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Michelle Obama: Looking good
Miami Herald ^ | July 20, 2009 | Susan Estrich

Posted on 07/20/2009 7:42:02 AM PDT by IbJensen

Was that a $5,000 VBH alligator clutch that Michelle Obama was carrying in Italy? So the company bragged, absolutely certain it was theirs, until the White House responded that it was not the alligator but the patent, an $875 VBH clutch and not the more expensive model.

To be honest, I didn't even know what VBH was until I saw the headlines about the $5,000 one Michelle wasn't carrying. I love handbags as much as the next girl, but I could never get my head around the idea of spending that kind of money on something that is bound to end up with ink stains. But if Michelle wants to spend hers, more power to her. If she wants to wear $540 sneakers (Lanvin, a ''cult'' item that is bound to end up in one of my local resale stores), I say go for it.

She is not going to solve the recession by wearing Keds. She wears enough clothes from Gap and J.Crew to make the point that looking great doesn't have to be über-expensive (although the things she manages to find at those places never seem to be there when I am), and that half the fun of fashion is figuring out how to copy high-style for less.

What Michelle Obama projects, with her bright colors, body-conscious clothes and keen sense of style, is a woman at her best, looking great, feeling great, being great, full of life, celebrating her country and her family and, yes, herself. The White House was quick to say the bag didn't cost $5,000, but it was still what my mother would have called a very, very good bag, and the first lady didn't apologize for that. Why should she?

She's not 22. She's a grown woman who hasn't faded to beige or placed herself in the background, who isn't embarrassed that she doesn't look 17, who (by all reports) doesn't hate her hips or hide her rear or ask whether the dress makes her look fat before she lets herself like it.

If that isn't a role model, what is?

The other day, I ran into a woman I know who has done very well professionally. I hadn't seen her in a while, and somehow I was taken aback. She looked the way she always had, only worse. I laugh when I see young women trying so (too) hard, because the truth is that when you're young, it's easy. The woman I ran into got to where she is, at least in part, by not getting trapped by the beauty thing.

On the other hand, she was long past the point where she needed to use or hide her sexuality. Now middle-age, she's become one of those women that other women can't look at for five minutes without wanting to do a makeover and wondering why she hasn't. Is she really happy this way? More power to her, but I want younger women to know it doesn't have to be that way.

Michelle is middle-age, too. You can be powerful and beautiful. You can be passionate about politics and clutch bags; you can do your best for your country and look your best while you do. You deserve the sneakers -- if not the Lanvin ones, then ones that make you feel just as good. And we should all ditch black for yellow. Especially in a recession.

Go Michelle.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: chewbacca; doublestandard; estrich; fashion; flotusmichelle; gildedwookie; gooniegoogoo; mmmmmbaby; ohsnap; twosnapsup; whachoosaygirlfriend
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To: IbJensen

81 posted on 07/20/2009 8:46:59 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 (Obama is everything Oklahoma is not.)
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To: big black dog

“She dresses like one of those circus monkeys wearing a clown outfit.”

and to all the circus monkeys wearing a clown outfit out there, no harm meant...


82 posted on 07/20/2009 8:48:33 AM PDT by jessduntno ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction." - Ronald Reagan)
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To: TornadoAlley3

I miss Laura.


83 posted on 07/20/2009 8:49:06 AM PDT by Redcloak ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: reagan_fanatic

You didn’t need to stretch out her butt....it is big enough.


84 posted on 07/20/2009 8:49:23 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

LOL - true.


85 posted on 07/20/2009 8:51:00 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Obamacare - it's to die for.)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Man, talk abt “Junk in the Trunk”.........


86 posted on 07/20/2009 8:51:03 AM PDT by shredderman (Living in a Blue State, with a Blue Wife, But I'm Red to the bone.....)
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To: IbJensen

Well if this article doesn’t make you puke nothing will. Where is the barf alert?


87 posted on 07/20/2009 9:06:36 AM PDT by calex59 (I, me, myself, am actually Jim Thompson)
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To: mrmeyer

My hubby cannot stand to even hear her gravelly voice. I tease him and say “Hey baby, look...there’s your girlfriend”. He always throws a pillow or paper wad at me, LOL!


88 posted on 07/20/2009 9:08:41 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: IbJensen

It remindes me of the old Mitch Rider song “Devil with the Blue Dress on”


89 posted on 07/20/2009 9:09:04 AM PDT by 70th Division (I love my country but fear my government!)
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To: IbJensen

It remindes me of the old Mitch Rider song “Devil with the Blue Dress on”


90 posted on 07/20/2009 9:10:05 AM PDT by 70th Division (I love my country but fear my government!)
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To: IbJensen; NautiNurse; Neverforget01
doesn't hate her hips or hide her rear or ask whether the dress makes her look fat before she lets herself like it.


91 posted on 07/20/2009 9:37:56 AM PDT by maggief
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To: libh8er

EWWWW!!! can you say Lamprey eel??? LOL


92 posted on 07/20/2009 9:58:23 AM PDT by gimme1ibertee (Time to CLEAN HOUSE (AND Senate!!!) Kick their butts to the curb!!)
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To: humblegunner

ROTFLMBOBT!!!!!!


93 posted on 07/20/2009 9:59:44 AM PDT by gimme1ibertee (Time to CLEAN HOUSE (AND Senate!!!) Kick their butts to the curb!!)
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To: TornadoAlley3
M.O. sure does have a great big caboose.


94 posted on 07/20/2009 10:01:29 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (I can spell just fine, thanks, it's my typing that sucks.)
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To: IbJensen

maybe one of the funniest scenes in ever


95 posted on 07/20/2009 10:02:55 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch (t i m e f o r a n e w t a g l i n e)
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To: humblegunner

The mouths are identical. In 20 years everything else will be.


96 posted on 07/20/2009 10:08:40 AM PDT by libh8er
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To: IbJensen
Who can turn the world on with her smile?

Photobucket

Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

Photobucket

Well it's you girl, and you should know it

Photobucket

With each glance and every little movement you show it

Photobucket

Love is all around, no need to waste it

Photobucket

You can have a town, why don't you take it

Photobucket

You're gonna make it after all

Photobucket

You're gonna make it after all

Photobucket

How will you make it on your own?

Photobucket

This world is awfully big, girl this time you're all alone

Photobucket

But it's time you started living

Photobucket

It's time you let someone else do some giving

Photobucket

Love is all around, no need to waste it

Photobucket

You can have a town, why don't you take it

Photobucket You're gonna make it after all

Photobucket

You're gonna make it after all.

97 posted on 07/20/2009 10:36:53 AM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (****************************Stop Continental Drift**)
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To: maggief

How fecking charming to see our First Lady representing our country in such a tasteful manner.
The only things missing are a cell phone in one hand hand and a fistful of lottery scratch-off tickets in the other. Fat arse.

98 posted on 07/20/2009 10:46:26 AM PDT by jla
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To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL

Your #97—an absolute classic! ROFLMAO!


99 posted on 07/20/2009 10:47:03 AM PDT by Fu-fu2
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To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL

The latest “BEST POST EVER!”


100 posted on 07/20/2009 10:53:11 AM PDT by PeteePie (Antique firearms - still deadly after all these years)
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