passion is in fashion

I received the *best* Christmas surprise ever!!!  A signed (with real pen!) portrait of Michelle Obama.  I think that’s a Kors sheath and a medium Cartier Tank Francaise.  What lovely simple style!  Even lilies are my favorite flowers.  ^^

Thanks f for arranging for this!  It is priceless and I will treasure forever!

Totally say India is IN!  Michelle Obama wearing India-born US-based designer Naeem Khan to the first state dinner.  Gorgeous!

Image by Nicolas Kamm / Getty Images via Mrs-O.org

But these days, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, are popping up all over this city.

Like basketball? There was Mr. Obama sitting courtside recently alongside astonished fans at the Verizon Center as he cheered on the Chicago Bulls in a losing battle against the Washington Wizards.

Enjoy the performing arts? The Obamas have been to the Kennedy Center twice, once to see the Alvin Ailey dance troupe — with daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 — and once for a musical tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

How about a tasty meal? The Obamas have enjoyed white-tablecloth dining at Equinox, Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, B. Smith’s and Georgia Brown’s, and street-corner casual at Ben’s Chili Bowl and Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

…

Some warn, however, that such a schedule can also carry political risks, particularly if it undermines the mystique of the presidency, the image of power and command that a president needs to enact an ambitious agenda. Americans love the idea of the common man in a position of political power. (Think Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”) But they can also lose some respect if a politician seems too familiar. (Think Jimmy Carter in his cardigan.)

- The New York Times, March 15, 2009

Equality is in fashion.  Ach ja.

President Obama is scheduled to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today. (This is, technically, his second bill-signing, not the first. But you cannot possibly expect us to make a fuss about legislation fixing the salary of the secretary of the interior.)

“I’m so excited I can hardly stand it,” Ledbetter said recently after the bill passed the Senate.

Obama told her story over and over when he campaigned for president: How Ledbetter, now 70, spent years working as a plant supervisor at a tire factory in Alabama. How, when she neared retirement, someone slipped her a pay schedule that showed her male colleagues were making much more money than she was. A jury found her employer, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, to be really, really guilty of pay discrimination. But the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision led by the Bush appointees, threw out Ledbetter’s case, ruling that she should have filed her suit within 180 days of the first time Goodyear paid her less than her peers.

(Let us pause briefly to contemplate the chances of figuring out your co-workers’ salaries within the first six months on the job.)

- Gail Collins, The New York Times Jan. 28, 08

Sasha, right, and Malia Obama sported J. Crew at their father’s swearing-in.

Image via nytimes.com (Photo: Chuck Kennedy/Associated Press).

During the inauguration festivities, President Obama and his family made J. Crew their house brand, as the family mixed haute couture with clothes and accessories the retailer made exclusively for them.

For the swearing-in ceremony, Malia and Sasha Obama wore brightly colored wool coats, gloves and scarves specially designed from J.Crew’s “crewcuts” line for children.

Michelle Obama has been an unofficial pitchwoman for J.Crew since October when she first went on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” wearing a three-piece yellow ensemble. On Inauguration Day, she wore J. Crew olive gloves complementing her heels and elegantly intricate lemongrass dress made by Isabel Toledo.

Not to be left out, President Obama attended his inaugural ball marathon with a silk ivory bow tie that J. Crew designed for him, with high-end silk not sold in their stores.

“It was an incredible honor to be part of history,” J. Crew’s creative director, Jenna Lyons, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “We are grateful, let me say. We needed it and we’re thrilled to have it. It’s an incredible validation to have the First Family like what you’re doing.

No wonder J. Crew was thrilled. The company’s shares jumped 10.6 percent Wednesday, up from $9.03 a share to $9.99. Stocks were worth $49.80 a share in May, however.

…

“We just felt like it was such an important day, that they deserved something exclusively made for them,” Ms. Lyons said. “I don’t want them going to school and turning up in the same coat as their classmate.”

Ms. Lyons said that the company’s chief executive, Mickey Drexler, has been fielding e-mails since Tuesday from customers telling him: “Now, I have something in common with the First Lady.”

- Jan. 21, 2008, The New York Times

I like the tidbit about their first day of school. We can all related to that.

I *sort of* called it.

Something came of my first-ladies-in-purple obsession.  Hop on over to Mrs. O to read all about Laurie Munn’s portraits of the ultimate symbols of America, Simon Doonan’s always fabulous Barney’s visual merchandising, and the first-lady-elect’s various purple-pink-fuschia Maria Pinto sheaths.

xoxo

Mrs. L

Slideshow from Newsweek

Visiting Barack's family in Kenya

Image from Newsweek.com

Oh dear.  I love the website Mrs. O – tracks Michelle’s fashion choices from mass market to couture.

Particularly adore this image.  What a beautiful and simple outfit for a cold winter night.  And best of all, Michelle looks incredibly happy, and Barack absolutely dashing.

President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama leave Spiaggia restaurant in Chicago after dinner on Saturday night.

Image via Mrs. O and the Chicago Tribue (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune / November 8, 2008).

I remember reading an article about how the McCain ticket was the anti-change, and one of the supporting piece of evidence was: “Look!  Both Laura and Cindy are wearing Oscar de la Renta!”.  Here is a summary of their convention outfits: Vanity Fair from September.  Expensive, conservative, and undoubtedly in good taste, I am not surprised that it is the choice of wear for pill-popping Republican wives.

Oscar de la Renta is as deeply entrenched in high fashion as one can be.  Anna Wintour once orated: “a tee shirt can be just as fashionable as an Oscar de la Renta ballgown.”  She implicitly posited that “an Oscar de la Renta ballgown” is the traditional pinnacle of fashion.  Since Anna is the arbiter of fashion, it follows that she must be right, and therefore Oscar = fashion.  (Whereas the tee shirt, as fashion, is the mildly shocking idea.)

But I am not a fan.  His designs are beautiful, but also serious, mature, and uptight.  He uses luxurious materials and unapologetically grand silhouettes, but they seem unspontaneous, untouchable, and overly-crafted.  Yet, these are the precise qualities that make his dresses the perfect getup for Republican Conventions.

Which is why I lean to the left.

Cindy and Laura at the Republican Convention

Oscar de la Renta Tulle & Organza Cocktail Dress

Oscar de la Renta Embroidered Bouclé Dress

Images from Vanity Fair and Saks.com

Incisive article in New York magazine.  The “Bitch” and the “Ditz” – How the Year of the Woman reinforced the two most pernicious sexist stereotypes and actually set women back.

Her blithe ignorance extended from foreign policy to the symbolic value of her candidacy. By stepping into the spotlight unprepared, Palin reinforced some of the most damaging and sexist ideas of all: that women are undisciplined in their thinking; that we are distracted by domestic concerns or frivolous pursuits like shopping; that we are not smart enough, or not serious enough, for the important jobs.

…

But among the darker revelations of this election is the fact that the vice-grip of female stereotypes remains suffocatingly tight. On the national political stage and in office buildings across the country, women regularly find themselves divided into dualities that are the modern equivalent of the Madonna-whore complex: the hard-ass or the lightweight, the battle-ax or the bubblehead, the serious, pursed-lipped shrew or the silly, ineffectual girl.

And this one deserves a reprise.