KeKe Palmer’s Pregnancy Announcement: A Color Story

Last night’s episode of SNL was hosted by KeKe Palmer who during her opening monologue announced that she and her boyfriend Darius Jackson are expecting a baby. "There’s some rumors going around, people have been in my comments saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant,’” said Palmer during the skit. “And I wanna set the record straight—I am!"

Wearing a sleek brown Max Mara coat, she unbuttoned it to reveal a cropped brown button-front top, brown wide-leg pants, and her exposed baby bump underneath. Styled by styling duo Wayman Deon and Micah McDonald, I thought the choice to wear brown was a really cool one for a few reasons:

Brown is serious.

Let’s face it. A pregnancy announcement (especially physically exposing a baby bump), on a comedic set in front of a live audience and millions of viewers takes guts. But brown is a serious color that signifies structure, stability and support. Choosing to wear monochromatic brown made KeKe feel even more down-to-earth (and a tad bit more serious) in the moment. She ingeniously managed to still make it funny.

Brown symbolizes Mother Earth.

Brown is the color of our soil, which provides support, nutrients, and a network of water and air to the roots. Brown represents foundation, and it is associated with fertility, too. Because brown is the color of the Earth, it comes across visually as comforting and nurturing which are two of the characteristics we associate with motherhood.

Brown is a neutral.

Keep in mind, I have no insight to what KeKe and her stylists had in mind. But because it’s common for people to ask the sex of the baby, brown ushers in the perfect public response, “A Brown baby.”

There’s always so much thought that goes into what a celebrity chooses to wear. The cut, the color, the comfort level…are all working together to tell their individual style stories. Kudos to KeKe and her team for pulling this off.