Lifestyle // Women's
Preview Kate Betts’ Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and The Power of Style
There is a photograph of Michelle Obama that I love because among the tens of thousands of pictures of her it captures the essence of her style. It is not your usual First Lady snap shot. No pearls. No power suits. No plastic grin. She is wearing a pair of turquoise jeans and violet Converse sneakers. She is leaning over on the South Lawn of the White House, tugging the leash of the First Dog Bo. She has iPod headphones planted in her ears. She is the very picture of a modern American woman, a working mom with a hard-won resume taking the dog out for a morning walk. She could be any of us superimposed on the august grounds of the White House. Somehow we’ve all been in her sneakers: overscheduled, juggling chores, running from school parent teacher conferences to orthodontic appointments, perhaps a Power Point presentation at 4 PM followed by a mad dash to the store for chicken nuggets.
Who doesn’t dream of slipping away from the tyranny of the “to do” list for a moment to drift into some imaginary unscheduled life? Sometimes an image can reach beyond its own elements and resonate with ideas we are hardly aware of until we see them caught in a photograph. It was just a fleeting moment in the First Lady’s life but that photo captures so much of what defines American style, the informality, the easy unimpeded confidence, the sense of self-possession. She could not look more casual or at home with herself, free from the trappings and expectations of her office, uninhibited by the demands of her position.
I thought “First Lady with iPod and Dog” was my favorite photo but there are others that I find myself studying as if they were archeological discoveries from the secret history of women.
One is a sports shot, Michelle Obama leaping over a low gate that was part of an obstacle course set up on the South Lawn of the White House for an event to promote healthy eating and exercise for kids. She’s wearing a cerulean blue cardigan with a wide purple belt and black pants. What’s striking is not the First Lady’s joyful zeal, her athleticism or her Olympic determination to clear the hurdle, but the fact that she’s barefoot.
Another shot from the same event has her swirling her hips inside a Hula-hoop; another, jumping rope Double Dutch. Can you imagine any other First Lady jumping Double Dutch anywhere much less on the South Lawn of the White House? Michelle’s South Lawn athletic prowess is thrilling because it instantly unhinges us from all of our traditional expectations of First Lady protocol. Leaping across the lawn with confidence, pride and assured dignity, she is completely herself—the ultimate expression of style.
The more I studied the photos of Michelle Obama as I researched and wrote my book, Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style– the more I watched her in action, and talked to people who knew her or designed clothing for her or were just intrigued by her – the more remarkable the power of her style seemed. In the photographs the First Lady seemed like one of those rare figures who comes along once a generation to personify the transformative power of style, how it can alter the people around us, change a mood, diffuse a crisis, and help render the most dreamy aspirations and fantasies into material truths.
Shoeless double Dutch on the White House lawn. A friendly hand on the back of the Queen of England. Bare arms in Congress. You can’t help but be amazed at the rules Michelle Obama has broken, and what rules she might break next. She has transfixed us not just with her sense of style but with what seems like a new set of you-go-girl guidelines—a new etiquette based on brio, enthusiasm, and her oft-repeated and seemingly unassailable fashion principal “Wear what you love.”
Sure it’s a bromide, but it’s hard to quarrel with it when you see the idea in action, the confidence such a simple guideline seems to have infused in Michelle Obama. We’ve gotten to the point where we would all be disappointed if she didn’t wear what she loved or follow her instincts and cut against the grain. What’s on her agenda may be topics that have nothing to do with what she is wearing – she promotes issues as disparate as health care reform, military family support and the dangers of bingeing on Huckleberry cobbler – but she seems to see fashion and the charismatic power of style as useful ways of galvanizing the public’s attention. And once you have their attention, you can use it.
Excerpted from “Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and The Power of Style” by Kate Betts, published by Clarkson Potter.
Kate Betts will hold book signings at Neiman Marcus stores on the following dates: Dallas Downtown March 8, San Francisco March 10, Beverly Hills March 18. Check your store’s events listing for details.
