Writes Vanessa Friedman, in "At the Japan State Dinner, Jill Biden Makes an Entrance/The first lady was glittering in crystals — four days after Melania Trump stepped out in pink at a Palm Beach fund-raiser. Together, the pictures offer a harbinger of what is to come" (NYT).
For some people, the re-wearing of clothes can be counted as a "signature." And I love this idea that the political wife is a walking symbol of her husband's achievements.
The glittering-in-crystals gown Jill Biden wore for the dinner was not a re-worn item, so what did it symbolize?
It wasn’t as symbolically obvious as the cherry blossom print gown worn by Naomi Biden or Hillary Clinton’s heavy silk caftan, but in opting for de la Renta, the first lady was not simply supporting an American company that represents the melting pot myth of the country.
Whoa! What a nasty drive-by knock against Hillary!
ADDED: I looked up a photograph of what Hillary wore, and it is so literally a caftan that I no longer think it was nasty of Vanessa Friedman was to use that word. Here's the Women's Wear Daily article about what Hillary wore. Everyone seems to assume this caftan was a tribute to Japan. But it has no belt at all around the middle. It's entirely flowing, like something you'd lounge in pool side. So I'm going to speculate that it was a tribute to "Curb Your Enthusiasm"...
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Melania was independently wealthy before she even met President Trump and was a supermodel. Why wouldn't she wear fancy clothes?
Is Armani not a "luxury brand?" Melania wears luxury brands like a thumb in the eye! But Jill's don't count.
People who care about these kinds of things should have their voter registration cards revoked. The last think I would want to know about a meeting of heads of state is what the spouses are wearing and what it might suggest.
No. I should not say the last thing. I should say that knowing it actually creates negative value overall and shouldn't even rank at the bottom of things to know.
For Melania it's "the luxury brands that are shorthand for the financial success her husband " but Dr. Jill's Armani and Oscar de la Renta are just there to siymbolize Scranton Joe's hard work on behalf of the middle class. No stretch is too far for the DNC/MSM.
Translated from the Vanessa Friedman: "Believe me not your lying eyes! Jill Biden really is hotter than Melania Trump!"
"the political wife is a walking symbol of her husband's achievements"
Exactly.
All show, no substance.
It is interesting that they think that a 95 IQ "Doctor" with an "Education" degree after a career as a baby sitter for a pedophile and marrying up compares well to Melania Trump who has a lifetime of business experience and success in a variety of aspects of life.
Jill Biden is just an ugly person in so many ways.
Her latest turn to elder abuse and using her demented husband to further her efforts as a social climber underline what a terrible person she is.
Hillary wore a nice Moo Moo
(not to mention the economic realities of the country)
another "I did that!" moment for SloJoe??
So DOCTOR Biden wears Armani and Melania wears an unnamed luxury brand, but it's Melania who is showing off?
So I guess there's an Armani section at Walmart, and Jill is a woman of the people.
a black Armani dress that she had "reworn on Several occasions"
??
What did that black Armani dress COST? i mean.. It didn't cost DOCTOR Biden ANYTHING..
she received it as a bribe.. But; if a person living under Bidenomics were to Buy one..
HOW MUCH? When you divide that by the total number of minutes that she's worn it..
HOW MUCH, PER MINUTE??
More, or less; than gilbar made last month?
Melania was independently wealthy before she even met President Trump and was a supermodel.
Exactly. Melania could afford those clothes on her own (and for all we know, she earned them as partial payment for her modelling), whereas "Dr." Jill gets freebies from people seeking favors.
Jill rewears clothes because her husband is cheap and keeps her on a tight clothing allowance. She buys a lot of her clothes at Forever 21.
What a nasty drive-by knock against Hillary!
Call it Friedman's shatorial wit?
Maybe I am in the wrong here, but here goes.
My dad was a dentist. He was called Doc or Doctor. I get it.
In college, my professors where sometimes referred to as Doc or Doctor. I get it.
But a person not in their PHD profession being called Doctor seems off, IMO.
Cheers.
A man and woman are equal and complementary.
Hard economic realities symbolized by an Armani dress. Hehe.
tommyesq said...
(not to mention the economic realities of the country)
another "I did that!" moment for SloJoe??
A pivot from "Inflation is transitory" to "I feel your (economic) pain."
