by Mary Tomer
My father was a manufacturer of children’s clothes and there were many sewing machines around me growing up. He collected beautiful sewing machines. That sounds fancy. He didn’t collect them, they just happened to be around. Before I ever set foot at Parsons, I could run a Merrow machine. People used to come to me with their projects to Merrow, because Merrow can be very devastating. It can have a devastating effect if you do it wrong. Everybody was so scared of the Merrow machine and I was a whiz.
Q: Given that your background and early business was in high fashion, what made you first want to do a collection for the masses?
A: Well, you know, I am from a generation of style people that doesn’t just buy expensive clothes at face value. We don’t buy the fact that they’re better because they’re expensive. We test things. We’re very skeptical of beauty and truth and the ultimate luxury of something. We don’t just take it at face value, just because it’s expensive and just because the majority likes it. It has to pass the test of posterity.
Given that, I believe that the simplest thing that costs 50 cents can be just as beautiful and luxurious as something that costs $3,000. Because luxury is not just the face value of something. It’s the depth, the inner meaning, the quantity that it weighs on earth. A great T-shirt is a great T-shirt, a great slice of pizza is a great pizza, you know?
That was a big, formative part of my education. Watching ladies like Tina Chow and Maxime de la Falaise and her daughter Loulou, the way they mixed things—the way they had such respect for meager little things and absolutely no respect for grand things. It was just a very good lesson to learn from those ladies.
Q: How did you decide to do the line for Target?
A: It felt right. It felt like a paradigm that was right in the midst of shifting and that I would maybe be on the leading edge of it. I remember being at a restaurant and suddenly this SUV pulled up, a Toyota SUV, and out came the Miller sisters [Pia Getty; Marie Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece; and Alexandra von Furstenberg]. And I thought, “My God, the Miller sisters are not coming out of a big stretch limo, they’re coming out of a SUV.” I thought, “Well, the world is changing.”
Q: And recently you’ve moved on to Liz Claiborne. What attracted you to the brand?
A: I took the job on the eve of the Obama thing. It was something that I felt was going to change the world. I kind of had this weird psychic prediction that he was going to win. At first I thought it was going to be Hillary, and after she lost the primary, I thought “Okay, Obama is going to win.”
It’s a new start. There’s a newness to the way we feel and the way we look. I felt that the words “Liz Claiborne” were just right for this moment. It’s a brand that has always stood for value, and a brand that has always been friendly to working, busy women.
To attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Metropolitan Museum of Art American Wing in New York City, Mrs. Obama wore a purple silk wool dress and coat from Isaac Mizrahi’s Pre-Fall 2009 collection.
Mrs. Obama has remarkable style. And luckily, she’s our heroine at the moment. I think she’s going to create a certain kind of fashion consciousness. And the word “consciousness” is very good. It implies that we’re going to be thinking about it, but it also implies that we’re going to thinking about it in the long term. It’s not just going to be something that’s amusing for five seconds and then gets cast aside.
I do think she’s going to have a lasting impression on the world of fashion, I do. The day that she wore my blouse, I thought I would explode with pride.
Q: Speaking of which, what was it like to see the first lady in one of your designs for Liz Claiborne?
A: It was one of intense pleasure and pride. First, she looks so good in clothes, it’s amazing. We’re so lucky for that. She’s so pretty. I don’t want to say that she’s pretty, but she is. That’s all there is to it. Aside from that, everything speaks to a certain kind of… she’s an icon. She really is exemplary to so many women.
For one, age doesn’t seem to enter into the picture. We don’t know how old she is. We know she’s 45, but to me, she seems like the perfect ageless woman who’s right in her prime. That’s someone whom I’ve always designed for. That’s one thing I’m doing with Liz Claiborne, I’m perpetuating this 35-year-old-ness. That’s who we all are. Michelle Obama is such a great example of that.
Q: Michelle Obama’s favorite Azzedine Alaïa belt made quite an impression on you. Why was that?
A: The thing about it, if you talk to Azzedine Alaïa, he too will say that a $5 Chinese slipper can be way better than a $5,000 couture, bejeweled pump from whomever. The man just makes exquisite clothes. That belt, regardless of how much it costs, is pure value. You know it’s made by hand and stitched on these perfect machines. That’s why that belt represents something of quality. It’s not just gorgeous looking, there’s a quality to it, a lasting quality. And then to mix it with a J.Crew sweater, I just go mad.
*
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2009
*
Women of Courage Awards
*
MICHELLE OBAMA JOINED SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON in congratulating the recipients of the State Department’s Women of Courage Awards. The awards honor women who “risk their lives to fight for themselves and for their mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and friends,” said the first lady. “And in doing so, they create a better society not just for them, but for their fathers, sons, brothers, grandfathers, and husbands.”
These awards followed President Obama’s signing of an executive order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls. Mrs. Obama also attended that signing. The Council will provide a coordinated federal response to challenges faced by women of all ages.
