What Sarah Brown Should Wear...

I cannot stop looking at this picture of Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown from last week -




Say what you will about Obama's interesting sweater, I cannot stop looking at Brown's suit - it's a little like a car accident, I want to look away but I just can't. She is in an impossibly tough position, I mean just imagine how much easier it was to be a first lady in the past, it wasn't hard to look nice standing next to the past few American first ladies but now this poor woman is on the world's stage with Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni Sarkozy.

I would want to stay in bed the entire term. Between those two women pretty much everyone else would look frumpy and poorly dressed, let's be honest.

There is hope though, it would just take a little thought and work - to find clothes that flatter her. She could learn from Michelle, A-line skirts, dresses that skim the body rather than 'hug', these would be great silhouettes for her as well. And really high heels would work for her too.

If I were her stylist I would teach her all about spanx and other shapewear to smooth her out -



and put her in clothes that fit her. I bet an A-line skirt like Obama's would look nice on her, this Alberta Ferreti dress would look lovely on both of them -



There are some well priced versions at White House Black market - and don't forget the great deal they have now, $20 off a Merchandise Purchase of $80 or more at White House Black Market. Enter 8822 at Checkout. Offer Valid 03.23.09 – 04.26.09. Online Only.

Michelle Obama's Lovely Green Skirt

Not suprisingly here has been all kinds of hype about what Michelle Obama is wearing in England. I was kind of surprised though that she wore this gorgeous J.Crew mint green skirt - it's really a beautiful skirt, I love the fabric. I thought it fit a little funny, but it looks great on Michelle (much better than on the model below from the website, she looks like she has a belly)!

The Chicago Tribune had a nice article today about her outfit choices for hanging out with the queen. Check it out here.

Michelle Obama's Stylist

There is an interesting article in the Times about Michelle Obama's relationship with Ikram Goldman, the owner of the store in Chicago who acts essentially as a stylist for the first lady. I go back and forth between thinking the people complaining about the relationship are sore losers whose designs weren't chosen, and that there is a valid point that it's unlike any past first ladies method of acquiring special outfits.

Read the whole thing here.

Our new first lady (of fashion!)

I love this article in the New York times - The First Lady Tells a Story with Fashion.

The best part is definitely the paragraph:

Here is a bolder woman, a serious woman from Chicago and Harvard who is not afraid to express herself with fashion, and it is the kind of confidence that many women will recognize in themselves. Her clothes tell us that she has an adventurous spirit, as well as a sense of humor, and if some of these garments have almost an old-fashioned womanly quality, then they tell us that she is indeed not your average fashionista.

A serious woman who loves clothes. Love it. Read the whole thing.

Smart Women like Fashion Too

The NY Times fashion section article about Michelle Obama as the saving grace of American fashion is interesting. Yes she looks good, yes she has great taste, and apparently she makes it ok for smart women to care about how they look. Did we really need someone to tell us that?

style in the white house

politics aside, the white house will be getting one very fashionable first lady come January. She started off with a Narciso Rodriguez dress last night.




Click here for an article about the dress.



Unfortunately I'm completely preoccupied with wedding stuff these days (10 days to go - ack) I'm getting shots today for the honeymoon. One thing I do not want to come back with is Yellow Fever. Havaianas yes, yellow fever no. Let me know if you want a pair of the Havaianas!

Why is Condi the only stylish one?

The Huffington Post took a look at what women politicians wear, comparing it to campaigning future first ladies. They play very different roles and their clothes speak volumes for those differences - the supportive but not too intrusive partner vs. the woman in pantsuit as armor. The column is worth a look. You can find it here.

Politcs of Style

Back to one of my favorite topics - politicians, their 'style,' and idiotic public opinion. Hillary Clinton stopped wearing Donna Karan because she didn't want to be accused of dressing too nicely. What is this world coming to?

I don't get it. Everyone knows she has money, at this point she is financing her campaign with it. Shouldn't she dress as well as she can? Will people really hold it against her? Or is she just preemptively being stupid?

Discuss.

Anti-Feminist Feminism

In Friday's WSJ Elizabeth Wurtzel had a really interesting piece. It was her theory on why women hate Hillary Clinton. Wurtzel has a history of feminist theorizing, after her critically acclaimed Prozac Nation she wrote a book called Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women. I hated that second book, and most critics seemed to agree with me but Friday's piece demonstrates more thought and dare I say even maturity. Part of the argument:

A young woman I respect in northern California describes Hillary as "grotesque." A middle-aged successful artist I know -- herself a bit of a virago -- thinks she's "evil." And my mother, who is admittedly a Republican, is capable of going on and on about how Hillary is in it all for herself, that she'll do anything to win, that she'll kill to push her agenda through, that she's just a disgusting human being, that the sound of Hillary's voice is enough to send her racing for the remote control to turn off her beloved Fox News. The New Republic points out that many Democrats describe Hillary Clinton as "mendacious, brutal, willing to bend (or break) any rule in pursuit of power." And they're on her side.

