkins was far from the only one mesmerized by Pelosi’s bold choice of outerwear after going head to head with Trump in the tense meeting. The coat is already the subject of at least two Twitter accounts, and has become a symbol of female power and resistance. A sample of those spot-on Pelosi memes:

Related: Barry Jenkins Drops If Beale Street Could Talk Trailer on James Baldwin’s Birthday