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Obama's Fashion Faux Pas

Slate language columnist and sometime "XX Factor" menswear correspondent Jesse Sheidlower tipped me off to the biggest untold fashion story of Inauguration Day: Obama's outfit for the balls was all wrong! He explains the details here:

While the dress new first lady Michelle Obama wore to the inauguration balls—"a fluffy, many-layered gown by a 26-year-old designer named Jason Wu"—got a typical amount of press attention, President Obama's attire was barely mentioned. Which is probably a good thing because it was, by the standards of men's formal dress, simply incorrect.

Obama was wearing a white bow tie and a tuxedo with a notch collar. There are many things wrong with this. First, the inaugural balls were not white-tie but black-tie events, and dressing more formally than required is a faux pas. Second, if Obama wanted to wear white tie, he should have done it right. White tie, or men's formal dress (traditionally black tie is known as "informal"; there's no such thing as "semi-formal"), is not simply a tuxedo worn with a white tie. It consists of a tailcoat, not a tuxedo jacket, and it is worn with a wing-collar shirt with a front of cotton piqué. The trousers traditionally have double piping on the side seam. Black tie consists of a tuxedo jacket (which traditionally has peak, not notch, lapels with satin or grosgrain facing) worn with a black bow tie and a pleated straight-collar shirt. The trousers have a single wide piping on the side seam.

Of course, it has become popular among prominent men to scramble formalwear conventions completely. It is now very common to see wing-collar shirts with tuxedos, or—even worse—that Oscar-season atrocity: A collarless shirt paired with a dark suit and called "black tie." But it's too bad the president couldn't have started off his term in a more appropriate outfit. He's proved that he can look fantastic in proper formal dress, as he'll need to do for state dinners, and it would have been nice to see how elegant he looked in a proper tuxedo.

One Last Word on that Chartreuse Confection

Judith Thurman, who wrote a profile of Isabel Toledo and her husband Ruben in The New Yorker two years ago, has this touching postscript on Michelle's Inauguration Day frock:

Since the whole occasion is so fraught with symbolism, I think that the choice of Isabel was particularly apt. She and Ruben are Latinos—from Cuba—who grew up in working-class families. They and the Obamas belong to the same generation. Ruben described himself to me (before Obama famously did) as a “mutt.” America gave them a chance, and they made the best of it. When Obama spoke, this morning, about the “makers” who work with their hands, and who have built America, he might have been thinking of the Toledos. They are also independent entrepreneurs who have built a small business, which has suffered its ups and downs, but they hang in. And like the Obamas, they’re an unusually devoted couple.

Add Jason Wu To the List...

Michelle Obama really is avoiding the First Lady fashion cliches (Oscar de la Renta, Escada), isn't she? With the debut of the ivory Jason Wu column Jessica wrote about tonight, we can add Wu's name, too, to the list of semi-obscure fashion names that average American women now know. (Is there a Target diffusion line in Wu's future?) Style.com pegs Wu as a designer who "has the immaculate Park Avenue thing down cold"; Michelle has been wearing his work since last year.

Love the feathery texture and the drapey skirt. Not as sure about the bridal color and the asymmetrical strap. What do you guys think? 

(Oh and Dayo, you're right that the men are stepping up their fashion game today: How'd you like Jay-Z's Urkel-ish glasses at the Neighborhood Ball? He pulls them off, no?)

Fashion Flashes at the Neighborhood Ball

Though she chose chartreuse for the swearing in, Michelle donned a white, vaguely Wilma Flintstoneish one-shouldered Jason Wu gown at the Neighborhood Ball. She looked fantastic, Flintstone notwithstanding. The same could not be said of Beyonce, who sang Etta James' anthem "At Last" while the Presidential couple took their first twirl. B's ill-fitting satin dress was…unfortunate at best. Even though her stylist should be shot for subjecting Beyonce to breast crimes of Barrymore proportions, her voice sounded better than ever. We're currently watching Jill and Joe Biden dance to "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You." My boyfriend's fashion commentary on Jill's tastefully low cut crimson dress: "pretty foxy." 

Daps and Hats on the Steps of the Cap

Greetings, ladies, in the aftermath of the wildest day in Washington since 1968. The press pit of which Eve speaks did carry a whiff of writerly aloofness; but the decidedly unjaded corps of celebrities more than compensated—livening up the already thrilling festivities.

The A-listers behaved themselves when George W. Bush, Cheney and John Boehner were introduced and a gurgle of boos came up from the mall, but Maria Shriver and her guest were first to pick up the rolling chant of “O-Ba-Ma” begun by some proud soul among the two million thronged behind us. 

Call outs: Denzel Washington standing and slow-clapping through the last half of Obama’s speech (no one told him to sit down); Jay-Z and P. Diddy high-fiving one another (three times, with feeling) over the head of a delighted Beyonce Knowles; Oprah furtively snapping pictures of Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel, mugging for the cameras just below the podium. And Chris Tucker jockeying for a family picture with the Rev. Jesse Jackson—and overheard complimenting the Rev. Joseph Lowery on his “mellow yellow” benediction: “I knew he was going to say something fly, I just knew it… He couldn’t contain himself.”

And, lest male fashion be deemed totally out of XX bounds, a note on hatwear (besides Aretha’s): Though John Kennedy’s 1960 inauguration supposedly killed off the man hat, several senators—and former NBA player and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who attended with DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee) wore traditional fedoras today—a snazzier way, perhaps, to keep heat from escaping than your typical ski cap. And Jay-Z, as Eve notes, was jubilant—having conscripted the luxuriant pelt of some poor animal to keep his own head warm. Spread it!

Green Gloves! Teal Pumps!

Could Michelle Obama have better color sense? Like Dana, I am loving her apolitically chartreuse outfit. (Although there is some fussiness in the scarf's interface with the ribbon that ties the coat closed, and I don't love the white lining that peeks out when she walks. Why not a lemon-lime lining, too?) But my favorite touches are her yellowish leaf-green gloves (from J. Crew, apparently) and ocean-hued blue-green pumps. I love the intensity of the colors, and the way they artfully clash. Down with matchy-matchiness. Long live Michelle!

Aretha Franklin With a Bow on Top

The Fierce Urgency of Chartreuse

Michelle Obama To Wear Isabel Toledo

Women's Wear Daily just reported that Michelle Obama will wear Isabel Toledo to Obama's swearing-in this morning. Add Toledo to the list of "Surprisingly Avant Garde Designers Our First Lady Likes." When she took over as creative director of troubled sportswear label Anne Klein a few years ago—an appointment that proved short-lived—Slate fashion critic Josh Patner noted that her work "often had a whisper of kinky seduction grounded in fine technique. Her jersey dresses twisted like serpents around the body. Silk skirts were hitched up at the hips with tiny metal loops; slashes in jersey dresses revealed the less obvious, and therefore more erotic, zones of the clavicle or rib cage." Sounds chilly for a day like today!