For both events, Mrs. Obama appeared in monochromatic purple, wearing a tailored jacket by Zero + Maria Cornejo over a sleek purple sheath dress. In the past, Mrs. Obama has worn several Zero + Maria Cornejo jackets of a similar cut: collarless, nipped at the waist by darts and falling to hip length. This particular jacket had been worn during the Whistle Stop Tour on the first day of inauguration festivities. Accenting the neckline of the dress was a satin bow pin in a slightly darker shade of purple. The bow provided a feminine accent to streamlined, minimalist lines of the dress and the jacket. Black patent leather kitten heels completed her look.
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2009
*
White House Garden
*
PUTTING ACTION BEHIND HER VERBAL COMMITMENT TO PROMOTE HEALTHY EATING, Mrs. Obama broke ground for a White House vegetable garden. A group of fifth grade students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District of Columbia were invited to help her. The garden would include a medley of vegetables, greens, berries, and herbs that the students would later help to plant, harvest, and cook. Future plans for the garden included an apiary, to be cultivated for honey.
“A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you’ll ever eat,” Mrs. Obama told the New York Times. “And my children know the difference, and that’s how I’ve been able to get them to try different things. I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?”
For her gardening attire, Mrs. Obama wore a long black wrap sweater finished with one of her signature belts, black leggings, and black patent leather boots by Jimmy Choo. The look was both chic and practical. It was also a look that could be easily emulated by fans of the first lady’s fashion sense.
From the White House blog: “This is a big day,” said Mrs. Obama. “We’ve been talking about it since the day we moved in.” In April, the group would reconvene to plant the garden.
Michelle Obama and students plant the White House garden in early April.
CHAPTER VII EUROPEAN TOUR
Styly Diplomacy
During the early days of April 2009, the Obamas made their first overseas trip to Europe as president and
first lady of the United States. While the world economy would be the primary focus of the official trip, there was no shortage of historic first meetings and high-wattage glamour.
The itinerary included stops in London, England; Strasbourg, France; Baden-Baden, Germany; and Prague, Czech Republic. The president would later continue on to Anakara and Istanbul, Turkey, while Mrs. Obama returned to Washington to rejoin her young daughters.
For months, Europe had watched the Obamas from a distance with interest and admiration. Through this trip, Europeans would get to know the president and first lady on a more personal basis, as the couple met with dignitaries, spoke to local groups and explored their host nations’ cultural sites and traditions.
The charming and chic Michelle Obama was central to the Obamas’ warm reception. At Buckingham Palace, Mrs. Obama met with Queen Elizabeth II, who by the end of their visit, requested that Mrs. Obama “stay in touch.” Throughout the week, the first lady enthusiastically engaged with her counterpart spouses, touring London with Sarah Brown, wife of the United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown; and exploring sites in Strasbourg, France, with French first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. But it was not just royals and dignitaries who were won over. At a school in North London, a group of young girls clamored with delight as Mrs. Obama knelt down on the stage to give them hugs.
As the trip, in part, served to improve the image of the United States overseas, due credit should be given to the lasting visual impact of Michelle Obama’s wardrobe. Mrs. Obama’s ensembles for the week were rigorously planned, with an eye for symbolism and gesture. On its own merit, her wardrobe generated media attention around the world, and helped to further propel several of her favorite American designers onto the world stage.
TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2009
*
Washington, D. C.
*
IN THE WEEK LEADING UP TO OBAMAS TRIP OVERSEAS, the first lady had kept a low profile, enjoying an extended stay at Camp David while Malia and Sasha Obama were on spring break. By the time March 31 arrived, anticipation of the trip had reached near fever pitch on both sides of the Atlantic.
While the outcome of the G-20 and NATO summits were top of mind, so too were the scheduled meetings with Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and the Sarkozys of France. By the time Mrs. Obama debuted her first ensemble of the week, her wardrobe was already the subject of international media attention.
As the president and first lady left the White House to board Marine One for Andrews Air Force Base, Mrs. Obama wore a custom-designed, ivory flocked tulle coat with black grosgrain piping by Thakoon Panichgul. The contrasting trim and tweed-like material gave the knee-length coat characteristics reminiscent of a classic ‘60s-era Chanel jacket. An oversize, jeweled brooch in deep magenta and purple stones popped against the ivory fabric. Beneath the coat, Mrs. Obama wore a Michael Kors double face black wool, cap sleeve sheath dress, accented by Jimmy Choo black kitten heels, diamond stud earrings, and a double-strand pearl necklace. The look had a regal, stately polish.
Six hours later, as Air Force One touched down in London, Mrs. Obama debuted a fresh, new look for that evening. She was dressed in a chartreuse-yellow, silk crepe cocktail dress by Jason Wu, topped by a black, collarless cardigan coat by Michael Kors and her studded Azzedine Alaïa belt at the waist.
The first lady’s mid-flight wardrobe change foreshadowed the fashion that would follow. The week would showcase different facets of the first lady’s style: from demure to daring, refined to whimsical, vintage-inspired to avant garde—all worn with panache and radiating an inherent glamour.
*
London, England
*
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
*
Maggie’s Centre
*
FOR HER FIRST DAY IN LONDON, Mrs. Obama joined Sarah Brown, wife of the United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to visit Maggie’s Caring Cancer Centre at Charing Cross. Maggie’s Centre is a resource devoted to helping cancer patients and their families with the problems associated with the disease. Sarah Brown helped to open the center in April 2008, and is Maggie’s official patron.
