deep thoughts about the future of this administration

[mrissa]

Okay, fellow Really Pale Femmey Women! I think we need a preemptive writing on the blackboard exercise. Fifty times each:

"Just because Michelle Obama can wear that color does not mean I can wear that color."

We are going to need it this administration. Our new First Lady is veryvery good at dressing herself, not some idealized person on whom all trends look good, even the contradictory ones. And that is the lesson we need to learn from her clothes, not, "Ooh, she looks so pretty, I should wear exactly what she's wearing!"

Because she looks lovely, and we would look like three-month-old lutefisk in some of these colors.

Seriously. We need to take deep breaths and repeat, "Not every color is for every person, and that's okay."

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I couldn't wear the colors worn by Laura Bush.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

And while Michelle Obama has managed to look good in almost every color I've seen her in, three month old lutefisk is a good name for what she wore this morning. Eww. Lady, you can pull off all the good colors. Wear something awesome!

[zunger.livejournal.com]

we would look like three-month-old lutefisk in some of these colors.

OK, that's officially the weirdest inauguration mental picture that I have had today. Michelle Obama as a lutefisk.

Second place goes to Dick Cheney as a viper fish, but that's just par for the course.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Umm...she looked nothing like lutefisk. But in that outfit, boy howdy would I have.

[zunger.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, she looked great, but you still made me think of a giant lutefisk at the ceremony.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

She wears colors that not every Femmey POC can wear, either.

signed,
Would Look Two Days Dead in That Beautiful Yellow

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh yah, for sure. Not meant to be an exclusive lesson--we should all dress ourselves, not theoretical categories.

But the theoretical category of really pale women should universally steer clear of that yellow, even if we're not alone in doing so.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

Yah - one of the things Chelle and I discovered last summer, while shopping, is that I vary between two shades: reddish pink, and vaguely pink-white (as in, charred and non-charred Cait). Neither of these shades looks *at all* attractive in really pale colours, particularly white. If I wear white, I look green. It's not an attractive colour on me. Green, I mean. I mean, there may well be people whose skin is green, and who are happy about that. I am happy for them.

But green is not a colour for me to be.

I thought she looked great in it - she's got a very warm tone to her skin, so the gold looked complementary to it. I also noticed that her heels made her exactly as tall as him. Not taller, but not shorter, neither. I noticed it when they were standing on the steps after pushing KGII into the helicopter, with Joe Biden and his wife (whose name I don't know?). The heads were three of a line, and the tininess of Biden's wife. I looked down, Ms. Obama's wearing these one-inch heels, just enough to make her his height. Nice detail.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Second Lady is named Jill.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

Merci - I'd thought Charlotte, for some reason, glad I hadn't guessed. :)

[prettymuchpeggy.livejournal.com]

I look good in bold or primary colors except orange and some shades of pink. I only wish I was proportioned correctly to wear some of those styles.

As far as three month old lutefisk, huh? Okay...perhaps in the texture...maybe?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Just yesterday I was discussing with friends the range of colors Indian women can look fantabulous in that we Caucasian types Should Not Attempt.

I am okay with this. I am okay with envying Michelle Obama that yellow coat, and Aishwarya Rai that hot-pink sari, without that envy leading me to try the same thing myself.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Orange. I envy orange.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Orange is one of the ones I got. If it's not pale enough to really be peach, I can wear it well.

Which sometimes results in, "Huh...that dress/shirt is really ugly...but you look really good in it, oddly enough."

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I can testify to your awesomeness in your orange dress. (Still waiting for those hot jeans photos. ;-))

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Turn down the lech-o-matic just a hair there, please.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

No offense intended, only respectful compliments (and still hoping my wife, son and I can host you all for a dinner should life take you to Brooklyn).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If I doubted your intent, you would have gotten the verbal smackdown instead of the polite request.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Not me, though I've seen African-American women who make me think of the color as something other than wasted bit of the spectrum.

