Style and substance
By Janice Breen Burns | theage.com.au | 21 January
Millions love their elegance and glamour maybe as much as their politics
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have been listed among America’s best dressed, feted as fashion icons so inspiring they could rejuvenate a flagging industry just by wearing the right brands. Glamour, in other words, helped get them where they are.
They waltzed like newlyweds at the first, joyous ball of inauguration night: the dashing young Barack in his white tie and tux, the statuesque Michelle in shimmering, whipped cream silk chiffon.
As they danced, millions who love them — the elegance and glamour maybe as much as their politics — tuned in to watch and jot some of the day’s most vital statistics. "Tuxedo: single-breasted, lean cut, classic satin stripe on tapered trouser, bespoke by Hart Schaffner Marx. Gown: mono-shoulder, fi tted ruched bodice and fl uttering organza flowers by Jason Wu."
Like the cast of a modern Camelot, the Obamas were finally installed, 44th US president and first lady, by a generation inspired not only by their philosophies and youthful energy but the cut of their jib.
They’ve been likened to catwalk models, listed among America’s best dressed, feted as fashion icons so inspiring they could rejuvenate a flagging industry just by wearing the right brands. Glamour, in other words, helped get them where they are.
"Image is absolutely central to that political process – any political process," says Dr Jason Sternberg, media and communications lecturer at Queensland University of Technology.
"The Obamas’ style, of course, has played a part in people’s perceptions. Barack is a handsome man – tall, broad shoulders. He wears a suit fantastically well, looks like he’s on the pulse of popular culture, comes across as simply very cool. And Michelle? The comparisons with Jackie Kennedy are palpably obvious."
In fact, the first lady’s resemblance to Jackie Kennedy was initially noted by one of her few critics, Germaine Greer: "Michelle Obama . . . wears her hair straightened, frouffed and flicked into a style just like Jackie Kennedy’s," she wrote in The Age under the heading, "The delusion of Camelot" in July last year.
Later, she famously, venomously went on to criticise the red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress Mrs Obama wore on election night. "Like a geometrical haemorrhage," she wrote, and added a poisonous reference to snakes and spiders for good measure.
For the moment however, Greer appears to be a minority of one. The more popular tendency is to wax lyrical about Mrs Obama’s fashion choices, but also to imbue them with as weighty — if more complimentary — political and personal meanings.
She is known for picking an eclectic mix of brands, from the middle American J.Crew (said to prove she is an all-American Mom with no pretensions) to small fries such as Maria Pinto (a Chicago designer who spectacularly revived her career on the strength of Mrs Obama’s patronage). Wearing Cuban-American designers Narciso Rodriguez and Isabel Toledo has prompted speculation that she actively supports her husband’s wish to improve US-Cuba relations.
Wearing Jason Wu, the young Taipeiborn New York designer of her inaugural ball gown who is clever, but no groundbreaker, implies her empathy and support for new talent.
Generally, she manages to look elegant and fundamentally conservative with an under-fizz of current fashion. A whisker more modern than the corporate style and matronly suits favoured by former first ladies Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton, a whisker less modern than her second lady, Jill Biden, a Brighton-eqsue blonde in pillar-box red coat and spike-heeled black knee boots yesterday.
"I think Michelle’s stylish, refined, modern, or that’s how she comes across," observes Melbourne Fashion Festival director Karen Webster.
"She epitomises a modern mum, not 'momsy' or 'matronly'. In fact, a lot of her look comes from being a good role model.
Whenever you see her and Barack, they’re always acknowledging the children in some way — a look, a touch, a cuddle. That’s a signifi cantly good look."
This is how it has been for roughly two years, since the Obamas’ wholesome brand of glamour hit the global radar. And this is how it will be as the Obama era unfolds in the White House.
"This is the most stylish family in the White House since the Kennedys," says Dr Sternberg.
They could wear matching sacks for all some people care, but for many others, the fact that the Obamas care about their clothes is a thrilling revelation.
First published by TheAge.com.au on January 21 2009
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