On the day Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Brown visited, the London center was celebrating its first anniversary, having helped more than 12,000 visitors in its time since opening. During their visit, the two women also spent time at the center’s “Look Good, Feel Better” program, which helps cancer patients deal with the appearance-related side effects of cancer, offering skin-care tips and make-up lessons. Mrs. Obama’s own make-up artisit, Ingrid Grimes Myles, participates in the same program in Chicago.
Over a cup of tea with the center’s staff, the first lady described Maggie’s as “… an oasis that’s necessary for people who are struggling.”
For her visit, the first lady dressed in a pastel J.Crew ensemble that projected the promise of spring, and showed sensible deference to the economy. Mrs. Obama wore the brand’s Crystal constellation cardigan, embellished with clusters of glass beads, rhinestones, and sequins. The cotton sweater was paired with the brand’s Dazzling-dots pencil skirt in mint green jacquard. Mrs. Obama accessorized the look with a double strand of pearls, a stack of beaded and bangle bracelets, and snakeskin Jimmy Choo pumps.
As had been the case when Mrs. Obama appeared on The Tonight Show in head to toe J.Crew, the look—and relatively accessible price point of the J.Crew pieces—sent women running to their nearest computer. The J.Crew constellation cardigan sold out on jcrew.com by 10AM the same morning, generating a 200-person wait list by the end of the week.
J.Crew Crystal constellation cardigan.
Jimmy Choo Jade pump in snakeskin.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
*
Tea with the Queen, G-20 Summit Dinner
*
AS FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA WALKED INTO BUCKINGHAM PALACE, she was a vision of understated elegance. The first lady wore a black, duchess satin opera coat with a pleated collar by Jason Wu—the sheen of the fabric and volume of the coat pronounced against the gray stone backdrop. With the front of her hair swept up, she carried a small roll clutch and wore dress pumps, both in coordinating black satin.
Inside Buckingham Palace, Mrs. Obama removed her coat, revealing an ivory and black silk crepe dress with an origami-inspired bow detail at the waistline, designed by Isabel Toledo. The fitted bodice and full skirt of the dress, the latter supported by an under layer of tulle petticoat, paired with a cashmere cardigan by Azzedine Alaïa, gave the ensemble a youthful charm.
Of note, both the dress and coat were originally made for different events during the inauguration. The black satin coat by Jason Wu was designed to be worn with Mrs. Obama’s Inaugural Ball gown, later replaced by a second and different design in ivory. The dress by Isabel Toledo had been made for the morning church service prior to the oath of office, though Mrs. Obama would ultimately opt to wear the lemongrass ensemble throughout the day. They proved to be a perfect, if unintended, pairing—both with a classic, timeless quality that was ideal for meeting the Queen.
Isabel Toledo was pleased that the ivory and black dress had been saved for the later occasion. “I thought it was perfect,” she said. “Michelle Obama really let the Queen shine in her blossom pink.” Commenting on the ivory and black palette, Toledo added, “This classic combination is well understood by men in tuxedos. You are always at your best without upstaging anyone else in the room. It is the art of restraint. For a woman, there is a sense of beauty in being discreet.”
Later in the evening, Mrs. Obama transitioned her look from day to evening, removing her cardigan for the G-20 Summit dinner at 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, in an Isabel Toledo dress and Azzedine Alaïa cardigan, pose for a photo with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
The Obamas join Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah for the G-20 dinner at 10 Downing Street, the U.K. Prime Minister’s offi
cial residence.
THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009
*
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School
*
FOR HER FINAL DAY IN LONDON, First Lady Michelle Obama would make her boldest fashion statement of the week. Wearing a teal blue, full-skirted dress by Jason Wu, and accessorizing with a double strand of pearls, the foundation of the look had the makings of a traditional ensemble.
Mrs. Obama, however, added an original and fashion forward twist, pairing her dress with an asymmetric, argyle cardigan by avant garde Japanese designer Junya Watanabe. The cardigan hailed from a recent collection themed around Africa, which was expressed using rich colors and prints. The designer, Mr. Watanabe, said of Mrs. Obama’s choice: “I was very delighted. I was very pleased to see the free and creative way she chooses her wardrobe.” Green Jimmy Choo Glacier pumps, the same worn during the inauguration, completed the ensemble.
While the basic components—a dress paired with a cardigan—had become a trusted silhouette for Mrs. Obama, the choice of cardigan and its designer, demonstrated a unique style sensibility. While much of the week was steeped in custom and tradition with clothes to suit, this particular ensemble showed Mrs. Obama’s personality, projecting a certain verve.
The morning would be spent with the G-20 spouses, first touring the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where the group listened to a reading by Harry Potter author JK Rowling and watched a dance reheasal for the production “Giselle.” For the afternoon, the group would visit the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington in North London.
There, Mrs. Obama listened to the Girls’ Choir perform. Visibily moved, the first lady would tell the girls, “All of you are jewels. You are precious, and you touch my heart.”