All-round good egg Hillary Clinton was at last night’s CFDA Awards to present Oscar de la Renta, a friend and designer she often turns to for events, with the Founder’s Award. 

Taking to the stage in navy trousers and a long jacket, the former First Lady and hopefully future President joked about her love for what the Americans call pantsuits (trouser suits to those of us on this side of the Atlantic) by suggesting a pitch for a new reality show called Project Pantsuit. 

‘I have been thinking, now that I have some more time on my hands, I am going to be pitching Andy and others on a new show for Bravo, to fill that gap that is so apparent to some of us,’ joked Clinton, who stepped down from her Secretary of State role earlier this year. ‘All you really need is a small but passionate audience to be successful. We could call it Project Pantsuit. We have all kinds of ideas.’

And now we have all kinds of ideas. Hillary isn’t the only one with a penchant for pantsuits at the moment. They have evolved since their boxy 1980s and 1990s incarnations and takes on the trouser suits are now nifty enough to be worn on the red carpet.  Emma Watson, above, attending the premiere of her latest film, the American comedy This Is the End, in LA just last night wore a Roland Mouret bustier with a pair of Phillip Lim pants, a modern nod to the trouser suit. 

Jenna Lyons meanwhile is rarely seen in a skirt, much preferring pants. She doesn’t do matchy-matchy though, preferring to puncture the possibly austere appearance of trousers with a contrasting blouse or sweater. She would definitely be one for the Project Pantsuit fantasy jury. Ditto Hedi Slimane. As creative director of Saint Laurent, he oversees the house responsible for the Le Smoking tuxedo and comes from a menswear tradition. Rounding out the jury would be Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, a man known for his slouchy, less structured pantsuits. 

And just think of the challenges Project Pantsuit could set the designers: you could have pantsuits that convey emotions and pantsuits made of neoprene and chiffon and denim, you could have multicoloured pantsuits and pantsuits that say ‘President’!

With Hillary Clinton stepping into the Heidi Klum presenter/producer role, the show would be brilliantly efficient as well as ultra entertaining. So if running for President in 2016 doesn’t work out, Hillary should just abandon politics for pantsuits once and for all.