Royal Wedding: The Dress

They said it was all about the dress, right?  Well, the dress sort of disappointed.

Kate Middleton looked very pretty.  As I said in my post yesterday she could have worn a sack and looked good.  Has she been eating the last few months?  Because her waist could not be any smaller.  But there was something about the dress and the hair that didn't quite cut it for me.  Where was the drama?  The silhouette was reminiscent of Grace Kelly's dress, which I love, but for some reason on Kate it seemed dated.  I had always thought of them as this great "modern couple" who eschewed tradition and formality and while the dress is less formal than some royal wedding dresses, it has a very 1950s Stepford wife quality to it.

I was right in guessing that she had chosen Sarah Burton as her designer.  We knew she would chose someone British.  Burton took over as the head of the British label Alexander McQueen after the designer committed suicide last year.  In selecting McQueen though (over less well known British designers who do lots of work with the royal family), I had expected that Kate Middleton would use the wedding as her launch pad into serious fashion icon status.  Of all the designers in the world and even all the couture designers in the world, McQueen is the most high fashion.  His shows were known for their theatrics.  This is what you expect of a typical McQueen dress:

This is what you can expect from a McQueen wedding dress.

The craftsmanship that goes into making these dresses is amazing.  Every detail is hand sewn.  The embroidery alone can takes months to complete.  You have to imagine that money was no object when designing her dress.  Couldn't she have done something a little more dramatic?  Something like this:

 

Or this:

Even if you tone it down I would have liked to have seen her in something like this:

Or this:

Other royal brides have stayed conservative yet dramatic:

Best dressed at the wedding goes to Kate's sister and maid of honor Pippa who looked gorgeous and also wore McQueen.

Honorable Mention goes to Princess Beatrice for even daring to wearing that hat.

Iconic Wedding Dresses

The royal wedding is upon us!  I will be watching at home with my sister Erin.  We're going to drink tea and eat scones to celebrate the special occasion.  The whole thing--from the fairly tale story of the commoner who meets a prince, falls in love and becomes a princess--is very exciting, but to be honest, the thing I (and I would wager most girls) are most excited about is Kate's dress.  What will she wear?  Who is the designer?  Tiara or no tiara?  These are all such important, pressing questions, no? 

I'm even participating in a contest to see who can sketch a dress that is most similar to the actual dress Kate wears.  I'll be sure to include the sketch when it is complete.

But really when you think about it, what Kate chooses to wear has the possibility to change the way brides dress for years to come.  Her day-to-day attire is fairly conservative, but stylish.  And she has a great figure.  They could put a sack on her and it would look good.  But I have high hopes that she will choose something stunning.  Other royal brides and celebrities have made choices that became what we would consider iconic.  Will Kate's choice?  In anticipation of the potential iconic status of Kate Middleton's wedding dress, I thought I'd take a look at some other iconic dresses in history.

Queen Victoria: The one that started it all.  After she chose white for her wedding, brides everywhere started wearing the now symbolic color.

Princess Diana: Not what I would have chosen, but definitely fit for a princess.  I'm pretty sure Cinderella's dress was based on it.

Princess Grace of Monaco:  It doesn't get any better than this one.  Almost 60 years later, it still looks gorgeous.

 
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: She proved that simplicity can be best.  And put Narciso Rodriguez on the map.

Obama Mama

This weekend someone asked me what I thought of Michelle Obama's wardrobe.  Interestingly enough, this is something I have thought about before.  The media likes to make a big deal out of the first lady's clothing choices.  I'm sure it's partly because after 8 years of looking at Laura Bush's tasteful yet conservative (and frankly a little too "lady who lunches") clothing choices, they were excited to have a first lady who is young and therefore dresses youthfully.  I'm also sure it was partly because they just got sick and tired of talking about the financial crisis and what better to divert your attention away from fiscal disaster than the pretty (and very colorful) clothing choices of the first lady, America's equivalent to Great Britain's royal family.

Now, I bet if you asked Michelle Obama about her wardrobe, she would tell you that 1) she's only marginally interested in fashion, 2) she doesn't really have time to shop and 3) that while she's flattered people are interested in her clothing selections and she's happy she can help support the American fashion industry, she really wishes people wouldn't make such a big deal about the whole thing.  But people do.  They blog about its importance.  They take polls on whether or not she should wear shorts.  My favorite magazine, New York, even has a Look Book chronically her daily choices.  Want to look like Michelle Obama?  Check out where you can buy her latest Tracy Reese!

So what do I think?

I think she's a savvy woman who realized very early on during the election that her clothing choices do in fact matter.  By wearing a $48 GAP dress to a political fundraiser in Iowa, she sends confirms the campaign message that she is "just like us."  And by choosing a "pretty" GAP dress, she tells people that she likes to look good, but she doesn't want to spend a lot of money doing it.  (Interestingly enough, she wears very few pant suits, the Washington power outfit of choice and one of Hillary's favorites.  Perhaps this is to lessen the image of her as a Harvard educated lawyer/businesswoman?  The more feminine dresses she usually wears conjure a 1950s suburban housewife image, an image the folks running the re-election campaign are probably eager to use to their advantage in the swing states in middle America.)

There is a business side to it as well.  As the saying goes, "all press is good press."  The media coverage of her clothing choices does provide significant free press for the designers who create her outfits.  Case in point: her selection of a Jason Wu dress for the Inauguration catapulted the young American designer, who was well known in the fashion world, but not necessarily recognized by mainstream America, to fame.  The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) publicly stated its disappointment when she wore Alexander McQueen, a British designer, to a state dinner at the White House.

All that being said though, in general I like what she wears.  She doesn't always get it right.  Check out these misses.

And what was she thinking with these shoes?

More often than not, though, she looks great.  She does best in bright colors and full skirts.  Here are some of my favorites:

For evening:

Check out how she holds her own with Queen Rania of Jordan and Carla Bruni, two of the world's most fashionable women.

Kate Middleton Look Book coming soon....

Earring Sighting

Did anyone else watch the Academy of Country Music Awards last night?  I'll admit it.  I did.  My sister came over to help me hang some new drapes I purchased over the weekend (she didn't end up helping out very much, ahem) and we watched the show.  There wasn't much else on and I we sort of get sucked into those awards shows (and any VH1 countdown ever made) and now that I live in Texas I listen to country music more often and anyways, you know where I'm going with this.  It's a total guilty pleasure.

Well, low and behold, almost 3/4 of the way into the show, Martina McBride came on to perform and what did I see?!  The beautiful Tom Binns earrings from my Opera Ball post a few weeks ago. 

Check 'em out:

Unfortunately, at $450 a pop, I did not order them and now they are sold out.