Tag: Barack Obama

David Cameron and Samantha Cameron disembark (Getty)

There is a tendency, among political leaders, especially of the UK-US variety, to engage in covert sartorial diplomacy during state visits; in effect for the visitor to mirror the dress of the visitee in order to suggest a discreet sort of understanding of the agenda — at least as far as photo ops go.

 

Such was the case when Gordon Brown first came to see Barack Obama, for example (both did that dark suit,blue tie thing), and such was often the case with Tony Blair and George W. Bush. Yesterday, however, when David Cameron showed up for his current US trip, the changed nature of the relationship seemed to be reflected in his wardrobe. One day in, there’s been zero matchy-matchy.

 

See, for example, the British deplaning, for which Mr Cameron sported a purple tie — a colour yet to be seen on the president, and one that seemed particularly significant, given that a high percentage of the time Mr Cameron favours blue ties, which is also the primary colour of President Obama’s ties. Thus, for Mr Cameron to choose not to wear blue can be read as a conscious declaration of independence. (After all, the deplaning moment is an enormous and unavoidable photo op. It sends signals; see, for example, Mrs Cameron’s choice to fly her national brand flags via a Burberry trench.)

 

The colour gurus at the Pantone Colour Institute have released their predictions for top colours of Fall 2012, just in time for New York Fashion Week. And why, you ask, should non-fashion people care? Because, I say, this will give us a sense of what we are going to see on the general election trail this fall.

(It is also an indication of the shades we may be inexplicably, but inexorably drawn to as we embark on post-holiday, back-to-work shopping.)

To a certain extent every national leader is in a form of costume every day of their term, but today this issue takes on a very specific meaning. Tonight, after all, thousands of children in the US and beyond will dress up like everything from Leonid Brezhnev to Ninja turtles to knock on doors and demand candy.

Michelle Obama -- image by Getty.

In 2009, the White House joined in the fun, with Michelle Obama dressing up like a cat complete with spotty ears and painted-on whiskers, but pointedly, last year she looked relatively sombre in orange sweater. This year, celebrating three days early on Friday, she opted for almost no costume at all, leaving that to her mother.

 

President Obama, Michelle Obama and her mother Marian Robinson at the White House Halloween party yesterday. Getty Images

It’s a telling evolution. Given the level of imagineering that now goes on in politics, you can imagine the debate that has gone on in both the West and East wings of the White House over the past two years over the question:

Does the First Family belong in costume? Or at least, here’s what I imagine:

 

On the Don’t Side:

Dunno about you, but I thought debates were useful in part because they helped voters distinguish between candidates. Yesterday in Iowa for their first showdown in the bizarrely important early primary state, many of the Republican wanna-be presidents seemed to have forgotten that tenet. Instead, they dressed to be indistinguishable, not only from each other, but also from President Barack Obama, whom they insist they oppose with all their verbal might. While their lips are saying no, however, their clothes are saying yes.

Getty Images

I am speaking here, of course, of the dark suit/white shirt/blue tie combo, as seen 75 per cent of the time on the president. Whether or not he invented the new power look (of course he didn’t), he has certainly worn it enough to own it, at least in the public eye, and frankly, Messrs Romney (second from left), Pawlenty (second to right), Huntsman (far right) and Paul (far left) should have Just Said No, to quote the wife of one of their famous Republican predecessors. They look like mini-mes in this picture and they also look almost identical, which can’t have been their take-away goal.

If ever a man tried to telegraph the fact he was stuck between two competing factions via his tie, it’s Barack Obama.

Eschewing his signature unified blue and occasional red shades of neckwear, yesterday the president announced a compromise had been reached and the Senate had passed a debt ceiling plan while wearing perhaps the loudest, most in-your-face tie I’ve ever seen him sport.

Getty Images

There was dark blue! It was slashed with light stripes! They were mixed with yellow to really make the differences pop! And they all pointed – well, down or up? Depends how you look at it, I guess.

