The decision by Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz to wear all-white as they flew out of Australia, bound for a new life in France, was a very deliberate one – and a move that’s been praised.
The couple bid farewell to her parents Kelly and Matthew at Brisbane Airport before boarding a flight just before midnight, with a photographer capturing the powerful and highly symbolic scene.
It comes after Ms Higgins was called as a witness to in the high profile defamation trial brought by Bruce Lehrmann against Network 10 and prominent broadcast journalist Lisa Wilkinson.
Mr Lehrmann has denied sexually assaulting Ms Higgins and pleaded not guilty before a criminal trial was aborted following an allegation of juror misconduct.
When contacted by news.com.au this morning, Mr Sharaz confirmed the all-white display was designed to be a family display of “solidarity for Britt”.
“She’s always said that she has drawn strength wearing suffragette white in tough times and it was our little nod to her as she said goodbye to this chapter of her life,” Mr Sharaz said.
Like last night, Ms Higgins deliberately and carefully wore white while addressing a mammoth gathering of equality supporters at the Women’s March in Canberra in early 2021.
By doing so, she repeated a “powerful” trend that began some 115 years ago – and which advocates say is just as poignant today.
‘A powerful symbol’
The decision to wear white represents “a subtle yet powerful rebuttal of the way the media has scrutinised and trivialised Brittany Higgins’ life over the past few years – so much so that she is now choosing to leave the country”.
That’s the verdict of Phoebe Netto, managing director of the award-winning agency Pure Public Relations, who sees the statement as “Higgins steering the conversation on her terms”.
“Like other women who have found themselves with a platform that they never wanted to have, Higgins and her family are taking this opportunity to make a statement that speaks louder than words and is bigger than them as individuals,” Ms Netto said.
“Knowing that their decision to leave the country would be reported on and scrutinised, this is an attempt to encourage everyone to think about the bigger issues that have plagued this chapter of their lives – as we all should. It is a statement of being resolute in the hope that important change will result from their experience.”
Michelle Staff is a researcher and PhD candidate at the Australian National University, as well as an editorial collective member of Lilith: A Feminist History Journal and research editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Wearing white is a sartorial choice first popularised at the turn of the 20th Century by women’s rights campaigners, Ms Staff explained, subbed “suffragette white”.
Wearing suffragette white remains a “powerful and highly symbolic gesture that reminds us just how long women have been fighting”, she said.
Over recent years, it’s proven again to be a popular fashion choice for prominent women who want to make a statement, Ms Staff explained in an article for The Conversation.
‘A sense of solidarity’
Child sexual abuse survivor and advocate Madeleine Heather said she will wear white this week in solidarity with Ms Higgins.
“Seeing Brittany Higgins leaving in white is such a powerful statement of solidarity,” Ms Heather told news.com.au.
“I hope Brittany and her family feel a sense of pride in reclaiming the power, leaving with her head held high with every hope for a successful and happy future ahead of her.
“I certainly feel a sense of kinship and solidarity seeing Brittany leave in white, and knowing how much Brittany has personally given to the movement of empowering victim/survivors, platforming women’s rights.”
Ms Heather hosts the acclaimed podcast series Reclaim Me, giving a platform to survivors of sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape.
“It was designed to create a space where people could share their stories in their own words and reclaim the power,” she said.
She incorporated white into the podcast’s colour scheme as a “cheeky feminist statement”.
“Every social media post that shares an episode is in a cream/off white, which is a nod to the suffragettes and feminism.
“By posting that off white, it’s a statement that this person is reclaiming the colour as their own, and reclaiming themselves as they step away from the shame and guilt so many victim survivors feel.”
A trend reborn
In 2021, former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate fronted a Senate Inquiry into her controversial dismissal, about which she said then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison had “thrown me under the bus” in circumstances that “drove me to despair”.
She donned a striking white blazer and later acknowledged its sartorial symbolism – a nod to the suffragette movement.
That blazer is now part of the Powerhouse Museum’s collection and in donating it, Ms Holgate revealed fashion icon Carla Zampatti had insisted she wear it.
“Carla said to me, ‘darling, you must go and you must look fabulous’,” Ms Holgate told the museum in an email.
“It was Carla’s idea to wear white and this jacket. Carla, sadly, never got to see me wear her jacket giving evidence on 13th April 2021, as she had passed away 10 days earlier. But her jacket and I ran on the front page of every national paper the following day.”
Of the fashion statement, Ms Staff said Ms Holgate had built on the revived trend of wearing white to “draw attention to gender inequity today”.
Back in 2019 during Donald Trump’s annual State of the Union address, dozens of female politicians donned white.
Hillary Clinton wore white while accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president and again during her final debate with Mr Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
After her shock defeat, she again chose white when attending the inauguration of her rival.
“Closer to home, at the March4Justice rally in Canberra, Brittany Higgins made a surprise appearance in a white outfit, standing in contrast to the funereal black worn by attendees,” Ms Staff said.
“By wearing white, these women — either consciously or not — are building connections with their feminist forebears across the Anglosphere.
“By establishing a sense of feminist solidarity across time and space, this move can also generate inspiration and energy and attract media attention.
“Like the suffragettes of the early 20th century, women today are showing the power of visual spectacle to grab the public’s attention.”
History of ‘suffragette white’
The suffrage movement began in Britain during the 1860s as a call for women’s rights, and in particular, the right to vote.
But there was minimal progress, particularly on voting rights, and a frustrated Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, uniting those who believed more militant measures were required.
Ms Staff said the group lived by the motto “deeds not words” and their acts of public disruption and civil disobedience saw them mocked by the British press, dubbed “suffragettes” in an attempt to delegitimise them.
“But Pankhurst’s group was not deterred,” Ms Staff said. “It reclaimed the term, eliminating the element of ridicule and rebranding it as ‘a name of highest honour’.”
During a major protest in Hyde Park in London in June 1908, some 30,000 women worse white en masse to send a clear message of the power of their unity.
“White fabric was relatively affordable, which meant women of different backgrounds could participate,” Ms Staff explained. “The colour’s association with purity also helped those involved present themselves as respectable, dignified women.”
The trend spread around the world and in Australia, famed suffragette Vida Goldstein regularly wore a white dress.
In the United States, feminist groups also adopted the wearing of white. There were mass demonstrations held in Washington DC where a sea of white sent a strong message to politicians.
In beginning her speech at the Women’s March in 2021, Ms Higgins said: “We are all here today not because we want to be here, but because we have to be here.
“We fundamentally recognise the system is broken, the glass ceiling is still in place, and there are significant failings in the power structures within our institutions.
“We are here because it is unfathomable that we are still having to fight this same stale, tired fight.”
The white outfit she wore that day was donated to the Museum of Australian Democracy.
The 24-year-old, who was awarded a payout by the Commonwealth, bought her first home in the south of France and now plans to study.