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cimoreneI really don't like these designer sketches for the Obama family's inauguration outfits.
I think that unless the president is dressed in a formal tuxedo, then his family should not be dressed in evening gowns. What this says to me is that he's a serious man in his professional business suit and his wife isn't a partner - in a way isn't necessarily an adult. She's just there for decoration, so we make sure to put her in something she can't do much of anything in except smile. Now, of course, at an inauguration, in actuality, all of them are just there for decoration: the president could wear stilts or a gorilla suit for all he has to do. But they don't put him in that - they don't even put him in a tuxedo.
Men's business wear is designed to give plenty of freedom of movement and the impression that he could jog around town kissing babies, or fight off terrorists on Airforce One if he's Harrison Ford, or trek across the desert comfortably if the Apocalypse happened to come. The corresponding women's wear doesn't even look like she could stand up to a swift change in weather for the cold or windy or rainy, or a patch of mud (unless someone was there to lay their cloak across it for her).
I could go off on a rant here about the overwhelming prevalence of dresses and skirts in store window mannequins in contrast to the much smaller proportion of women who actually wear these things, as opposed to trousers of some sort, on the street. But although it's related, I'm not actually against some sort of dress at the inauguration. Dresses are okay; I just think they should be dresses you could take at least somewhat seriously, and not dresses that look like Fairy Queen costumes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, if they're meant to be worn in the middle of the day. (If it was for an actual ball, I wouldn't object to ballgowns.)
Allow me to point to the style of French First Lady and supermodel Carla Bruni : Red carpet - casual - with Queen Elizabeth - in Dior for day at Westminster.
I think that unless the president is dressed in a formal tuxedo, then his family should not be dressed in evening gowns. What this says to me is that he's a serious man in his professional business suit and his wife isn't a partner - in a way isn't necessarily an adult. She's just there for decoration, so we make sure to put her in something she can't do much of anything in except smile. Now, of course, at an inauguration, in actuality, all of them are just there for decoration: the president could wear stilts or a gorilla suit for all he has to do. But they don't put him in that - they don't even put him in a tuxedo.
Men's business wear is designed to give plenty of freedom of movement and the impression that he could jog around town kissing babies, or fight off terrorists on Airforce One if he's Harrison Ford, or trek across the desert comfortably if the Apocalypse happened to come. The corresponding women's wear doesn't even look like she could stand up to a swift change in weather for the cold or windy or rainy, or a patch of mud (unless someone was there to lay their cloak across it for her).
I could go off on a rant here about the overwhelming prevalence of dresses and skirts in store window mannequins in contrast to the much smaller proportion of women who actually wear these things, as opposed to trousers of some sort, on the street. But although it's related, I'm not actually against some sort of dress at the inauguration. Dresses are okay; I just think they should be dresses you could take at least somewhat seriously, and not dresses that look like Fairy Queen costumes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, if they're meant to be worn in the middle of the day. (If it was for an actual ball, I wouldn't object to ballgowns.)
Allow me to point to the style of French First Lady and supermodel Carla Bruni : Red carpet - casual - with Queen Elizabeth - in Dior for day at Westminster.
