Althouse: "From everyday people to fashion insiders, everyone wants to know which designer Michelle Obama is wearing."

April 29, 2009

"From everyday people to fashion insiders, everyone wants to know which designer Michelle Obama is wearing."

From the headline to that slideshow to every sentence of the Robin Givhan narrative, everything seemed not quite honest.

What's the point of writing about fashion if you can't say cutting, critical things? WaPo moved Givhan from New York to Washington where she was assigned to write about Michelle and Barack. Sad!

34 comments:

Issob Morocco said...: I guess the Obama trickle up recession has not yet hit the style salons and corresponding fawning media types.

Just wait until those papers go under!; 4/29/09, 7:01 AM
Michael Haz said...: The fashonistas should give Joe Biden props for wearing Underoos.; 4/29/09, 7:03 AM
Bob_R said...: None of the WaPo news reporters can say anything critical, why should Robin have all the fun?; 4/29/09, 7:04 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Evidently the economy is not so bad since everyday people actually care what the Grinch is wearing.; 4/29/09, 7:12 AM
The Dude said...: I think the newspapers go under Biden's Underoos.

He needs to step up to Depends.; 4/29/09, 7:25 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Because what looks good on a thin, rich, black woman, trying to look like a First Lady will look great on the average American.; 4/29/09, 7:35 AM
AllenS said...: The cost to the taxpayers to have Air Force One fly over NYC, and scare the crap out of people on the ground, was $328,835. Let's all dress up and party. Party on, like there's no tomorrow.; 4/29/09, 7:39 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: This season we are wearing the fabulous French designer, Jacques Claude Penney.; 4/29/09, 7:39 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I’ll try to look at it from a cross-cultural point of view, from a political point of view, just from a really wide range of perspectives,” she continued, on how she will approach her coverage.

Robin, If That’s true, where are Michele’s authentic Caftans?; 4/29/09, 7:42 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Let’s face it.

Michelle is not keeping it real ;); 4/29/09, 7:53 AM
Anonymous said...: Another newspaper employee whistling past the graveyard, trying to look busy and meaningful.; 4/29/09, 7:57 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: First question to Barack: Boxers, briefs or Eurotard?; 4/29/09, 8:19 AM
knox said...: GiIvan: she’s also been criticized in ways that a lot of other First Ladies never were and in a way that I think has been quite personal and quite vicious*sigh.* I am so very tired of the use of superlatives in commentary about the Obamas. Michelle is being criticized LIKE NEVER BEFORE!! ... what in the world is Givan talking about? Even I remember how vicious people were toward Nancy Regan. And Barbara Bush was treated pretty cruelly at times as well.; 4/29/09, 8:26 AM
Anonymous said...: if you can't say cutting, critical things?boldness added by self

because the criticism is all visual and you have to read it correctly. That first picture is a pure genius shot in the positioning and perspective (who did it?). The order and contrast is amazing, the volume is sharply cut.

And Carla for being three years younger still has her waist. Her designer doesn't have to work with the illusion an above the natural waist line cut provides for the slimming down of the "result of the forces of gravity, body type, and sedentary lifestyle of Americans" that eventually graces all women near the age of 50.; 4/29/09, 8:32 AM
Wince said...: At what point will this shit start to wear thin?; 4/29/09, 8:38 AM
Graeme R Macbeth said...: Allen S:

Photo-op with Statue of Liberty: $328,835
Loss of productivity due to panic evacuation of lower Manhattan: suppose we say $10,000,000
A government that actually gave a damn about NYC: priceless.

There are some things money can't buy.
For everything else, there's TaxDollars :-(; 4/29/09, 8:44 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/29/09, 9:03 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Michelle’s was hesitant.

That's code for Michelle decided to save the authentic garb for the second term.
Assuming that’s true what does that say about all that “pride” she said she felt for the first time?

Any way you look at it, sister Michelle got issues.; 4/29/09, 9:04 AM
cf said...: If you'll recall Givhan said the most awful, unkind things about Justice Roberts wife and children's garb and Mrs. Alito's.
She does have excellent taste though and writes beautifully. You're right about this piece. I rarely read the WaPo anymore--we get it because my husband loves the sports section (lots of U of Wis grads writing there BTW)--but I saw this and agree it was not honest.

Michelle still has a great deal to learn about ceremonial garb--and really has to pay more attention to fabrics and cut than she has. She's not really dressing for Oprah anymore.; 4/29/09, 9:06 AM
The Dude said...: How she gonna cover up that enormous ass of hers is the real question.; 4/29/09, 9:07 AM
Joan said...: Tom & Lorenzo at Project Rungay (recently redesigned!) have done a fabulous (heh) job of critiquing "Shelley O" as they call the First Lady. They both adore her, but they're fair, and are more willing than anyone else I've seen to say stuff like this, regarding that IMO-hideous inaugural gown: "It's okay. It's just okay, though. We're reminded of Julia Sugarbaker's opinion that Nancy Reagan's one-shoulder, white, inaugural gown made her look like Wilma Flintstone."
Everyone else is too busy swooning to notice that at least half the time, Mrs. Obama looks clumsy and/or clown-like. That asymetric cardigan was a misfire, and the decision to wear a little black cardi to meet the Queen was at least as bad.

