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subscribe to style file blog via RSSfree speech: hadley freeman on the michelle obama-paris hilton connection
June 19, 2008 12:58 pm
Though there are another seven months to go before she potentially crosses the White House threshold, much has already been made of Michelle Obama’s wardrobe. She surprised the fashion crowd with the Isabel Toledo tunic she wore to a New York fundraiser this week, and in an earlier piece titled “She Dresses to Win,” the New York Times quoted André Leon Talley on her “black Camelot moment.” But a key point has been missed, I feel. The excitement has stemmed from one particular dress: the purple shift she wore in Minnesota two weeks ago. Now, “The Color Purple” may have been a fine movie and a finer book, but the shade itself, well, that hasn’t had such a good time of it. Until now, that is.
The most elegant evening gown in YSL’s current collection is a one-shouldered purple dress (and, FYI, Banana Republic has done its own pretty impressive version). In “Sex and the City: The Movie,” Carrie wears a purple shift that’s very similar to the one worn by Michelle and even more similar to one worn by SJP on the TV show, back when it was still good. (In fact, it was worn in one of “SATC” ’s finest episodes, in which the women mock a baby shower in the suburbs and celebrate their independence, as opposed to doing the precise opposite, as they do in the film. But I digress.)
This new purple—more of a violet/purple mix than full-on grape-ish hue—is the color of the season. But what does the resurgence of this shade, one so associated with pomp and circumstance, suggest? Well, some have claimed that it reflects the Obamas’ ruling aspirations (very royal, all that purple), but I think that may be stretching it. Or is it an Alice Walker reference, suggesting, well, what? The emancipation of a black woman? That Michelle likes to write letters? The support of Oprah? Again, the word “stretching” comes to mind. One could make an argument for the influence of Alber Elbaz, whose work at Lanvin has proven that women are not averse to wearing bright clothes. I suspect a different influence, however: Paris Hilton. Hilton and the rest of her posse have pretty much requisitioned all strong, paparazzi-pleasing feminine colors: pink, of course, but also attention-grabbing red, trashy and flashy yellow, even Kermit the Frog green. Thus, a new hue had to be found. Hence the rise of grown-up, quasi-regal purple. So there we go: Michelle—classic, fashionable, and a reader of In Touch magazine. That couple sooooo have my vote.
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