When It Comes To Political Wives These Days, Style Doesn't Always Speak Louder Than Words

Tanika White, in the Balt Sun (July 13, 2004):

... "I've followed all of the candidates and the candidates' wives since January," said Myra Gutin, historian and author of The President's Partner: The First Lady in the 20th Century. "And truthfully there hasn't been that much attention on fashion."

Possibly because there isn't much of it to speak of.

Unlike the ultra-chic Jacqueline Kennedy, who lived in Oleg Cassini, waved to the American public in Chanel and ran errands in Valentino, today's political wives seem stuck in dress-down Friday....

Hillary Rodham Clinton - although a high-powered lawyer - still took painful hits about her fashion errors (remember the headband?) and her thick ankles, said Gina Pia Bandini, editor-in-chief of the online magazine FashionFinds.com.

Eventually, despite her credentials, Clinton was forced to change her style. As a governor's wife, Clinton wore thick glasses. On the campaign trail with her husband, she dabbled with those regrettable headbands. Today, as a senator, she has a more classic, professional look - black pantsuits, chic but easy hair.

The makeover comes with the territory.

"The job of first lady does demand that you start to pay some attention to your clothes," Gutin said. "Even someone as venerable as Eleanor Roosevelt had to go to a designer or a dressmaker for her clothes eventually."

Despite the perennial focus on what political wives wear, experts said, most first ladies start out fashion-backward.

"I think Jackie Kennedy was the anomaly," Bandini said. "Basically, first ladies are usually pretty dowdy, though they were better coiffed (than Edwards or Kerry)."

Nancy Reagan, though expensively dressed, still came off like someone's wealthy, overly powdered grandmother. Mamie Eisenhower was frighteningly frumpy, and Mrs. Andrew Johnson smoked a pipe. Lyndon Johnson was a thousand times better-dressed than Lady Bird.

"No one looked at Rosalynn Carter and said, 'Wow! Look at what that lady has on,'" said historian Tim Blessing, from Pennsylvania State University and Alvernia College.

The difference, experts say, is that today's first ladies don't necessarily have to be fabulous, but they do have to be somewhat fashion-conscious.

Hillary Clinton had to sit for a Vogue cover. Laura Bush, never a big shopper, has become buddy-buddy with designer Carolina Herrera and warmed to her fashion advice. Mom-in-law and former first lady Barbara Bush improved her off-the-rack style as well.

"Over time, she shed a little bit of weight. She started to be dressed by Arnold Scaasi. She became a little more up-to-date," Gutin said.

In our nation's infancy, presidents often came from aristocracy, so it was expected that their wives would dress more like princesses than pilgrims.