Obama’s casual style makes her fashion’s first lady

US first lady Michelle Obama (R) and her British counterpart Sarah Brown In Britain two days ago. Obama's fashion taste has left the British press saying less than impressive things about Mrs Brown. - Reuters pic

LONDON, April 3 — First Lady Michelle Obama has wowed fashion writers with her casual style, use of color and her penchant for the sleeveless dress at the G20 summit in the British capital this week.

Newspapers in Britain and the United States were united in their praise for Obama’s sartorial choices for outings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah, an official reception with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace and dinner at Number 10 Downing Street.

The right-leaning Telegraph newspaper compared Brown unfavorably with Obama, saying the PM’s wife had upped her fashion game after being upstaged by French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Carla Bruni during an earlier visit from the French first couple only to be trounced by Obama this week.

“In her drab navy ensemble by Britt Lintner which she wore to the same engagement at Charing Cross Hospital, she paled in comparison to Michelle Obama, the fusty matron to the Glamazon,” the Telegraph said.

And Obama has also put paid to those Americans fretting that the First Lady’s fondness for baring her biceps might be embarrassing when she met with the British queen in a sleeveless number disguised with an elegant black cardigan. The queen wore pink.

“Changing into an elegant black-and-white Isabel Toledo dress from springy J.Crew pieces Wednesday in London, First Lady Michelle Obama showcased her versatility and officially became one of the fab four of the political fashion world in the modern era-joining Jacqueline Kennedy, French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Princess Diana,” enthused the Chicago Tribune.

The cardigan came off after the G20 dinner at the official residence of the British prime minister to even more applause from the fashion pack, revealing the sculpted biceps that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd praised for being the “only bracing symbol of American strength right now.”

The Chicago Tribune also reminded its readers that in 1961 Jacqueline Kennedy and the queen both wore sleeveless gowns with gloves for their dinner.

“There really aren’t the same conservative old rules now,” British-born Avril Graham, executive fashion and beauty editor at Harper’s Bazaar, said.

Britain’s left-leaning Guardian newspaper gave both Brown and Obama points for their “homegrown style on a budget” that would be a boost for the fashion industry.

“Today Mrs. Obama arrived at Downing Street in a fresh, colorful combination while Mrs. Brown looked smart in navy,” the paper said. “But the two women’s outfits had a lot in common - both had been carefully chosen to support their native fashion industry.”

Calgary Avansino, Vogue magazine’s executive fashion editor, said that both women had dressed to reflect their own style.

“But I think they both are obviously trying to send a very clear message that they can wear what the average women would wear and still look great and that they are not above it.”

The British tabloid Mirror was also enthusiastic about Obama’s populist high street style, dubbing her the “First Lady of fashion”.

“Michelle Obama dazzled when she first appeared on the steps of No 10 not in a top designer outfit — but an ensemble from US high street chain J Crew,” the Mirror said.

The paper priced out Obama’s cream star constellation cardigan at 208 pounds (RM1,101) and green jacquard skirt at 110 pounds before admiring her understated way with the common folks during a visit to a cancer care center in London.

Mother of five Trudi Cogdell said: “She didn’t put on airs and graces - she just sat there and had a cup of tea.”

The Daily Mail sounded the only sour note, saying Obama stumbled on the style front when she donned a blue cardigan with a “garish argyle pattern” over a full-skirted prom dress for a visit alongside other G20 wives and partners to the Royal Opera House, where they heard a reading from Harry Potter author JK Rowling. — Reuters Life!

What Shoes To Wear With Your Straw Hats & More

Hats have been making a slow resurgence over the past several years, much to my delight. I am a big aficianado of the lovely ladylikeness or saucy jauntiness of a hat, as well as its practicality (goodbye facial moles!) and ability to complete an outfit. There’s something so cool, so nonchalant and yet so look-at-me about a hat. I expect that as more and more people start to wear them, it won’t be so noticeable anymore to wear one. They will become a much more mainstream accessory, hopefully, and will be paired well with shoes.

Jennifer Aniston was recently photographed carrying a straw hat, Beyonce and Rihanna love to wear them, and many a celebrity from Sienna Miller to Leonardo DiCaprio is frequently seen enjoying the cool Havana ease of a straw hat. Most of the ladies sport the look with shorts or a shortsuit/onesie type outfit. But the question is, what kind of shoes do you wear with them?

The lovely Jennifer Aniston goes for neutral Weitzman wedges, a perfect answer, in my opinion. (Aside: I love Jennifer Aniston more and more as the years go by. She annoyed me on “Friends,” of course, but she is great now. I think that she is an inspiration to a world that tells you that the sexiness of a woman dies at 40. Yes, she has the body of a 20-year-old, but it’s more the way she carries herself. She’s so much more confident now, and it shows. It’s all I can do to hold back a “You go, girl! Who needs Brad Pitt when you’re cougaring every hottie in sight and doing better movies every day and running your own production company?”)

Be, never the tame one, pairs yellow spikes that have been surmised to be YSL (since we all know she hardly ever lets anything non-top notch designer touch her body) with her yellow hat.

Riri, resplendent in white and a printed patterned onesie short, goes for casual bejeweled sandals.

Cindy Crawford, still one of the sexiest ladies around, in my opinion, even more so for how well she’s aged, prefers a more cowboy style hat, at least for this ad. I think the cowboy style is a “Proceed With Caution.” If you are down South, or if you are on vacation, or at the beach, I think it is fine. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be caught dead in one, especially in New York. It nettles me that western style cowboy boots are in, AGAIN, this fall, when I have had to endure so many Williamsburg and downtown New York girls wearing them. It’s pretentious, in a word, to sport cowboy style when you are so obviously metropolitan.

This summer in New York, St. Marks, the street that is the arbiter of plebeian downtown New York fashion, where vendors hawk mainstream downtown fashion to NYU students and broke 20-somethings and 30-somethings, is loaded with straw hats right now. Go there for your bargain hats.

Here are a couple hats I bought on St. Marks.

This first smaller hat I bargained down to $11. (Pretend to walk away and you will get a much better deal).

This second hat was $18 (I bargained them down from $25).

The second hat curves nicely into a floppy brim when worn.

But what kind of outfits and shoes have I been wearing with these hats?

For the smaller hat: mostly a t-shirt, miniskirt and sandals or a big men’s shirt half unbuttoned with the cuffs rolled up, plimsolls or Keds and shorts.

For the larger hat: beachwear, a long buttoned loose white shirtdress with billowy sleeves, or a classic summer sundress in white, with wedges or cone stacked heels in soft gold or neutral colors. Do it up like this with simple black sandals for a more formal event.

For a dramatic floppy hat, you can do more with the other accessories than you can with a small hat. Work it on out with some shades, some artsy fartsy “ethnic” earrings and a white top like the sexy bohemian lady of our times, Kate Hudson.

For shoes, a great option would be straw-effect sandals as well, like these by milliner and shoe designer Eric Javits. I’m not a big fan of straw shoes, but man, do his look good!

Here are some of his lovely hats. I especially like the striped one on the right.

Here is Britney in one of Eric Javits’ hats. I bet you she’s wearing sandals, probably white and maybe with straw or bejeweled accents.

You want it to look like this with a straw hat. Effortless yet so chic. The shoes are a perfect match for the dress and hat, carrying the theme of yellow in the straw, black in the band of the hat and the base of the shoe. Gorgeous.