For an Election Day style read, pick up a copy of the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar and read “Fashion Politics” by Julia Reed for a brief history of First Ladies’ fashion picks. Reed notes that the women in the past 51 years who chose to wear white to their husbands’ inaugural balls- Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, and Michelle Obama, “are arguably the most stylish and certainly the most fashion-conscious first ladies of the past half century.”
“The fact that their choices were so alike says far less about their backgrounds, temperaments, or politics–all of which was widely different–than it does about their keen knowledge of what clothes can do for the individual and what they stand for in the wider world.”
Oscar de la Renta, an iconic American designer beloved by both sides of the aisle, will have a retrospective exhibit at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, curated by none other than Vogue’s André Leon Talley. I envy my Arkansas readers who will have easy access to this incredible exhibit when it debuts in 2013. The exhibit may also visit the George W. Bush Library in Texas and the Reagan Library in California.
Readers, what do you believe clothes can do for the individual? What do they stand for in the wider world?
With respect to First Ladies, what do clothes represent? What do you think of the color choice of white for the inaugural gowns of the “arguably most stylish and certainly the most fashion-conscious ladies of the past half century?”
Wish I still lived in Missouri so I could drive to Little Rock and see that exhibit! With First Lady Michelle Obama’s clothing choices – I think she represents high-fashion and also the everyday woman. She is smart about the brands and ensembles she wears. For example, she rewore a dress on Obama’s winning election night. It was a high-fashion dress but it was also something she had worn before. Most people re-wear dresses and when you see a famous figure do it – it makes them seem more relatable. I also love that she is seen photographed in cardigans and jeans and not always dressed up in something formal. Again, it makes her relatable to see her dressed like any other female friend who might be donning a jcrew sweater. Thanks for the retrospective of First Lady Fashion!