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

I only caught a little bit of it before Nora melted down and I had to deal with her. But I thought what I saw of it was a little shapeless. I mean, I know it was cold out, but I thought Jill Biden was bundled up but still feminine looking.

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

What about the girls? "Sasha and Malia: America’s Adorable New Statler and Waldorf"

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/01/sasha_and_malia.html

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That's okay, I can't pull off the jeweled collar, either.

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I might be able to pull off that yellow if I got a tan. That's one of those hit or miss colors on me. As opposed to orange which is a pretty sure bet for looking good or hot pink which always makes me look very very ill.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I would never have categorized you as Really Pale, so go for it or not as you see fit. The loss of hot pink doesn't grieve me in particular on my own behalf, so I hope it doesn't you, either.

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

True. I missed the "really pale" part of the post. The loss of hot pink doesn't grieve me any longer, but when I was about five it was a major hot-button bone of contention between myself and my mom.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky enough to be able to wear a pretty wide variety of colors, but yellow is the major exception. I *might* be able to pull off that pale gold without looking horrible, but it would definitely be suboptimal.

(I wince whenever I reread Pat of Silver Bush or Mistress Pat and Montgomery talks about how she looks like a 'paler and browner' (???) in green, but flower in yellow - Pat has more or less my coloring. But then those books make me wince for a lot of reasons. Don't know why I do reread them.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Pat books have a bad crazy. Sad but true.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Yes, but they have a girl in love with a house. That's not something you see every day.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I *like* change. So I always end up swearing at Pat a lot.

Oh, _word_.

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, people of all colors who are interested in wearing womenswear could and should do a take on Dr. Jill Biden's black boots!

(She's an English professor, you know, so I am justly rather chuffed about her and her boots.)

Re: Oh, _word_.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen them; if you happen upon an image in your web-wanderings and have the time to link it back, I'd like to see.

(Can't do heels myself at all--I fall enough in flats these days. Still like boots.)

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I have to sign on with the people who didn't like that yellow dress (particularly with the green gloves and other accessories). She looked like Opening Day for the Oakland A's. That said, I think she's an incredibly beautiful woman and is so striking she could wear a burlap sack with combat boots and still look smokin'.

[talimena.livejournal.com]

A lesson well worth remembering. I really liked her outfit today, but it was probably the last colour I should ever wear. I do covet the turquoise one she wore at the convention (I think. Wide v neckline.) and I can sometimes carry that colour off.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

So true. I discourage my friends from wearing yellow, even if it looks good on them, because I look so bad anywhere near it.

Michelle Obama, on the other hand, looks sublime in it. Go her!

ETA: I don't mind if they wear yellow when I'm not around, as long as they put it away before I come over. ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You know, I read somewhere that people decorate their houses to colors that are flattering to them, and...this totally does not explain the 1970s. At all.

My bathroom is a warm butter-yellow now. I never would have chosen it if the fixtures hadn't been harvest gold and the tile tan, but there were more important things on my list than replacing a perfectly functional sink and toilet and tile. Now I actually like the bathroom pretty well. I do go elsewhere to check a different mirror if I think a color is completely unflattering on me, though.

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

The thing about people decorating their houses in colors that are flattering to them is true. My mom sells floor coverings (carpet, tile, etc.) and she says that when a someone comes into the store, she takes them to the carpet or tile in colors they would look good in - and she is really good at judging things like that. She says it's particularly important when someone comes in asking for a color like gray, yellow, or beige, which can be warm or cool and come in so many shades.

Of course, people are also influenced by trends. Which explains the 1970s, and well, all periods since then.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And the person who does the shopping is almost always the decision-maker such that if they live with one or more other people of different coloring, going with the person who has come into the store tends to work?

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

Often enough that it's a time saver to start with that person's coloring. And yeah, it's usually not a man coming in alone, unless he's single. If a couple comes in together, she goes with the coloring of the woman, because they tend to be the decision makers, with the men having veto power. But when she talks about seeing people I knew in high school, she usually identifies the woman as having come in the store.

