Awhile back there was a thread discussing Michelle Obama's complete lack of fashion sense. I know that we are all pretty much agreed that Michelle is not someone we care to have representing the United States. But the latest photo of her to make the news is even more heinous than usual.
It's in People Magazine, the 11/222/2010 issue. On page 16, the "Star Tracks" feature, there is a half page photo of the First Ho "dancing," to use the term loosely, with a group of Indian schoolgirls. In addition to having been shot from the least flattering angle possible, the pic shows her wearing a dress that looks like it was made out of the slipcovers of a 1980s Rustic sofa, topped by a shocking pink sweater that clashes horribly with it.
The last time I saw an ensemble this hideous, I was at Wal-Mart in the middle of the night so far out in the sticks there was no backscatter to impede stargazing.
If the Obamas insist on wasting taxpayer money by the hundreds of millions, would someone please see to it that Michelle wastes a million dollars or so on first, throwing out her entire wardrobe from the skin out; second, hiring Trinny and Susannah from What Not To Wear to explain to her in words of one syllable, with simple drawings, what she should wear and what she should NOT; and third, to be told she is not allowed to go shopping for clothes unless someone with good taste accompanies her, with said person having override authority on her potential purchases?
Heaven knows I have no use for either of these two fools. I certainly resent the fact they are ostensibly the First Family of the United States of America. But as long as we have to tolerate these two jerks in that role, is it too much for Americans to demand that they dress in styles that don't make them look like they make their own clothes out of whatever happens to be lying around, like Scarlett O'Hara and the drapes?
It is by far my FAVORITE one ever.
She was wearing a face scarf!!!
__________________
"If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." Ronald Reagan
A Man WITH a gun is a CITIZEN, a Man WITHOUT a gun is a SUBJECT
There are those who actually try to compare her style and looks to Jackie Kennedy. Must be some pretty good drugs they're on.
Must be good drugs. I about threw up when I saw that.
I knew Jackie Onassis, my mother knew her very well. My Mom nan Dad have a picture at home of me sitting on her lap when I was about three. Michelle Obama doesn't have enough class to be Jackie's maid. Jackie has flushed things down the toilet via her anus with more class than Michelle Obama.
In addition to having been shot from the least flattering angle possible, the pic shows her wearing a dress that looks like it was made out of the slipcovers of a 1980s Rustic sofa, topped by a shocking pink sweater that clashes horribly with it.
OK Cyrano, this worries me. You know that pink clashes... LOL
Other than that, I don't think that either one of the Obamas actually represent the office of President/First Lady with any sense of dignity.
Going to talk shows or Mythbusters as a President shows me that you are not taking this job seriously and wearing "cocktail" dresses as a standard is just disgusting.
Cyrano, I agree with you totally on the lack of class. My dog has more class in his testicles than Michelle Obama will ever have. However, I won't say my true opinion on her lack of style and class lest I be accused of being racist. I can't help it Michelle is black and has no style or class. Hillary had a little more, but not much.
__________________ Sitting at the corner of awesome and bombdiggity.
dragon, Her Imperial Majesty is an estate sale addict. In some cases, these sales are literally on estates in Westchester County and Fairfield County. We went to a sale run by a pro two weeks ago on an estate that had the mansion, two guest houses, an estate office/house from which the estate manager ran the staff, a stable with boxes for twelve horses and enough paddock space for another dozen, and its own private pond stocked with trout. We've been to estate sales on estates belonging to movie stars (usually with the estate about to be subdivided into 4 or 5 acre McMansion-type developments), captains of industry (the last one of those, I nearly cried because there was a grant of arms from King James II of England to the Royal Guild of Fishermen signed by King James and beautifully illuminated that was totally out of reach), old monied families that have been well off for generations, and people who have just made their pile and have more money than brains.
You find different things at the different categories. In the case of this estate two weeks ago, the estate was being sold off because the more-money-than-brains type had overextended during the housing boom at the turn of the millennium and bankrupted himself. Her Imperial Majesty and the Dowager Empress (my wife and mother-in-law respectively) dropped $700 between them on clothes, all of them by famous designers to the upper crust, many of them new with tags that were never worn. We aren't talking mall grade DKNY here. We're talking designer salon and in one case runway fashion show grade clothing, something far superior to the mass production clothing you see in stores; clothing that the designer actually had his or her hands on. The kind of clothing that makes fashion-conscious New Yorkers plotz themselves, in other words. (And yes, I am going somewhere on topic with this.)
I mind me of three blouses Her Imperial Majesty, who is an executive at a design firm and must dress the part, purchased two weeks back. They are all 100% silk, current season but with a timeless look to them (that's the style she strives for and succeeds at, because such clothing never goes out of fashion). She looked them up on the designer's website. The least expensive one was $800. The most expensive one was $1300 dollars. The one in the middle was $1100.
