The Fashion Flop

After the more-than-succesful election on the 4th to 5th of November, Barack Obama’s helpfuls released pictures from the night of the event on his flickr photostream. It’s quite logical to follow if you do decide to take a peek at them and it shows his whole family nervously awaiting the results. After the actual victory, they proceed to hold the necessary speech and if you take a look at this photo you should ask yourself what’s wrong with it:

Any normal person would think ‘nothing’. And you’d be very right, a family in matching colours, black and red, stylish and bold. You might also be familiar with the red tie rule – every man’s “power” stands in his tie. If you’re going to make a very important stament or a lasting impression, you’ll wear a red tie. If your statement or impression has fail potential then you might want to tone it down a bit so you don’t get mocked…just in case. Notice they’re the same in the picture above. President Obama has a striped red (burgundy) tie – it’s the “you never know what might happen” thinking. Had John McCain been elected, we would have looked at a family way too dressed up for what had happened. 

But talking about Michelle Obama, all her previous outfits were very much respected and adored by the public. She did Jacqueline Kennedy when she needed to, did purple, chic, classic and also revealing but most of all affordable. As means of getting women to think “I can identify with her” she stayed true to pieces that flattered her figure and shapes. Even though she’s no Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, former supermodel, she did make a lot of women in America feel proud. That they now have a First Lady who can both dress up and down when she must. If anything, they all must have been thinking ‘you go, girl’.

So what’s wrong with the above dress? Gut reaction of people watching the event on tv was that they didn’t like it. It was considered unflattering. But hold on a second…there’s a difference between unflattering and horrible. It was a fashion flop for all those who are very into their thing – I didn’t notice anything either so I must have done something wrong as a woman. The lady is a Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate. She wasn’t even meant to be in the spotlight as it was Obama’s night after all.

What’s fascinating is that people didn’t think ‘that’s a mighty expensive dress’ even though it was taken from a Narcisco Rodriguez Spring-Summer collection. Or that she took it before it hit the stores just because “she can”. Given the context, she was more than entitled to so it seemed fair to everyone. It just wasn’t a very nice dress. Which is not to be said about all the slur involving Sarah Palin’s expensive outfits. They were nice outfits too but bloody expensive and she didn’t get the hint to dress down till people criticised her for it. Her whole wardrobe was built for about $2,500 instead. The many zeroes sum seemed even more outrageous. Women voters were not pleased with this.

So there you have it-who would have thought the ‘fashion flop’ was only about a dress that doesn’t flatter her curves? It sounds a bit like all these fashion-obsessed people (me included) want her to look good; as good as it gets. You rarely get someone to make mid-height heels look fashionable. And I think that’s one very important lesson to be learnt about how fashion works at First Lady level. We’re all cynics. And we want to be convinced. I’d say we were!