How to power dress for today: London Times

Quoted via London Times:

I could draw you Obama’s top 10 campaign show stoppers, plus accessories. The purple shift with the black belt (Azzedine Alaïa) and the gobstopper pearls. The jade green three-quarter-sleeve sheath with the striking starry brooch in which she addressed the Democratic National Convention. The floral shirtwaister dress and silver pumps. The black-and-white leaf-print shift. Everyone remembers the clothes for two reasons: she looks good, and she looks like Michelle Obama (the badass wife who is sort of keeping it real), as opposed to the identikit politician’s wife or a power-dressing fashion plate. For once a woman in a position of power has not felt compelled to follow a formula, and is power dressing as herself.

It helps that Obama is not the standard Wasp with social x-ray proportions (even if she’d wanted to stick to the script, she would look like a sofa in one of those wannabe Chanel suits). It also helps that she is 44 and a working mother of two young girls, not a consort who is defined by her husband’s role. Way before anyone had heard of Barack, she had a lifestyle that demanded practical clothes that flattered her and gave her poise and authority. A real working woman’s wardrobe. Hey presto, we have a role model for women in positions of power who have no desire to look like either the camp boardroom bitch (4in Louboutin heels, hourglass Roland Mouret dress) or some throwback to the I Love Lucy era. Obama wears clothes that you could wear to a school parents’ day or a smart party; a day on the hustings or a family barbecue. This woman — a normal woman with a normal figure and a (relatively) normal working life — has kicked power dressing into the 21st century. more