The article said…
“The glittering-in-crystals gown Jill Biden wore for the dinner was not at re-worn item, so what did it symbolize? It wasn’t as symbolically obvious as the cherry blossom print gown… but in opting for de la Renta, the first lady was not simply…”
Sigmund Freud responded…
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
I love that Melania dress well. She's a super-model.
The most grating aspect of this woman's moment of reflected fame is the use the "Dr." honorific to refer to someone who received an Ed.D. The only academic requirement for this degree is for the tuition check to clear. The only satisfaction from the Joe Biden presidency is the knowledge of the ass-kissing administered by the disdainful, sneering DC elitist class to this annoying, arriviste woman and her leering husband.
gilbar (me!) asked..
What did that black Armani dress COST?
Here's what google told me for black Armani dress:
Draped Milano Stitch Midi Dress
$1,295
i have No Idea what hers would cost but let's go with that; Figure that she's worn it a TOTAL of 2 hours.
I guess that'd be about $10 a minute? as Barbie told me.. Math is HARD!
What's not over is cattiness.
There's nothing wrong with the gown choice, per se, except someone didn't do Jill Biden any favors by not recommending she put a light foundation on underneath to smooth out her midsection. She has no waistline to speak of and that dress demands it. A little Spanx goes a long way....
Jill Biden is re-wearing that Armani dress in sympathy with dirt poor Americans. Another hardscrabble Biden sticking it to The Man!
'I love that Melania dress well. She's a super-model.'
And somehow never lands on the covers of any magazines.
It's almost like the media has some sort of bias.
I can't quite place it...hmmm...
So --at least to the ladies who write for fashion and style magazines, a senior politician's wife should be a clothes horse. Well okay the clothes are the clothes--just pieces of fabric.
But what horse do you put them on? In horse racing parlance, Melania Trump is a Kentucky Derby winner--and Dr. Jill is a Shetland Pony in a kids amusement park. Just saying.
And don't let me get to Michelle Obama--I just couldn't go there in this comparison.
Just my opinion, but I have high regard for Melania's fashion sense, and very little for Jill's. Even in this Aramani gown, she looks like she's robbed a sofa.
Women who go to the trouble of dressing up should be treated deferentially.
I like the fabric of Ms. Biden’s gown, but I think it is upside-down relative to an elderly woman’s body. Lighter on top, darker on bottom, should be the preferred arrangement.
Maybe they’re just into breaking every norm.
No mention of Lauren Sanchez’s lingerie-gown? She seems to be competing with Kanye’s wife. Our betters, gotta love ‘em.
I can't figure out the symbolism.
Are all those words meant to plaster over the fact that she looked awful in that faux see-through when compared to Kashida's wife.
Purple
Note that that photo is from the Post. The Times chose to not run the comparison.
Just wanted to put in a word for the creation worn by Jeff Bezos' squeeze -- been a while since I've seen the Wild West Madam Look so perfectly rendered.
"...Hillary Clinton’s heavy upholstery slip cover..."
Fixed
They're trying so hard to make the Bidens happen. But this is what The White House looked like for the Japanese State dinner. It looks like a bunch of interns ordered from the Oriental Trading Company catalog. You have an unlimited budget and you ordered paper fans?!?
Fugly.
'Just wanted to put in a word for the creation worn by Jeff Bezos' squeeze -- been a while since I've seen the Wild West Madam Look so perfectly rendered.'
She (or rather he) paid for those tits so she's going to show them off...
@Megeara
No lies detected. She never dresses well.
Six more months of this, getting a bit worse each day.
I think Melania would look just fine in one of those Hee Haw outfits.
Whenever I see Dr. J playing dress up it makes me think of Carol Burnett.
Do you suppose Vanessa Friedman could, like, shut her stupid fucking mouth and never open it again? Figuratively, I mean. Certainly, she must realize that her every utterance reduces the amount of useful information in the world. Has she no shame?
Referring to her as “Dr. Biden” never ceases to amuse.
Ashleigh Biden is in her 40s. There’s no reason for her to be at this dinner.
Dr. Jill didn’t invite Hunter. But Ashleigh’s invited because Dr. Jill is her mom.
Then again Dr. Jill doesn’t have any grandchildren.
How Symbolic.
It seems like yesterday that Hilary was predicted to die tomorrow.
