First Lady Elect Michelle Obama Shocks with Narciso Dress

[Richard]

I thought the dress Michelle wore was strange. It reminded me of a black widow.


By Alisa Gould-SimonNovember 05, 2008
 
Following nearly a year of feverish anticipation (and a more recent inability to deal with some salacious feelings for a certain Senator from Chicago), Barack Obama has been elected president. While all eyes were on the President Elect last night as he delivered an intensely moving acceptance speech, the world’s collective gaze soon turned to future First Lady Michelle Obama as she joined her husband on the podium in Chicago’s Grant Park. And, what they saw will likely keep the fashion world buzzing for days. Whether you loved it or hated it, Mrs. Obama’s frock choice -- a red-and-black sleeveless sheath with a criss-crossed black satin cummerbund off Narciso Rodriguez’s SS09 runway -- definitely made a statement.

Michelle Obama’s decision to sport an American designer was no surprise; she’s been doing so with everyone from J.Crew and Thakoon to Mario Pinto throughout the campaign. But it was the latter’s significantly more conservative coral-red silk sheath with a high, pleated neckline that the most avid of Mrs. Obama’s fashion followers (namely the blog mrs-o.org) were predicting the future first lady would don. And, while on the aforementioned blog’s commenters went wild calling fashion foul and criticizing the choice, I’d argue Michelle Obama made her most commendable fashion statement as of yet. The dress was by all accounts unexpected, unconventional, and right on trend (the cummerbund detailing immediately calls to mind this season’s pervasive bondage theme, not to mention the skirt initially was partially transparent—a ubiquitous SS09 theme—though Mrs. Obama appropriately covered up so as to make it opaque). Like any true fashion icon, Michelle Obama knows how to push the sartorial envelope, and how to ruffle some fashion feathers. I just can’t wait to see what’s awaiting us come Inauguration Day.

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/first-lady-elect-michelle-obama/4901

[Richard]

Black Widow

[Sily]

I liked the dress, sort of, but I know nothing about fashion.  I mean, I was trying to imagine Hillary or Laura B., it the same dress.  I couldn't see them doing it.  Hehe...

The next four years I think will be interesting.  I hope they throw more parties in the white house than the Bushes did.  Those reptilian Bushes know nothing about partying. :( When was the last time a party was held in the white house?  It's been years it seems.  I used to like to watch the parties the Clintons would have, on C-Span.

Everyone has been saying the black widow thing, about the dress.  I guess I can see it, but what I immediately thought of, was not a widow.... but a blood splatter.  She is hemorrhaging from the middle of her body?  And see that leather black sash wrapped around her?  That is a bandage, to either hold her together or to stop the bleeding.

CNN also used the blood splatter symbolism during the last year during the election.  For both McCain and Obama red and blue dots would float together to form one huge splatter pattern.

[DreamTime]

Wow, Sily, that is the same thing that I said to Richard when I first saw that dress. I said it looked like a blood splatter, like someone or something was killed in her honor and the blood got all over her.

[Sily]

Yeah, I thought it was a strange choice, to wear that dress. 

[marting]

Black Widow?  Is there a message here that something is going to happen to Barack Obama during his presidency, that will leave his wife a (black) widow?