Michelle Obama as style icon
Michelle Obama's style is a notable departure from the matronly, conservative Mrs. Presidents of yore. Rather than suit up in country club Oscar de la Renta or even the stealth, jet-set wealth of Michael Kors, she opts for a succession of striking jewel-tone shifts. She's also committed to flat shoes and kitten heels, which offer chic comfort and practicality for a busy working "mom-in-chief."
It's a changing of the guard that will set more than a political tone, says Barb Atkin, vice-president of fashion direction for Holt Renfrew. "It's history in its making and a whole new voice of youth that is demanding authenticity." For her husband's big moment on Tuesday night, Obama chose the red and black dress by Narciso Rodriguez shown at left. Although many fashion-watchers (and questionable style pundits such as Fox News) have been critical of Obama's election-night ensemble, Atkin loved it.
"We know Narciso does simple, clean and minimal and I thought it was perfect. I thought the colourblocking was beautiful." Atkin points out that Obama chooses colour well - like that now-famous purple Maria Pinto dress; "always on a clean silhouette; she understands how to do it."
Obama's choice of designers is as progressive as her husband's political approach. For a benefit hosted by Vogue in New York she opted for a tunic and pant outfit by virtual unknown Isabel Toledo ("now there's a name that's totally a fashion insider's name!" says Atkin). For her DNC speech, she wore a teal sheath by her hometown designer Maria Pinto with a turquoise flower brooch by Erickson Beamon. Obama often personalizes with wide belts (one that appears frequently is a biker-chic black leather cincher by industry darling Azzedine Alaia) and a neckline brooch - or three. And hallelujah, the often bare-legged Obama seems reluctant to submit to the torture of wearing pantyhose.
What Nancy Reagan did for Bill Blass and Jackie Kennedy did for Oleg Cassini's profile, Obama is poised to do for the slew of emerging American designers she wears. Plucking a newcomer from obscurity doesn't always guarantee their success (remember Michael Faircloth, the Texas designer Laura Bush wore to the 2001 inauguration ball? Neither does anyone else), Obama has scored fashion points with the raspberry and black print dress by Thailand-born American designer Thakoon Panichgul she wore when the President-elect accepted the Democratic nomination. "Made in America is huge," Atkin continues. "It's a time to look at our own countries and celebrate who we are, look to the talent within our own country and help them get started. She has a strong voice and there is no better woman in the world that can give them a bigger profile, in the way that Jackie Kennedy swayed millions of women around the world and became an icon of that time."
But where Jackie Kennedy was a privileged clotheshorse obsessed with fashion, Obama is a brainy Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer who also understands the potent symbolism of clothing. At rallies, she favoured T-shirt and s***t combos accented with bright-coloured flats. Instead of Kennedy's famously fake Kenneth Jay Lane triple-strand of debutante pearls, Obama chose larger, Wilma Flintstone-sized faux strand by Carolee. For her casual stump style, she wore twin sets - far softer, ergo more of-the-people and approachable, than the structured tailoring of jackets and shoulder pads worn by Cindy McCain; and by late last month Obama had geared down to appearing at rallies in a plain white-ribbed tank and cardigan with jeans. On Election Day, Obama arrived at her polling station in casual black with her hair pulled back in a headband and, it would seem, no makeup. It was brilliantly and deliberately populist - the equivalent of her husband's rolled-up shirtsleeves.
"One day, she wears a designer, then she'll wear Gap," gushes Maria Cornejo, the New York-based designer whose architectural clothing Obama has worn on the campaign trail (likely purchased at Ikram, the fabled Chicago boutique where Obama is a regular). "She's actually how real people dress!"
And in turn, real people want to dress like her: An off-the-rack floral Donna Ricco sundress worn on The View caused it to fly off the racks (at $148, it was from the mall staple Black House/White Market), and the day after she wore a J.Crew ensemble on Jay Leno, the company added her name as a search term on their website. Their prescient tag line? "All politics aside, this outfit gets our vote."