She paid $150 for the lot. Or, in other words, about 5% of retail. She has had people stop her on the street and compliment her on her fashion sense, assuming she's Old Money. She isn't, and neither am I. We just know where to shop, and it's not in the stores at the mall!
But after more than 20 years of this kind of shopping, it's impossible for anyone not to pick up a few things about what works in terms of style and what doesn't. Michelle Obama was a corporate attorney making a six-figure salary before the Doofus-in-Chief took office. There is a White House Protocol Office that deals not only with who to invite to state dinners and where they should be seated at the table, but also on what is appropriate dress for the occasion -- casual (like for the state fair), tea length (for the presentation of medals in the Rose Garden or the Oval Office, semi-formal (for a party at an embassy or perhaps a trip to the opera) and formal (as in state dinners, inaugural balls and funerals of heads of state). Most First Ladies who haven't had much experience with such things (Bess Truman and Pat Nixon come to mind) are astute enough to ask the Protocol Office what to wear and if necessary, shop to find something appropriate.
But not Michelle Obama. She has the attitude that "whatever I am wearing IS the fashion." Now, Jackie Kennedy had the same attitude when she was the First Lady. But Jackie Kennedy was a devoted customer and friend of Oleg Cassini, one of the great fashion designers of the mid-to-late 20th Century. Cassini designed originals for her that made Jackie look spectacular. (Of course, it didn't hurt that Jackie was tall and thin so clothes hung well on her.)
Jackie could get away with setting the fashion because A) she wore tailored designer clothing all the time and B) she had innate fashion sense after a lifetime of Old Money training plus advice from Cassini. Michelle can't. She does not have the slender body Jackie did. She is tall and has firm arms and legs, but for her height she is flat-chested and her thighs and buttocks are, from a fashion designer's point of view, 'unfortunate.' (That's designer-speak for "an ass the size of Manhattan.") The only way you can get away with a butt that big is if you have huge breasts to offset it. She doesn't. Nor, from what I can tell, does she wear the necessary underpinnings to minimize her waist and accentuate what bust she does have.
This isn't necessarily fatal to looking fashionable. Take Barbara Bush as an example. She was no skinny-mini like Jackie, Betty Ford or Roslyn Carter. She is a big-boned woman who has had a number of children, with the resultant body changes (spreading of the pelvic girdle and thickening of the waist) that occur from that. She knows she can't pull off the runway model look that works only with women who wear size 4 or smaller. So Barbara Bush opted for the Classic Old Money Matron look, what some people call "the Hokinson woman look," after the society matrons drawn and made famous by cartoonist Helen Hokinson in The New Yorker. And guess what? Barbara Bush looks good in that style. She looks like a grande dame, the family matriarch who rules with a steel fist in a velvet glove. That's not a bad look for a First Lady at all, since while her husband is the President she IS America's grande dame. Her very presence at diplomatic functions is that style insures that no diplomatic bun fights will break out. (Think about it, ladies and gentlemen: would YOU start a fight at a family function where Grandmother is present and might not be amused by it?)
Michelle Obama could pull that look off very well. Not the hauteur that goes with with it, since she does not come from that background; she is nouveau riche, not old money. It would minimize the body flaws and would not make her look as if she has no taste in clothes. Having to fall back on the Hokinson Woman Look might gall her. But it would be a major improvement over the I-scavenged-my-clothes-from-the-Salvation-Army-bin look she has consistently exhibited in public since Obama took office. When you represent your country to the world, you have an obligation to its citizens to not dress in such a way that you look tacky.
I have said repeatedly that Trinny and Susannah from What Not to Wear urgently need to spend a couple of months working with Michelle Obama. I am not joking.
what a bunch of manly men. i guess y'all go hunting with pink rifles, wearing designer color cammies what next duck blind ettiquitee by Martha Stewart???
__________________
MOE! LARRY! THE CHEESE!
Life Member the Elmer Fudd Hunt Club
Must be good drugs. I about threw up when I saw that.
I knew Jackie Onassis, my mother knew her very well. My Mom nan Dad have a picture at home of me sitting on her lap when I was about three. Michelle Obama doesn't have enough class to be Jackie's maid. Jackie has flushed things down the toilet via her anus with more class than Michelle Obama.
Hey KW Gary,
Come on now.
Tell us how you REALLY feel!!!!
__________________
"If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." Ronald Reagan
A Man WITH a gun is a CITIZEN, a Man WITHOUT a gun is a SUBJECT
NRA Lifer. God bless our troops.