I don't think she has a script for dealing with same-sex couples since they're pretty rare out there but my guess is that she would probably work with whoever engaged her first.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

My grandfather decorated their house to go with my grandmother's carrot-red hair: many greens, cream, lavender, burnt orange, brown.

[laurel]

So true. She looked great yesterday morning in that lemongrass sort of color that looked yellow at times and a bit green in other lights. A great color, which I surely could not wear. I was less keen on her evening dress, from what little I saw of it. Need a better look at it.

Others have mentioned orange in comments-- that's a color I can usually do (depending on the shade) and which I love. I like yellow and grew up with a yellow bedroom, but that color doesn't really work on me. Some shades of green can, but it's a very tricky thing. Certain blues and greens will just draw attention to my veins that are visible through my skin if I show skin. D'oh! Not a cool look. Well, maybe a chilly look.

'Course I don't think "ooh, she looks so pretty, I should wear exactly what she's wearing" is ever a good idea, really.

I'm glad she wore color and not some darn neutral. She looks like she can pull of color well.

Our bathroom paint color was also picked so it would match existing tile/fixtures as well. Fortunately it's a nice light apple green (named "wasabi" even though it's not that color) that Kevin and I both like which somehow works with the tiles that have avocado green flecks in them. Makes 'em look not avocado, really, when next to it.

I heard someone criticize the grey outfit that Laura Bush wore and I thought they totally missed the point. I'm betting Laura Bush was sensible (or worked with someone sensible) and wanted to be sure that whatever she wore didn't clash with Michelle Obama's outfit and didn't outshine it in any way. Certainly wouldn't want to be in a bright flashy color on that particular day. (And it wouldn't have been a matter of being able to contact Obama's people and ask what color she was going to wear-- it sounds like not even the designers or staff knew. Multiple outfits were created for Michelle Obama for both morning and evening, but no one really knew which one she was going to wear.)

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Do Not Like the evening dress, mostly because of the fluffy strappy thing up top. But I'm not generally a fan of one-shoulder dresses (there are a few exceptions. Togas work.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I liked Laura Bush's outfit for her, too. More than anything, I felt it was appropriate. It was not her day to shine and be the center of attention; she has worn things that "popped" more than the grey suit did, but it was flattering while being gracious about not trying to seize the spotlight.

[hbevert.livejournal.com]

I completely agree that slavishly following the cues of a stylish First Lady is not right for everyone. Most women looked terrible in the boxy jackets and little hats of Jackie Kennedy when they followed her lead, too. And even Barbara Bush never looked anything but old in those pearls that everyone had to have at the end of the 80s.
As a pale white woman from the north, I was surprised and pleased to be informed this weekend that I looked very good in an orange dress that is actually a weave of crayon-yellow threads crossed with crayon-red threads. It's one of those colors I thought only brown-skinned women could pull off.
No criticism from this quarter about Laura's gray outfit. It was cut in a flattering fashion and Mrs. Bush happens to look just fine in gray.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

She does; she looks much better in gray than I do. And as I said to laurel above, it was not "her" day, so I thought it was very appropriate and gracious of her to wear something that, while pretty, was not attempting to steal anyone else's thunder.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

YES. I can admire some colors on people of a different ethnic history than mine, while still granting that I would look like death warmed over (several times) in such shades.

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

I worked with a lot of Indians at Unisys, and I find that it's changed the way I look at color in women's clothes. A lot of us American women had one or two salwar kameez (long tunic with matching/coordinating pants, and the Indian guys would get so excited when we wore them - they'd grin at us in the hall and tell us how good we looked. When I asked why, a couple of them explained that they think American women's office clothes are drab and unflattering. Over time, I started to agree with them. So I'm buying a lot more color these days, since yeah, everyone wearing black tops and khakis or jeans is really boring.