Not lumpy, not lapis — was it cerulean blue?

Forget the red of the past years.

At the 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Cyril Ramaphosa traded his favourite ruby hue for a blue that felt disarmingly lighter, gentler.

Could it have been cerulean? This was definitely not just “blue”; it wasn’t the sombre mood of a cobalt either, nor was it a sapphire or a bluebonnet. It didn’t have the restraint of navy or the muted depth of duck blue. It certainly wasn’t the avant-garde intensity of the famous IKB (International Klein Blue) immortalised by the artist Yves Klein. Nor was it a shade signalling the heavy “blues” of heartache or political fatigue.

Instead, it was a vibrant turquoise, perhaps even aqua, shimmering with an uncharacteristic sense of optimism. This was the blue of calm, creativity and intellectual freedom. A 2009 study reveals that “blue enhances performance on creative tasks”. Was the President looking for a creative spark to inspire South Africans after a lacklustre year? Or was it a subtle wink across the Atlantic toward the perpetually cranky, red-tie-wearing Donald Trump?

Historically, wearing blue is tinted with prestige. Because blue was once a really expensive pigment, ground from Isatis tinctoria — woad — to wear it showed you had wealth, hence “royal blue”. And so, it is also a declaration of power.

The fashion on the pre-Sona red carpet felt more conceptual, with silhouettes that floated somewhere between black-tie and sculptural attire. We saw the usual suspects: ruffled hems, bright patterns, trumpet skirts, high waists, long-floor dresses and red fringe, but also high-cut leg slits revealing a well-placed tattoo, the architectural weight of a bat sleeve, structured corsetry and pearls, beads and seashells — placed elegantly on hats, dotted on a skirt, dispersed on a lapel, embroidered on a top, or barely there on a bag.

Then, the optics. In what felt like a nod to French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent blue-lensed Aviator performance at Davos, the eyewear seemed to rule the red carpet. Gayton McKenzie leaned into brand-heavy status-signalling with Gucci wide frames, while Kenny Kunene went full sci-fi with inverted gold sunglasses. DM