Honored, humbled and a bit embarrassed, first lady consigns her gown to history
Michelle Obama acknowledged having mixed feelings Tuesday as she consigned her 2009 Inaugural Ball gown to posterity and a glass case at the Smithsonian.
“So, here we are. It’s the dress,” she laughed at a ceremony in the National Museum of American History to mark the addition of her one-shouldered, floor-length, white silk chiffon gown to a permanent exhibit on first ladies.
She was joined by the gown’s 26-year-old Taiwan-born designer, Jason Wu.
“To be honest, I am very honored and very humbled, but I have to say that I’m also a little embarrassed by all the fuss,” she added. “Like many of you, I’m not used to people wanting to put things I’ve worn on display.”
Humble comments from the first black woman to become America’s first lady.
The collection includes inaugural gowns from the nation’s long march of January galas, including Jackie Kennedy’s and Mary Todd Lincoln’s.
Asian fusion is on APEC’s sartorial menu
The APEC summit gives world leaders a chance to play a little dress-up and trade-in their typical business suits for the traditional wear of the host country.
This year it’s in Singapore and we’ve got a description, but no photos yet, of what the leaders will wear for the group shot on Nov. 14.
Long-sleeved linen shirts with mandarin collars for the men, and a V-necked blouse with elaborate embroidery and lace for the women will be sported by President Barack Obama and the leaders of the 20 other nations attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.
This year’s outfit was created by local Singapore designer Wykidd Song, the Straits Times reported, and is inspired by the Peranakans, a local term for the descendants of the Chinese who settled in the Malay Archipelago from the 17th century.
“The Peranakan culture is a rich blend of the Chinese and Malay cultures with some influence from the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Thai, Indian and Indonesian cultures as well, ” the Singapore Tourist Board says on its web site.
And there’s a choice of color – blue, red and green.
Hawaiian ‘shaka’ greeting comes natural to Obama
KAILUA, HI – Barack Obama may be the first U.S. president who can successfully pull off the shaka, a Hawaiian greeting Hawaiians say has various meanings, from “hang loose” and “cool” to “thanks.” The hand gesture, also a common greeting in surfer culture, consists of curling the three middle fingers and extending the thumb and little finger. The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards, flipped the shaka to a crowd of about 30 people as he left a gym on a Marine Corps base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is vacationing. Obama, born and largely raised on Oahu, then walked over to greet the crowd, which had waited through a brief cloudburst to see him. Righting his baseball cap as he walked, he shook hands before posing with four babies.
People here are missing the point. We’re arguing that the media is not being the media. Have they even analyzed Obama’s plans or how he’s going to lead? What about what Obama has done for Illinois? You know, like a journalist for Reuters is supposed to do?
Journalistic integrity is dead in this country.
Fashionistas prescribe tweezers for McCain, eye cream for Obama
In the wake her $150,000 wardrobe flap, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has complained that male politicians largely escape the scrutiny that she undergoes from the fashion police.
Not so fast. The Grooming Lounge, a Georgetown hair salon that coiffs many of Washington’s most powerful players, has weighed in with beauty tips for the men in the race.
Here’s what they have to say.
Republican John McCain: Slather on some “self tanning product” to exude a healthy glow, and tweeze the eyebrows. “Our research shows that the last five elections have been won by the candidate with more well-trimmed eyebrows,” the Grooming Lounge says.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama: Use a cream to reduce the bags under the eyes, and wear shorts, not sweatpants, while playing basketball. “Sweats and hoops are on separate sides of the aisle,” they write.
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden: whiten the teeth and get a haircut. “The presence of excessive fly-aways make him look less put together and too much off-the-cuff,” the salon says.
Todd Palin, “First Dude” of Alaska: Switch to a less-shiny hair gel and shave the goatee to ease concerns about wife Sarah’s maturity. “Such pre-meditated facial hair makes him look a tad collegiate, more youthful than needed and adversely affects Governor Palin’s attempts to seem more experienced,” they write.
Sarah’s wardrobe “flap”? I think Sarah is just very creative. Look:
Sarah Palin, now worth $1.2 Million, created a new Republican “no-tax but spend & spread the wealth” model:
no taxes in Alaska (no sales tax, no income tax),hundreds of millions in “socialist welfare” (including thousand dollar checks to all),
including the “Bridge to Nowhere” (flip-flopping for it before she was against it!),
even hiring a D.C. lobbying firm to get millions while small-town mayor of Wasilla (pop. 7,000!),
paying for this “spreadin of the wealth” by boondoggling taxpayers from the “other 49” for hundreds of millions (“I spend, you pay!”)
and slyly covering her trail by babbling on about “government get out of my way” in the debate with Biden!
Sarah got creative with her wardrobe, too, spendin lavishly on herself, but was this a “flap”?:
$4,716.49 on hair and makeup just through September,
$22,800.00 on makeup Oct. 1-15,
$5,102.71 at Bloomingdale’s New York,
$9,447.71 at Macy’s in Minn.,
$49,425.74 at Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and NY
$75,062.63 in a whopping’spendin spree at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis (doggone it, she’s goin upscale on us real fast!).
Then there’s $21,012. for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights (paid by the state of Alaska, admirably provin Palin’s credentials as an equal-opportunity biller)!
Republicans used to belittle former Sen. John Edwards’ $400 haircut, but compared to Palin, that’s chump change!
I think Sarah is actually tryin’ to creatively spend us out of this recession Bush got us into with his deregulation mantra.
Hey, wouldn’t Sarah, creative as she is, actually make a swell Pres.?
