I’m Really Not A Fan Of Michelle Obama’s Isabel Toledo Dress

Tuesday January 20th 2009, 1:01 pm
Filed under: 2009,Random,Women's Fashion

I am truly not a fan of the Isabel Toledo dress that Michelle Obama chose to wear to the 44th Presidential Inauguration ceremony.

Before I continue, let’s get two things straight: I am not an over patriotic American (which is difficult to be when one is Canadian), but I’d like to think I know a thing or two about appropriate wardrobe color styling.

My first beef: Green? Come on. As almost anyone in this wide world knows, the colors of America are red, blue and white; green is the exact contrasting color to red; which her husband wore!. Her outfit seemed to be an absolute contrast to nearly every single other piece worn by the officials and well wishers at the ceremony.

My second beef: This dress and matching jacket seemed to be designed for a senior First Lady; not a woman who is vibrant and young. Wearing matching suits like that is more akin to a design that Hillary would have chosen (Lord knows how she loves her matching pant suits). Let’s bring back the more youthful, exuberant Michelle Obama; not a reincarnation of Laura Bush.

My third beef: Those forest green pumps; why oh why?! They seemed out of place and poorly chosen to accent an already strong faded chartreuse. For a woman who is already wearing loads of silver on her outfit, I would have thought she would have matched her shoes to work with the visual her outfit was already accented with.

My fourth beef: The 60s embellishments aged her and seemed to take away from her history of making far more appropriate wardrobe choices for public events. She has always historically been a plainer dresser; this outfit seemed to obviously chosen for the desired glitz effect.

Did you like her outfit? I’d like to hear all of your opinions.

I'm Really Not A Fan Of Michelle Obama's Isabel Toledo Dress

7 Comments

7 Comments so far
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Her jewel colors have worked beautifully. Why change now? Yellow/green sallows her complexion and is too pale next to Obama’s dark suit. Pumps are so bad they defy description. What happened? She took a seriously wrong turn with this outfit.

01.20.09 @ 2:38 pm

[...] the green inauguration dress debacle, it was a relief to see Michelle Obama in a designed and grandly matched floor length white Jason [...]

01.21.09 @ 10:09 am

I agree with you !

01.21.09 @ 11:53 pm

i am biased to green.
the green pumps i like.
the matching, jacket, geometric dress combo could have strayed a wee bit farther from the yellow hue spectrum.
actually, now that i think about. i Really like the green pumps. alot.

01.22.09 @ 1:23 am

Sorry, I have to respectfully disagree on your commentary regarding Mrs. Obama’s choice of the Isabel Toledo outfit on the following points:

1> It doesn’t seem to be a green colour; Ms. Toledo, the designer of the dress, described the colour as “lemongrass.”

2> Many commentators have said that the cut, style and colour is definitely a break with the conventional choices that previous first ladies have worn. Considering that most people during Inauguration were dressed in winter clothing, Mrs. Obama took a caculated risk that made her stand out in a largely positive manner.

3> The green Jimmy Choo shoes are fine; she would have received flack for something that was matching or even traditional in a black colour. Why not do something unconventional and daring like a green shoe?

4> Apart from the jewelry detail at the neck, this isn’t ultra-glitzy. It reflects her own personal style, and the symbolism behind the dress couldn’t be more appropriate.

Rather than go with an established designer, she went with a designer with a lower but equally favourable profile who still happens to have her clothes made in the USA.

Considering that she’s developed her eye for fashion with the help of a local clothing store owner in Chicago, and has paid for her and her family’s clothing for the inauguration out of her own pocket, she’s doing a pretty good job so far.

01.22.09 @ 2:27 am

I do love it, to be honest. Would I have chosen the YELLOW ensamble for Michelle? No. But I do think she chose nicely. It sets an elegant tone for her transition into being First Lady, and also, ever-so-slightly, echoes Jackie O in her days as America’s most favorite Doyenne.

01.22.09 @ 7:15 am

I guess everyone missed where I called the dress chartreuse.

01.22.09 @ 11:04 am

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