With the inauguration of Barack Obama as our nation’s forty-fourth president and the promise of better tomorrow, our country waits with great anticipation to see how our newly-elected President will guide our nation over the next four years. While the world’s eye has been ever so watchful of the new President, the fashion world is also very interested in the new President and the First Lady. This presidential season has had more conversation about what the candidates and their significant others have been wearing then any other presidential campaign that I can recall.
Many of us remember the Sarah Palin episode where she was reported to have spent $150,000 on new clothes during her campaign with Senator John McCain. She is not the only female whose wardrobe has garnered attention, either; there has been much discussion over the wardrobe of Michelle Obama. The New York Times website has an interactive slideshow chronicling her outfit choices throughout her husband’s presidential campaign. The Narciso Rodriguez dress that she chose to wear on the night of President Obama’s victory speech was under great debate, not just among the fashion world but in the mainstream media as well. It seemed like everyone I talked to about it had an opinion whether or not that was the appropriate choice. Mrs. Obama has become a fashion icon in her own right. I have recently heard her referred to as Michelle O, drawing comparisons to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Michelle Obama’s style is a nice contrast to that of her husband’s. President Obama has a very clean, conservative, neat template. He continues in the tradition of most policy makers of wearing two-button, soft shoulder American-made suits, usually with a white shirt and either a red or blue tie. Where I see the difference between him and the man he is replacing is in the fit of the suit. The jacket is not too long, the shape is not boxy, his sleeves are the right length and his pants have the correct amount of break in them. Obama wears the suit and does not let the suit wear him. President Obama takes the way he looks seriously, but that does not necessarily mean that he is in a suit all the time. Already he has dismissed the rule that one must wear a suit at all times when in the Oval Office.
On January 20, as the whole world watched as Barack Obama took the Oath of Office to become our forty-forth president, what did the First Couple wear to this most historic event? President and Mrs. Obama were both true to their style aesthetic. President Obama wore his traditional two-button, soft shoulder suit, with a red tie, adorned with American flag pin. Mrs. Obama was in a lemongrass yellow outfit by one of her favorite designers, Isabel Toledo. The dress had texture and sparkle.She wore a wool coat of the same color, but was not swallowed up by it, and as New York Times fashion writer Kathy Horn points out on her blog “On the Runway,” “I liked the fact that you could see the whole outfit, you could see her.”
Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the book Team of Rivals, a biography about Abraham Lincoln, says, “What style means to the country is a window onto the personality of the president and his wife.” “The way that [presidents] conduct themselves really does attract fascination, and it often reflects the mood in the country.” This quote appeared in an article entitled “The Obama Momentum: Smarts, Style Create A New Kind of Power” by Bridget Folley for wwd.com. Earlier in the day Diane Sawyer said that the reason why Mrs. Obama picked gold for her outfit was to instill a sense of celebration, to make note that this day was a day for celebration, not just for an inauguration of a new president but for a new time in our country’s history. I think that these two ideas go hand in hand. We might not think too much about what our leaders are wearing, but they do give us a glimpse into who they are and provide another avenue in which to get their message across. Fashion is not a world of its own; it can act as a reflection of the world’s current situation.
Taking a look at the current menswear shows going on in Milan and Paris, many designers’ collections have been influenced by these hard economic times, whether it being a direct representation such as Miuccia Prada’s collection consisting of looks of worn and torn garments in shades of black and grey, or Thom Browne’s showing, a collection of tailored jackets and trim suits that draws inspiration from early 1960s menswear (think Mad Men if you are familiar with the show) that transports the viewer back to a era when times were good.
Something as important as electing a new president permeates its way into everything in society, even fashion.
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