Jill reuses the old upholstery too from the looks of some of her dresses.
Althouse,
If you think that was silly, check out the WaPo's take:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/fashion/2024/04/11/jill-biden-japan-state-dinner/
This writer characterizes "Dr. Jill"'s dresses as, well,
Biden’s suits always fit perfectly, and her dresses and taste in prints are inoffensively lovely. They seem suited to what an educator and first lady of the United States should wear in 2024.
I am assuming that the writer entirely missed the "is it the First Lady, or is it a couch?" threads of last year. I mean, yeesh, we're talking about a meme trend so extensive that even I have heard of it.
And, well, no one ought to be talking about Melania's clothing who didn't talk about it while she was in office. I think the only mention she ever got in the press was about the "I don't really care, do U?" T-shirt she wore once. Oh, and wearing high heels (same occasion, I think) to a place that might be muddy.
“Nor it is an accident that, in the last month, Mrs. Trump has been... stepping out at strategic moments in the luxury brands that are shorthand for the financial success her husband has made part of his selling point, as if to shrug in the face of the civil penalties that have been levied against him...."
LOL …. Melanie always dresses well and of course what she wears is not an accident. But the “unbiased” Times writer wants us to share her condemnation, How dare she! She should be wearing sackcloth and ashes. Shame on Melania Trump for deliberately dressing up and looking good.
A classic example of what is called “woman’s inhumanity to woman,” a phrase coined by writer Phyllis Chesler.
From a review: “‘Man's inhumanity to man’ - the phrase is all too familiar. But until Phyllis Chesler's now-classic book, a profound silence prevailed about woman's inhumanity to woman. Women's aggression may not take the same form as men's, but girls and women are indeed aggressive, often indirectly and mainly toward one another. They judge harshly, hold grudges, gossip, exclude, and disconnect from other women…”
They hurt your feelings. It’s emotional abuse. And here’s a writer, putting it all out for public display.
'It seems like yesterday that Hilary was predicted to die tomorrow.'
Those predictions were unfortunately wrong...
On the plus side (see what I did there?) she gets her clothes from Barnum and Bailey at their tent sales...
"For some people, the re-wearing of clothes can be counted as a "signature." And I love this idea that the political wife is a walking symbol of her husband's achievements."
I suppose banging the baby-sitter is an achievement of sorts.
"Dr. Biden"
I agree that the most important thing "Dr." Biden has accomplished is putting on some designer dress.
Jill Biden is a walking advertisement for elder abuse, no matter what she's wearing.
the melting pot myth
The melting pot metaphor only became a myth after Barack Obama introduced the Democrats to the idea that the way to electoral dominance was by dividing the electorate and setting them at each others’ throats.
"an American company that represents the melting pot myth of the country"
WTF? A major problem in this country is the abandonment by the elites of the melting pot conception of how America--a nation of immigrants and the descendents of immigrants--works. There is more wisdom in a Frank Capra movie than in the entire editorial staff of NYT.
By the way, I thought Lauren Sanchez's wild display of tittitude was more of a harbinger of what is to come than anything "Dr" Jill or Melania wore. In DC they are deeply into the display dressing of the residents of the Capitol in The Hunger Games.
Lauren Sanchez's wild display of tittitude
Hunter's grown daughter Finnegan wore a low, strapless red dress, too, with the front slit up to mid thigh. Decorum means nothing in that family.
In Ashenden, Somerset Maugham detects a female German spy by her expensive clothes but scanty jewels. Sanchez wore scanty clothes and scantier jewels. The latter is surprising and should be worrying for her. But light blue toenail polish with a blood red dress?
"Reading" the clothes of women?
What's the problem? Did the person that reads the tea leaves die, or something?
In the day and age of instant communication, there as to be a better way of communicating then imputing meaning into the whim of what frock is drug out of the closet.
As an example of nothing I suppose.
At this moment my wife is critiquing the weather girls eyebrow sculpting. She does not approve. I on the other hand, could not testify if the woman even has eyebrows.
American diplomats and their families should wear clothes that proudly display American (as in United States of American) creativity and utility -- Denim.
May 20, 1873 marked an historic day: the birth of the blue jean. It was on that day that Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis obtained a U.S. patent on the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants for the very first time.
Levi Strauss
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