This special anti-Rodham anger is especially troubling because it's impossible to separate from sex or sexism. Hillary Clinton reminds me that it's possible that all powerful women are, as my friend puts it, "grotesque." They are exaggerated humans, extreme cases, everything to everybody.

I guess we aren't so ready for real change, no matter how often Obama says it.

Women Have it Tougher

Ok, so the title is not exactly news in many realms, but Nicholas Kristof has a great column in today's NYTimes called "When Women Rule." I have been saying for years that women are much more critical of other women than they are of men, it's terrible but true. If women are too attractive other women don't like them, if they are too unattractive women don't like them, we criticize everything and revel in things like "she has fat ankles." It's embarrassing.

Read the column.

Only Powerful Men Ask For Help

The WSJ has another article about how hard it is for powerful women to dress properly. It's true it is harder for women than it is for men because powerful women, as noted in the post about Hillary canceling her Vogue shoot, can't look alluring, and while they should look feminine, can't look too "girly."

Sadly, apparently they don't often ask for help:

Oddly enough, several communications consultants told me it's mostly male executives who hire them for advice on grooming and attire. Women, by contrast, "don't understand that the things that shouldn't matter count as much as they do," says Dee Soder, a psychologist and founder of the executive-coaching firm CEO Perspective Group in New York.

Helpful feedback rarely reaches female executives' ears, because people are loath to discuss work attire directly with the wearer. Dr. Soder says she is often hired just to deliver a fashion message for an executive who quails from the duty. She once was hired to tell a company president that he needed new shirts, preferably with French cuffs. Another time, she was hired to tell a female advertising executive to wear less perfume.

What Do Women Voters Want?

Pajamas Media tries to answer the question "What Do Women Voters Want?"

It's an interesting piece, my favorite part of course vaguely concerns criticism of Hillary's clothes:

Women bloggers aren’t sure if they want to vote for Hillary, but they absolutely don’t want anyone else to bash her. The sisterhood locks arms when nasty remarks are made about her v-neck sweaters or her black pantsuits. When New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, gender traitor that she is, makes barbed jokes about Hillary being the heroine of a Lifetime movie, then the sisterhood fires back, “There’s really not enough Shutting Up in the world to deal with that sputtered puddle of bile."

Lessons learned? If you really want women to vote for Hillary, pick on her clothes and her tears. Call her strident. Call her bitchy. But if you take gender out of the equation, then women are going to weigh her other qualities on the same scale as the guys. Hillary is like my little sister. Only I am allowed to beat her up.

Not sure it answers any questions, but it is worth a read.

For the Men It's Not The Clothes, It's The Belly Fat

In responding to my last post, my friend Susan(thanks feefs!) pointed me towards a Huffington Post article that essentially predicts 'Belly Watch 2008' promoting watching Al Gore's belly for signs of shrinkage, the idea being that as his waistline contracts, the probability of his entering the narrowing field of presidential hopefuls grows.

Can a fat man not get elected? I mean, male public figures are not always svelte i.e men like John Goodman, John Travolta and even Denzel Washington when promoting American Gangster, etc. One thing that is great about this is that the men's bodies are popular subjects, while the women seem to finally be off the hook, at least a little bit. The articles says:

This focus on appearance is, of course, nothing new. Ever since JFK took the country by storm, with Jackie and her glamorous Oleg Cassini wardrobe by his side, personal style has been an important component of a candidate's appeal. But the celebritization of politics has reached new heights. With Election Day 2008 a little less than a year away, we've already had breathless stories about Obama in a bathing suit and endless mentions of first female speaker Nancy Pelosi's Armani-filled wardrobe and love of Tahitian pearls. And Mitt Romney has been the object of a veritable media man crush, with Chris Matthews gushing about "the perfect chin, the perfect hair" and Politico's Roger Simon swooning over Romney's "chiseled-out-of-granite features" and "shoulders you could land a 737 on." Who says metrosexuality is only for liberals?

Read the whole thing.

Iowa Might Not Care, But I Do

Through my avid blog reading just this morning I was taken to a website I have never seen before, devoted entirely to the style of Senator Hillary Clinton. Since it's usually her aide that gets the fashion spreads (twice in recent issues of Vogue) I find this fascinating. Lately there have been some interesting discussions about how a woman can be fashionable and electable (is that a word) at once. It's like a tightrope act that women in the public eye have to perform very carefully every time they leave the house. I mean just the fact that the price of a haircut makes the front page makes this Smithie cringe, maybe it shouldn't, but it seems clear to me that a woman in the public eye should, and must look as good as she can which often means expensive suits and haircuts. I can't remember anyone criticizing the cost of a male politicians clothes -haircut, yes (we all remember Edwards' $400 cut) but not their suits.

anyway, just a quick note. Thoughts?


Addendum: Insta-pundit mentioned Obama's suit!