Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Sunday 31 August 2008

Conventional dressing


From The New Republic - I like this because it doesn't just deal with how the women are dressed:

Like his niece, Ted Kennedy, who delivered the most moving (at moments heartbreaking, given the circumstances) speech of the evening, was dressed in navy blue. If, as Diana Vreeland once quipped, "pink is the navy blue of India," then navy blue is the navy blue of politics. All the prominent politicians of the evening--Joe Biden, Jim Leach, John Kerry, Kennedy--wore navy blue jackets, white or blue shirts, and white-and-blue patterned ties. Their ensembles were so similar one began to suspect they had, like a clique of junior-high girls, called each other the night before to coordinate outfits. (Kerry's take, however, was rather more patrician: cornflower blue tie; matte where others' fabrics were meretriciously shiny.) The reasons for all the blue are obvious. It's patriotic, and it's also the party's color. Perhaps more relevantly, navy seems safe and stalwart in this aforementioned time of war and economic insecurity: the color is free from the suspicious slickness of black, and the dowdy, Beta-male connotations of brown. A real man throws on a navy blue sport coat when he cleans up and goes out. Navy blue is a color that will--to quote another commentator from CNN's very deep bench, who was himself quoting Groucho Marx --"play well in Peoria."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Michelle Obama's look.

The night of Barack's acceptance speech she wore a dress from Thakoon's 09 resort collection. Here's a link to the dress in a slide-show. Fun to also see the print in other pieces (a bikini and a coat.)

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/2009RST-THAKOON/?loop=0&&iphoto=18&play=false&cnt=23

NancyDaQ said...

I love her look too. At least part of the reason is that Michelle, until recently, was also an executive and before that, an attorney. Too many women in professional positions have the attitude that they're too "serious" for clothes. It's refreshing that she doesn't share this attitude.

Duchesse said...

For men, navy looks good on camera- far less draining than black, more authority than brown. Barack favours black which is effective against his skin, and a gleaming white shirt.
The aquamarine dress Michelle wore- superb choice.

Anonymous said...

I remember my mother wore, er, pantsuits in the 1960s. They curiously resembled what Hillary has been wearing recently. At least she didn't wear navy!

Anonymous said...

That's a great article. Having recently outed myself as currently working in politics I might be tempted to make some comments on this but won't, given the global nature of the internet. Suffice to say, I'm fond of navy blue for my boss too!

Michelle Obama has marvellous style, I always enjoy seeing pictures of her.