Tuesday, 8 December 2015

At State Dinner, Michelle Obama Grabs Back the Spotlight


Friday night may have been a watershed for Michelle Obama. At the White House dinner for the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the first lady summoned previously untapped, and perhaps unsuspected, reserves of glamour.

Her long side-swept hair and black off-the-shoulder gown by the Chinese-American designer Vera Wang revealed an acute political savvy that was more than mere words could convey.

Had Flotus gone Hollywood? Not quite. But her red-carpet-worthy turnout, evocative of Beyoncé at the top of her form, seemed especially well timed, inciting, predictably, an outpouring of mostly upbeat social commentary that eclipsed the event and all but engulfed the web.

Her shrewdly calibrated allure, which easily rivaled that of any first lady in recent memory, suggests that Mrs. Obama has embraced an enviable position at the intersection of pop culture and politics — just because she can.

With her time in the White House about to expire, Mrs. Obama — who has flirted in the past with fashion’s cutting edge, igniting flurries of debate with her bangs and bare, gym-toned arms — has irrevocably pulled out the stops.

Of late, Mrs. Obama seemed to have largely ceded much of fashion’s spotlight to her 17-year-old daughter, Malia, a style setter to any number of fashion besotted girls her age.

But the first lady has snatched back the focus, permitting herself to dazzle in a dress that clung to her hips like cellophane and showed a nervy hint of cleavage. (It was also in sharp contrast to the two outfits she wore to meet Pope Francis earlier in the week: one a demure cowl-neck, turquoise Carolina Herrera dress, the other a black, lacy, but equally modest Monique Lhuillier.)
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Her hair, customarily straight and center-parted, fell in loose waves past one shoulder, that ’do presumably the handiwork of the Chicago-born first stylist, Johnny Wright.

Was it enhanced by a weave? Only Mr. Wright can say for sure. And, for now at least, he’s not talking.

Reaction on the web was immediate and keen, Jamilah Lemieux, for one, exulting on Twitter, “FLOTUS serving that hair and hips tonight, we are not worthy!

Dr. Boyce Watkins, the political and social commentator, was no less effusive. The self-proclaimed “people’s scholar” posted, “I don’t think we’ll ever have a first lady this gorgeous again.

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