Fashion has a new first lady.
If the black-and-red dress Michelle Obama wore for her husband's victory speech Tuesday is any indication, she is poised to be her own kind of style icon in the White House. The straight-from-the-spring-runway dress, which she paired with a black cardigan, was a major statement, the patriotic red bursting out of black like a firecracker out of the night sky. You either loved it or hated it, but you couldn't ignore it.
Obama, 44, proved that unlike many other first ladies, she does not intend to fade into the background. The high-end, intricately embroidered dress that launched a thousand blog posts is by American designer Narciso Rodriguez, who first gained notice for his clothes for the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, most notably, her wedding dress.
Similar runway styles cost $3,500 or more, but Obama's wardrobe is not merely a collection of big names and bigger price tags.
Obama combines youth and beauty with an innate sense of what to wear. She has worn clothes by several American designers on the campaign trail, but she's mixed them with cheap-chic finds, suggesting she will have a more down-to-earth fashion identity than any recent first lady.
Not only is Obama's high-low style modern, it's right for right now. She reflects the American-led democratization of fashion that has revolutionized the way the world dresses by making designer names available in Target and JC Penney. It's a more sensible approach to spending that's in tune with the economic times.
"She will be able to have access to designer dresses, but she could also be a role model if she can talk to Middle America about clothes that are not expensive but look great," says presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has written books about Abraham Lincoln, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, among others.
At the high end, the teal sheath ($795) she wore with a starburst brooch at the Democratic National Convention was designed by Maria Pinto, a Chicago-based designer who sells to Saks Fifth Avenue, among other stores. Pinto told the Chicago Tribune that retail orders for her pieces have increased 45% within the last 12 months and attributes some of that rise to the first-lady-in-waiting. Obama's rose-print convention dress ($1,250) was by Thakoon Panichgul, a young New York designer who sells to Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom and has a line landing in Target on Christmas Day.
But Obama is a real fashion enthusiast, someone who enjoys the thrill of the hunt for that perfect $30 black-and-white-checked Gap sundress like the one she wore on the Fourth of July.
With retail sales sliding and a difficult holiday season ahead, there is already evidence that Obama could get America shopping again. There's even a fashion fansite dedicated to Obama at www.mrs-o.org.
"No matter what she does, it's going to be good for retail because people are focused on her and what she's wearing," says David Wolfe, creative director for the Doneger Group, a trend forecasting firm. "And she isn't so perfect she's frightening."
After Obama wore a $148 Donna Ricco sundress on "The View," White House/Black Market sold 2,500 of the dresses, according to a company spokesperson. She name-checked J. Crew on " The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," pointing out that she had bought her $148 Pembridge dot pencil s***t and $89.99 color-block cardigan online. Both styles sold out on the J. Crew site the next day.
"She's taken the idea of what a first lady should be and turned it on its head," says J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons. "Before Michelle Obama, everyone had the idea that you had to be suited up and running with the crowd to be taken seriously. It's fabulous to see her on the cover of a magazine in a hot pink dress. She's not afraid to step out in something unusual."
Unlike France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former fashion model who has made headlines for her fashion sense over the last year and often appears in Dior, Obama is not devoted to one label. She has the confidence of a career woman, someone who's accomplished on her own without her husband by her side. And as a member of the post-feminist generation, she has the luxury of not having to worry that her interest in clothes will make people take her less seriously.
Goodwin can quickly give a style run-down for various first ladies: "You think about Eleanor Roosevelt who went out sometimes with her hairnet on, and still became the most important first lady in the history of the country," she says. "Mamie Eisenhower had some sort of pearls, but it's hard to think of her or Bess Truman as style icons.
" Hillary Clinton told me when Jackie Kennedy was giving her fashion advice, she said not to let designers define you. Let them give you recommendations, and find your own style. Then Hillary deadpanned, 'But I don't have my own style.' "
That's not an issue for Obama. The pitches are already pouring in from fashion companies about how to get the "Michelle Obama look" -- the brooches, the pearls, the form-fitting shift dresses. Add a hair flip to Obama's retro femininity, and it's no wonder she's been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy.
