When Obama and his wife triumphantly took the stage in St. PaulTuesday to claim the Democratic presidential nomination, thecandidate, dressed in one of the crisp, neutral suits that havemade him a GQ darling, was momentarily upstaged by his wife, andnot just because she knuckle-bumped him in front of the world.
What grabbed the eye was the sleeveless purple silk crepe sheathmade for Obama by Maria Pinto, the former Geoffrey Beene assistantwho has long been an Obama favorite. Simple in silhouette and, atabout $900 retail, not the kind of garment most working-classvoters can reasonably aspire to, the dress was immediately subjectto water cooler dissection.
"When you are operating at a national and even global level," saidMikki Taylor, the beauty director and cover editor of Essencemagazine, everything signifies. "No gesture is too small from nowon," Taylor said. "It's all information. We're all taking somethingfrom this look."
What Taylor read in Obama's appearance on Tuesday, she said, was amessage that she is primed to become first lady, although notnecessarily first hostess. "Every woman I talked to was saying howshe has this confidence that is empowered," Taylor said. "Thepurple dress, the legs that I have to believe were bare and notwearing the prerequisite Ladies' Long Stocking, all say, 'I'm here to dobusiness.' "
If the gumball pearls were a retro wink at traditional decorum,they still read as anything but wifely jewels. "Those are notlittle 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' pearls," Taylor said. "Those arelarge pearls. Those are pearls you have to deal with." It could be,of course, that voters won't warm up to apearls-you-have-to-deal-with personality.
The belt Michelle Obama wore was another signature accessory,something Vanity Fair noted when adding her last year to itsInternational Best-Dressed List. "That Azzedine Alaïa beltthat she wore 15-plus months ago signified to me that this womanhad an independent and strong and distinct fashion sense," said AmyFine Collins, a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and a guardianof the 68-year-old list.
But it was particularly the color Michelle Obama chose Tuesdaynight that seemed symbolically rich, even if its message may havebeen so subtle as to be subliminal.
"I don't know if that's something they consciously thought about,"said Anthony, referring to the fact that purple is, as everyschoolchild knows, created by mixing the primary colors red andblue.
Of course, political wives have always cut their clothes to suittheir husband's politics; as far back as the Harding presidency,chromatic manipulations were in play. "The color thing predatestelevision," said Anthony, noting the association between WarrenHarding's wife, Florence, and a pure delphinium blue she favored, asymbolism that permeated a 1920 campaign largely predicated on thesense that, as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in "Blink," Harding wasconsidered White House timber less on account of his qualificationsthan because he appeared presidential.
What grabbed the eye was the sleeveless purple silk crepe sheathmade for Obama by Maria Pinto, the former Geoffrey Beene assistantwho has long been an Obama favorite. Simple in silhouette and, atabout $900 retail, not the kind of garment most working-classvoters can reasonably aspire to, the dress was immediately subjectto water cooler dissection.
"When you are operating at a national and even global level," saidMikki Taylor, the beauty director and cover editor of Essencemagazine, everything signifies. "No gesture is too small from nowon," Taylor said. "It's all information. We're all taking somethingfrom this look."
What Taylor read in Obama's appearance on Tuesday, she said, was amessage that she is primed to become first lady, although notnecessarily first hostess. "Every woman I talked to was saying howshe has this confidence that is empowered," Taylor said. "Thepurple dress, the legs that I have to believe were bare and notwearing the prerequisite Ladies' Long Stocking, all say, 'I'm here to dobusiness.' "
If the gumball pearls were a retro wink at traditional decorum,they still read as anything but wifely jewels. "Those are notlittle 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' pearls," Taylor said. "Those arelarge pearls. Those are pearls you have to deal with." It could be,of course, that voters won't warm up to apearls-you-have-to-deal-with personality.
The belt Michelle Obama wore was another signature accessory,something Vanity Fair noted when adding her last year to itsInternational Best-Dressed List. "That Azzedine Alaïa beltthat she wore 15-plus months ago signified to me that this womanhad an independent and strong and distinct fashion sense," said AmyFine Collins, a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and a guardianof the 68-year-old list.
But it was particularly the color Michelle Obama chose Tuesdaynight that seemed symbolically rich, even if its message may havebeen so subtle as to be subliminal.
"I don't know if that's something they consciously thought about,"said Anthony, referring to the fact that purple is, as everyschoolchild knows, created by mixing the primary colors red andblue.
Of course, political wives have always cut their clothes to suittheir husband's politics; as far back as the Harding presidency,chromatic manipulations were in play. "The color thing predatestelevision," said Anthony, noting the association between WarrenHarding's wife, Florence, and a pure delphinium blue she favored, asymbolism that permeated a 1920 campaign largely predicated on thesense that, as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in "Blink," Harding wasconsidered White House timber less on account of his qualificationsthan because he appeared presidential.
