Designer Ulla Johnson was thinking recently about what she would wear to vote on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), what would convey how seriously she took the stakes in this US presidential election. She was thinking, she said, about wearing a bow-tie blouse – maybe the crisp lemon yellow cut from her latest collection, tied with a flourish on the side of the neck. She was seeing the style of top more and more, she said, since Vice President Kamala Harris wore two variations at the Democratic National Convention.

Perhaps, she said, the bow-tie blouse could become “a rallying cry”.