michelle obama in thakoon, h&m, and narciso rodriguez
throughout her brief tenure in the spotlight, michelle obama has been widely praised for her fashion choices. not content with sticking with the typical first lady mould, she has boldly experimented with colors, silhouettes, and accessories and worn everything from top designers (and smaller names) to mass market retailers. you may not like all of her choices, but you have to admire her for sticking to her fashion guns, wearing what works for her and not being swayed by the fashion gods (ie, editors). so it’s disheartening to hear that the black artists association is criticizing the first lady for not wearing any black designers during the inauguration festivities. baa’s founder amnau eele said of obama’s choices:
“It’s fine and good if you want to be all ‘Kumbaya’ and ‘We Are the World’ by representing all different countries. But if you are going to have Isabel Toledo do the inauguration dress, and Jason Wu do the evening gown, why not have Kevan Hall, B Michael, Stephen Burrows or any of the other black designers do something too?”
she also said that she will make a formal appeal on behalf of the baa. my thought on this: isn’t it a bit early to already to take swipes? both toledo and wu admitted that while they were asked to design pieces for the first lady, she had also asked this of other designers, and neither knew their designs would be worn until they were shown on tv. we don’t know what other designers were asked (and probably never will) due to confidentiality agreements. and while it was, as eele said “their (black america’s) moment,” deep down it was really obama’s moment, and she did what she always does–went with her gut and chose outfits that made her feel good.
pics from vogue.co.uk