It's a changing of the guard that will set more than a political tone, says Barb Atkin, vice-president of fashion direction for Holt Renfrew. "It's history in its making and a whole new voice of youth that is demanding authenticity." For her husband's big moment on Tuesday night, Obama chose the red and black dress by Narciso Rodriguez shown at left. Although many fashion-watchers (and questionable style pundits such as Fox News) have been critical of Obama's election-night ensemble, Atkin loved it.
"We know Narciso does simple, clean and minimal and I thought it was perfect. I thought the colourblocking was beautiful." Atkin points out that Obama chooses colour well - like that now-famous purple Maria Pinto dress; "always on a clean silhouette; she understands how to do it."
Obama's choice of designers is as progressive as her husband's political approach. For a benefit hosted by Vogue in New York she opted for a tunic and pant outfit by virtual unknown Isabel Toledo ("now there's a name that's totally a fashion insider's name!" says Atkin). For her DNC speech, she wore a teal sheath by her hometown designer Maria Pinto with a turquoise flower brooch by Erickson Beamon. Obama often personalizes with wide belts (one that appears frequently is a biker-chic black leather cincher by industry darling Azzedine Alaia) and a neckline brooch - or three. And hallelujah, the often bare-legged Obama seems reluctant to submit to the torture of wearing pantyhose.
What Nancy Reagan did for Bill Blass and Jackie Kennedy did for Oleg Cassini's profile, Obama is poised to do for the slew of emerging American designers she wears. Plucking a newcomer from obscurity doesn't always guarantee their success (remember Michael Faircloth, the Texas designer Laura Bush wore to the 2001 inauguration ball? Neither does anyone else), Obama has scored fashion points with the raspberry and black print dress by Thailand-born American designer Thakoon Panichgul she wore when the President-elect accepted the Democratic nomination. "Made in America is huge," Atkin continues. "It's a time to look at our own countries and celebrate who we are, look to the talent within our own country and help them get started. She has a strong voice and there is no better woman in the world that can give them a bigger profile, in the way that Jackie Kennedy swayed millions of women around the world and became an icon of that time."
But where Jackie Kennedy was a privileged clotheshorse obsessed with fashion, Obama is a brainy Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer who also understands the potent symbolism of clothing. At rallies, she favoured T-shirt and s***t combos accented with bright-coloured flats. Instead of Kennedy's famously fake Kenneth Jay Lane triple-strand of debutante pearls, Obama chose larger, Wilma Flintstone-sized faux strand by Carolee. For her casual stump style, she wore twin sets - far softer, ergo more of-the-people and approachable, than the structured tailoring of jackets and shoulder pads worn by Cindy McCain; and by late last month Obama had geared down to appearing at rallies in a plain white-ribbed tank and cardigan with jeans. On Election Day, Obama arrived at her polling station in casual black with her hair pulled back in a headband and, it would seem, no makeup. It was brilliantly and deliberately populist - the equivalent of her husband's rolled-up shirtsleeves.
"One day, she wears a designer, then she'll wear Gap," gushes Maria Cornejo, the New York-based designer whose architectural clothing Obama has worn on the campaign trail (likely purchased at Ikram, the fabled Chicago boutique where Obama is a regular). "She's actually how real people dress!"
And in turn, real people want to dress like her: An off-the-rack floral Donna Ricco sundress worn on The View caused it to fly off the racks (at $148, it was from the mall staple Black House/White Market), and the day after she wore a J.Crew ensemble on Jay Leno, the company added her name as a search term on their website. Their prescient tag line? "All politics aside, this outfit gets our vote."
Fashion has a new first lady.
