Is Fashion's Seventh Avenue Looking for a Rumble? Now Arnold Scaasi Critiques Michelle's Fashion Sense

Anne here. Arnold Scaasi has quite a lot to say about First Lady Michelle Obama's fashion sense over at Huff Po via WWD. Specifically he says that with regard to Michelle's fashion style, "something is amiss."

(The article is now available to the general public at WWD Arnold Scaasi's Front Row View on First Ladies. )

I've already referred to my astonishment, reading that Scaasi had air time in Cathy Horyn's NYT article on Michelle's relationship with the big guns -- which Scaasi is not in any way, shape or form in today's fashion industry.

via Huffington PostI truly believe that the New York's Seventh Avenue is looking for big trouble with this line of conversation, criticizing Michelle Obama's fashion choices. Any woman of style -- at any age, including mine -- would DIE before being dressed in the matronly frocks of Arnold Scaasi, a designer not even covered by Style.com.

There are days when the fashion 'elite' -- depending on your definition of 'elite' -- don't know when to stop running their upper class mouths. Some designers just can't keep quiet and let Michelle Obama and her team do their Indy fashion thing, with them or without them. We've heard from two upper crust die-hards these past weeks.

America's a free speech country, but we don't need this conversation boys!

Consider that you are now forcing Smart Sensuality women to choose sides in this growing fashion debate. I promise you that we will not come down on the side of Arnold Scaasi, and we will not have you strong-arming (as if you could) Michelle Obama into wearing your poofery gowns, a la Barbara Bush. (Mrs. Bush, say something here, please! Help!)

Former First Dresser Arnold ScassiDesigners like Oscar de la Renta and Arnold Scaasi (sorry, dear readers, this Scassi article in HuffPo just puts me over the edge) are dragging the entire top tier of designers into a needless diatribe that is bad for the country and bad for fashion.

You have designers like Ralph Lauren (mum, I believe on this subject, based on my Google search) with an long-standing track record of using black models on the runway and in print. More than once for decades, Ralph has travelled to Africa, to the designs of Masai tribes and elsewhere, for design inspiration in his collections. And he put them on African American models.

If and when Michelle decides to wear a highest-end American designer, I'd like to see her in Ralph Lauren. I'd also like to see her in Donna Karan, but quite frankly, these decisions have nothing to do with me or Arnold Scassi.

Suggesting that our First Lady should be inspired by the likes of Barbara Bush (a wonderful woman presumably, but one who always seemed way too grandmotherly for my Smart Sensuality taste) is frankly not only insulting, but totally out of touch with modern reality.

I don't care if Hillary wore Arnold Scaasi. By her own admission, she has no fashion sense, much as I love the woman and all her enormous capabilities.

Arnold Scaasi's comments about Michelle's style only confirm that I'd much rather be on her team, occasional fashion faux-pas or not.

Michelle Obama is well aware that fashion is about culture, media, money-generated messages, class vs. mass and a host of other important societal and socio-economic considerations. In choosing her outfits, these issues obviously run through the First Lady's mind.

The Obamas are about new thinking and the need to reinvent ourselves as a country. So let's get started and leave these old-guard bruised egos where they belong, until they, too, reinvent themselves and their ideas, along with the rest of us.

This 'what's appropriate' conversation for Michelle has become total nonsense, and as a sophisticated, intelligent Smart Sensuality woman, I resent it on behalf of First Lady Michelle Obama and stylish women everywhere!

I would also like to know when Mrs. O, the acknowledged blog leader of all fashion news about the First Lady, will weigh in on this conversation. Help, Mrs. O ladies. You have the bully pulpit voice; not me. What should we do here? Anne

See also: Fashion Fence Sitters in the Oscar de la Renta/Michelle Obama Indy Style Debate ADG