Michelle Obama: America's Fashionable First Lady

  • 11 years ago
Michelle Obama: America's Fashionable First Lady
de Young Museum - de Young Museum
Every first lady makes an impression, whether she means to or not. Some arrive at the White House already well versed in the sartorial requirements of the job -- what Lady Bird Johnson referred to as the "harness of hairdo and gloves" -- and embrace the style-setting authority of the role as Jacqueline Kennedy did in 1961. Others resent the expectation, failing to grasp why what makes them feel comfortable should be the public's business.

This talk looks at how first ladies -- from Dolley Madison to Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama -- have affected American style and changed the way women in this country dress for work, for the public spotlight, and for themselves.