If the black-and-red dress Michelle Obama wore for her husband's victory speech Tuesday is any indication, she is poised to be her own kind of style icon in the White House. The straight-from-the-spring-runway dress, which she paired with a black cardigan, was a major statement, the patriotic red bursting out of black like a firecracker out of the night sky. You either loved it or hated it, but you couldn't ignore it.
Obama, 44, proved that unlike many other first ladies, she does not intend to fade into the background. The high-end, intricately embroidered dress that launched a thousand blog posts is by American designer Narciso Rodriguez, who first gained notice for his clothes for the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, most notably, her wedding dress.
Similar runway styles cost $3,500 or more, but Obama's wardrobe is not merely a collection of big names and bigger price tags.
Obama combines youth and beauty with an innate sense of what to wear. She has worn clothes by several American designers on the campaign trail, but she's mixed them with cheap-chic finds, suggesting she will have a more down-to-earth fashion identity than any recent first lady.
Not only is Obama's high-low style modern, it's right for right now. She reflects the American-led democratization of fashion that has revolutionized the way the world dresses by making designer names available in Target and JC Penney. It's a more sensible approach to spending that's in tune with the economic times.
"She will be able to have access to designer dresses, but she could also be a role model if she can talk to Middle America about clothes that are not expensive but look great," says presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has written books about Abraham Lincoln, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, among others.
At the high end, the teal sheath ($795) she wore with a starburst brooch at the Democratic National Convention was designed by Maria Pinto, a Chicago-based designer who sells to Saks Fifth Avenue, among other stores. Pinto told the Chicago Tribune that retail orders for her pieces have increased 45% within the last 12 months and attributes some of that rise to the first-lady-in-waiting. Obama's rose-print convention dress ($1,250) was by Thakoon Panichgul, a young New York designer who sells to Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom and has a line landing in Target on Christmas Day.
But Obama is a real fashion enthusiast, someone who enjoys the thrill of the hunt for that perfect $30 black-and-white-checked Gap sundress like the one she wore on the Fourth of July.
With retail sales sliding and a difficult holiday season ahead, there is already evidence that Obama could get America shopping again. There's even a fashion fansite dedicated to Obama at www.mrs-o.org.
"No matter what she does, it's going to be good for retail because people are focused on her and what she's wearing," says David Wolfe, creative director for the Doneger Group, a trend forecasting firm. "And she isn't so perfect she's frightening."
After Obama wore a $148 Donna Ricco sundress on "The View," White House/Black Market sold 2,500 of the dresses, according to a company spokesperson. She name-checked J. Crew on " The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," pointing out that she had bought her $148 Pembridge dot pencil s***t and $89.99 color-block cardigan online. Both styles sold out on the J. Crew site the next day.
"She's taken the idea of what a first lady should be and turned it on its head," says J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons. "Before Michelle Obama, everyone had the idea that you had to be suited up and running with the crowd to be taken seriously. It's fabulous to see her on the cover of a magazine in a hot pink dress. She's not afraid to step out in something unusual."
Unlike France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former fashion model who has made headlines for her fashion sense over the last year and often appears in Dior, Obama is not devoted to one label. She has the confidence of a career woman, someone who's accomplished on her own without her husband by her side. And as a member of the post-feminist generation, she has the luxury of not having to worry that her interest in clothes will make people take her less seriously.
Goodwin can quickly give a style run-down for various first ladies: "You think about Eleanor Roosevelt who went out sometimes with her hairnet on, and still became the most important first lady in the history of the country," she says. "Mamie Eisenhower had some sort of pearls, but it's hard to think of her or Bess Truman as style icons.
" Hillary Clinton told me when Jackie Kennedy was giving her fashion advice, she said not to let designers define you. Let them give you recommendations, and find your own style. Then Hillary deadpanned, 'But I don't have my own style.' "
That's not an issue for Obama. The pitches are already pouring in from fashion companies about how to get the "Michelle Obama look" -- the brooches, the pearls, the form-fitting shift dresses. Add a hair flip to Obama's retro femininity, and it's no wonder she's been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy.
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