Fashion Police: Mother of the Bride

[purejuice]

I have to think about this. I think she could have chosen either the ombre, the fuschia, the bertha, or the flowers. All four is nun-unh. And of the four, the ombre is most dubious.

Hillary is an historic presidential candidate, secretary of state, the most reviled First Lady in history, a MacBethian first lady of Arkansas, and a person who named her daughter, the bride, after a Joni Mitchell song.

Now, as mother of the bride, you wish to be very, very festive and yet not compete with the bride, against whose good looks yours will be judged all day: This is what the bride will look like in 40 years.

A tricky situation to negotiate, especially if you are a senior official of state.

Compare and contrast with the Queen's choice for Anne's wedding (not a white tie occasion, perhaps an unfair contrast). It is almost, but not quite, the same self-effacing shade as that worn by the nanny.



As head of state, this is what one wore to the white tie day time wedding of one's little sister:


Of all her ceremonial outfits, including the boddhisattva orange chiffon she wore to lay a wreath, barefoot, at Amritsar, this is the least becoming.

Unlike the Queen Mum, who most scandalously upstaged the bride by wearing white. She treads very close to the scandal line in her costume for Anne's wedding, which is saved only by the fur (!) brown touches.

Still spelunking for a pic of the Quenn Mum's white outfit at M's wedding, so scandalously white there does not appear to be a gankable record of it online.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why you keep comparing the wedding of a prominent "secular" politican's daughter to royal ceremony in another country entirely. I'm not an expert on the latter by any means, but I would imagine the dress codes for British royalty in all situations are far more regimented than for Americans in a purely elected office/relatives of the same (actual British/European people, please correct me if I'm wrong about that).

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

it's partly that her mother is a head of state, and it's partly cheek -- only royalty would command there be a no fly-over zone over their wedding. and i'm sure they don't even do that any more.
it's also about power dressing, how you dress when you're not selling anything. because you're the queen/crown princess and you've already got it. there is a way a power bride dresses that others do not.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

So the no-fly-zone thing wouldn't be for security reasons, with an ex-President and current Cabinet member in the wedding party? Or they don't usually do that?

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

i don't know. i think it's pretty ostentatious. osama wasn't aiming those planes at you, chelsea.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

But there'd be a whole lot of people there who might be alternative targets, including the parents of the bride. I just put that in the same category as the sharpshooters they installed on the Harvard rooftops when one of the Gore daughters was graduating.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

i think there is rather a difference between a normal secret service detail, and the derangement of all air traffic up the hudson -- i think it's a major flyway for NYC -- to extirpate a papparazzi helicopter who might wish to shoot the wedding.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Well, all I know is I'm getting some pretty pictures of royal gownhood out of all of this. :-)

[microbie.livejournal.com]

Then should the airspace over the former President and current Secretary always be a no-fly zone? Even when they are not acting as government officials in any capacity? Or perhaps just when they are together? And then wouldn't we have to offer that kind of protection for all former Presidents?

Demanding a no-fly zone for a private gathering sure sounds like a demand for royal treatment to this particular citizen. Too bad the dresses weren't subject to similar rigor.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Hey, like I said, I wouldn't know. I don't know how rigorous the security details are for ex-Presidents in any capacity.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

oh, and strapless wedding dresses must die.

[fj.livejournal.com]

I see Beatrix was still in her Insane Turbanesque Hats phase.

It continues to this day.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

she maintains!

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Is Hillary the head of state though? Isn't that the president?

I agree that strapless wedding dresses (the body as a wrap sandwich) must die. I would have liked Chelsea to wear her hair all pre-Raphaelite and a simple linen shift and some daisies. That is the Chelsea we knew. Her new look is very packaged and commoditized and trophy-wife though she seems happy with it and so do most reviewers.

Hillary's hair was good, I thought, though agreed any of the following would have improved the dress: solid color, plain cut, sleeves or a jacket, and then maybe a hat, she's good with hats, a la HRH or African American Church Lady. Solid color with a hat is a timeless look. Instead she's the flower child. But she looks happy too.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

yes, of course the prez is the head of state. i'm just wondering what hill's obligations are, as one of the highest ranking women in the world aside from the queen -- (angela merkel, what would she wear?) -- to wear a power outfit.

i think, in many ways, that what she is wearing is a power outfit, even if i think it's treyf: assertive color, assertive silhouette, covered shoulders and chest for religious ceremony, and the rather too youthful flowers (i am the queen, and there's a place where i can be inappropriately girlish: i think diana's dress is in that realm, even tho D was in fact a girl; we might better think of some of the queen's hats, though these are also a uniform, meant to represent her crown, as frivolous as they seem.)

i love your alt chelsea, and maybe hill's dress is going for a little bit of that.

she does look happy. god bless.

[biblionerd-girl.livejournal.com]

I just love that Chelsea is looking down at her Grandma (right?) with such affection during a posed shot. Candid and lovely.
And I loathe Hillary's dress but she does look younger than when, say, she is discussing Afghanistan.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

i agree with you on all counts. they all look very very happy, and affectionate. she could have been a serial killer, that chile.

[psychepreserved.livejournal.com]

classic wilting southern woman trying to out attention whore the daughter.
being from arkansas, i see it all the time.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

i think there is a serious element of that.
how are you?

[psychepreserved.livejournal.com]

in need of a reboot?

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

xxx
i knew i liked ya.