I don’t know about you lot, but there were two things that really stood out to me on Inauguration Day yesterday. The first was poet Amanda Gorman‘s performance of “The Hill We Climb”. The second was Bernie Sanders‘ entire outfit choice for the day.
The Vermont senator was meme’d into oblivion yesterday after he was pictured sitting in the bleachers, clad in that jacket from that meme – “I am once again asking for your financial support” – and a pair of brown and cream mittens.
Sanders is absolutely known for his dadcore attire, but I don’t think even he expected the reaction it received.
https://twitter.com/rachsyme/status/1351924607465496582
Sanders recently appeared on CBS News to talk about the inauguration and his outfit choice for the day. For the interview, he was dressed once again in a classic Bernie suit.
“You know in Vermont, we dress warm – we know something about the cold,” he explained.
“And we’re not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm, and that’s what I did today.”
Bless him.
Hours after his inauguration look inadvertently went viral, Sen. Bernie Sanders told CBS News’ @GayleKing, “You know, in Vermont, we dress warm.” https://t.co/Q4VDPVskTa pic.twitter.com/HPNLMAaIWI
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 20, 2021
My favourite bit of the whole thing is that Sanders was gifted those mittens a couple of years ago from a Vermont teacher named Jen Ellis.
“They are made from repurposed wool sweaters lined with fleece (made from recycled plastic bottles),” Ellis tweeted with a whole bunch of mittens she had made.
Of course, there’s now a Twitter account dedicated to Sanders’ mittens called @BerniesMitten. And this meme generator lets you drop Sanders and his mittens into places around the world, and so on and so forth.
He really is everywhere right now.
Speaking to CNN on the day, Sanders said he was glad all the attention made people aware that great mittens are made in Vermont.
“We have some good coats as well,” he added.
His coat, in case you were wondering, is from outwear company Burton Snowboards, who are of course based in Vermont.
Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, explained the coat’s origin story on Twitter yesterday after people wondered if it really was the same coat from the meme.
Our son Dave @drscll worked with @burtonsnowboard founder Jake Burton on a limited edition jacket with @BernieSanders face on the back. Bernie really liked it, so Dave got him one – without his image – for Christmas. Vermont jacket, Vermont gloves, Vermont common sense! https://t.co/P9NLMVPMgh
— Jane O’Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) January 20, 2021
Turns out Bernie just really, really likes the coat.