What’s for sure, however, is this particular item was saying, quite blindingly, what he has been implying in every speech he has made for the last few days: “The two parties insist on seeing this as an either/or proposition, and I have been forcing them to get together.”

The question, I suppose, is whether the people seeing this picture believe him, or the alternative spin, which reads this as his weakest moment. At the moment, the poll numbers do not exactly look like a tie.

Rick Perry, the Texas governor who is apparently exploring the idea of a 2012 presidential bid, has at least one thing going for him, other than his catchy “Texas job creation” theme: his hair. It’s lush! It’s long! It’s electable! Just check out the side view in the picture below.

Getty Images

Like it or not, it has long been a reality of American politics that bald men do not get elected president. Active hair follicles are apparently a necessary semiological indicator of the sort of manliness and machismo required by the electorate in a commander in chief. It’s not subtle, but it does seem to be historically accurate.

If the Obamas’ trip to the UK isn’t the most sartorially co-ordinated opening of a state visit in history, I’ll eat my Philip Treacy hat.

President Obama, Michelle Obama, Prince Philip and the Queen

Getty images

It looks like something straight out of Vogue: Queen Elizabeth II and Michelle Obama both in pastel florals (Mrs O’s is by American designer Barbara Tfank, a red carpet name), as if to re-affirm the shared interest in gardening that they reportedly bonded over during their first get-together in 2009, and the Duchess of Cornwall and her new daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, in matching beige. The latter’s dress is by Reiss, the UK high street chain, suggesting she’s going to stick to her “people’s princess” you-can-get-the-look-too! style of dressing, even now that she’s officially part of the royal family. Prince Philip and President Obama even look as if they have matching burgundy ties!

Getty Images

I was struck by the fact, watching President Obama’s speech last night announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, that for the occasion he had donned classic commander-in-chief mufti.

I am speaking here of the dark suit/white shirt/red tie combination that for so long was the default look of the take-charge executive: the look George W. Bush adopted both when he announced the invasion of Iraq and when he stood on the aircraft carrier to announce the American “Victory in Iraq” (not my words).

I think you could have guessed at the message of unity and compromise (kind of) even before President Barack Obama opened his mouth last night. Or any art major could.

Instead of opting for his classic signature tie in that nice shade of True Blue (worn at least 90 per cent of the time over the last two years during public appearances, the meeting with Hu Jintao last week being a rare exception), or swapping sides entirely to wear Reagan Red in a direct appeal for fellowship to Republicans, he opted for a sort of bluish lilac shade.

Or, as one friend wrote, “Wisteria.”

And, if you look at the two guys behind him – Biden in blue stripes, Boehner in pink – and then combine the colours of their ties, you get….sort of a bluish lilac.

Compromise! A little of his agenda, a little of their’s!

I admit: at first, when I saw pictures of Michelle Obama at last night’s state dinner in her Alexander McQueen dress, I got excited. It marked her second English designer outfit in as many days during Hu Jintao’s state visit (she wore Roksanda Ilincic for their arrival), and seemed to suggest an end to the conventional use of dress in such occasions, which says the First Lady has to either fly the national flag and wear a local designer, or, if she wants to be rebellious, only go so far as to wear a designer from the country of her guest (ie, Naeem Khan to the India state dinner).

But then I looked again, and realised, though there was some black, the dress was mostly…red.

Michelle and Barack Obama

Getty Images

And then I remembered Sasha Obama wearing red trousers as her parents greeted the Chinese president and his wife.

Sasha Obama

Getty Images

And then I discovered Hillary Clinton had worn a red jacket during the lunch she and Joe Biden hosted for President Hu.

Material World

with Vanessa Friedman

About this blog About Vanessa Blog guide
Vanessa Friedman's blog deals with the fashion/luxury industry from both a corporate and consumer point of view, as well as the subject of dress.



Vanessa FriedmanVanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.
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