As for Givhans, she gets props from me for admitting: But at the same time, I think that people who have actual legitimate criticism or at least thoughtful criticism get shot down.
Gee, ya think?; 4/29/09, 10:21 AM
paul a'barge said...: That Robin Givhan!

Black people think everything is about them.; 4/29/09, 11:30 AM
David said...: And Carla for being three years younger still has her waist. Her designer doesn't have to work with the illusion an above the natural waist line cut provides for the slimming down of the "result of the forces of gravity, body type, and sedentary lifestyle of Americans" that eventually graces all women near the age of 50.Carla is a professional model, who knows just how to stand and move. She is built like a professional model. Michelle is built more along the profile of a linebacker or power forward--she's a big woman who manages to look consistently attractive despite not being a classic beauty.

There's not much she can do about being a fashion icon unless she wants to be a jerk about it. We wouldn't like that much either.

I don't much like her politics and her sense of persecution. But she is doing a pretty good job of handling herself personally as First Lady.; 4/29/09, 11:52 AM
David said...: hey why are paragraph breaks being dropped after italics? I can't seem to fix it. Any suggestions?; 4/29/09, 11:55 AM
The Dude said...: You have got to be shitting me - Michelle is attractive? Not on this planet.; 4/29/09, 12:10 PM
rhhardin said...: Don't end a paragraph with /i. Instead put /i at the beginning of the next paragraph. It's a bug.

There are other workarounds but no comprehensive list experimented out, probably owing to the misapprehension that blogger will fix it.; 4/29/09, 12:10 PM
David said...: " . . . the misapprehension that blogger will fix it."

Yeah, I had that misapprehension. For a while.

Thanks for the info.; 4/29/09, 3:11 PM
David said...: NK, your hatred is playing tricks on your eyes.; 4/29/09, 3:13 PM
BJM said...: EDH - Will?
NK - Perhaps on Qo'noS?; 4/29/09, 3:29 PM
holdfast said...: I would assume she just wears traditional Klingon battle amour, maybe accessorized with a nice, shiny Batleth?; 4/29/09, 3:46 PM
Trooper York said...: I think Michelle Obama is doing very well in the fashion department and is wearing stylish clothing from manufacturers that within reach of the average consumer. Like most women, hell like most people she has various body issues that she has to deal with but all in all I think she is doing an excellant job. Anything she can do to stimulate the American Manufacturing economy by wearing American Designers like Donna Ricco is a win win for everyone.

(End of shameless suck-up); 4/29/09, 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...: many times if you look at the curve in a woman's calves you can usually know the natural curve of her body, kinda like fractals repeating themselves within the body, not exactly a droste effect, but some kind of self similarity. Pardon my out of kilter geometry, but I'd be forced to get out my french curves that i lost years and years ago to make something of this mathematically. Long lean straight legs are usually women who have less of a curve to their hip especially when the body fat index is less than 22% at that age. Also calves don't hold so much fat usually, like underarms do. The womanly fat stores build up in the arms and abs to somehow affect the reproductive and nurturing parts of the body. It is healthy for a woman to have 8-10 percent more fat than a man, so where shall woman pack it on? anyway, congrats to Michelle for getting those arms, because it is very hard work.

That being said I have a long torso. I wear clothes off the clearance rack usually, not designer custom clothes. I actually can design clothes myself that could be custom fit as i still have a sloper to do so. I have a list of about ten major differences my body has with the norm (1978 standards). If it's two piece, I'll often have a midriff gap, and then people accuse me of not covering up. If it's one piece it bugs me to have the waist one to one and one half inch to high for me. I just notice that in Michelle's clothing in one or two pictures. It's as if she got those pieces of clothing off the rack and they sometimes miss a bit because she is definitely outside the norm in length. I don't watch the news or look at news sites too often. This morning was an exception because I need something to wear to an event and what i have has some length fitting problems. I peaked at the site to see what other tall girls do.; 4/29/09, 8:31 PM
The Dude said...: She is as ugly as a mud fence. Home made sin. So ugly she could frighten a pit bull off a meat wagon.

Her teeth project too much. Her ass is as big as a wash tub.

I could go on, but the Obama lovers here will defend her hideousness past all reason.

She is an ogre.; 4/29/09, 8:50 PM
The Bear said...: NKVD, that's a bit much don't you think?

I mean, this cracker has dated better looking black women than her, but still...she's not "Cynthia McKinney" - beaten with forest of ugly sticks - nasty.

Now I realize that it makes most of us want to hurl at the amount of time spent by the media in falling down in orgiastic delight at her every breath but there's no need to get truly nasty.

I do think she might look a bit like Yoda, though.; 4/29/09, 9:19 PM