Fashion Fueling Politics

Fashion creates buzz even when it's not political. Of course, when fashion becomes political, the buzz helps to impact opinions.  Mrs. Jackie Kennedy was a fashion trend setter and her style influenced her husband's presidential administration.  It can do no harm to have a nod from fashionista Anna Wintour, especially when she compliments Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's taste in cloths.

Wintour knows her public relations.  As editor of Vogue, her charisma and fashion expertise keeps this artistic magazine selling.  A positive fashion statement about Mrs. Clinton helps both Vogue to create a positive image about powerful women and, undoubtedly, assists Mrs. Clinton's fashionable public opinion.  

Our powerful political women and First Ladies (FLOTUS) are role models of fashion.  They must be perfectly coiffed to reinforce their own image and protect their husbands from unnecessary public sarcasm.  When the public scorns a woman's fashion tastes, it's a hard act from which to recover.

President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton 1997 Innugural

Fortunately, American First Ladies have been wonderfully outfitted.  Nevertheless, we'll probably be thinking about how to recreate the conservative suit, tie and white shirt when a woman eventually sits in the White House, as President of the United States.  If our first female president is Mrs. Clinton, she already knows how to impress a crowd with fashion.  One of her most memorable news conferences is referred to as the April 1994, pink press conference, because she wore a pink dress when speaking about the daunting Whitewater Scandal.  Although Mrs. Clinton doesn't need fashion advice, she'll surely take a positive endorsement from the expert Wintour.  After all, who wouldn't?

Perhaps the next presidential administration will be more focused on what the First Husband is wearing while the President is running the nation.  I suspect Former President Bill Clinton can create fashion statements unique to his outgoing personality.  

Hopefully, Wintour will advise Mr. Clinton about how to reinvent the conservative suit, tie and white shirt, so he can be our nation's first male fashionista with the acronym FHOTUS.  Mr. Clinton would no doubt enjoy the fashionable role and he'll make a handsome addition to the Smithsonian Museum's collection of first spouses' inaugural dress.

"It's not for me just about the clothes, although they're really spectacular, it's about what it means, the continuous effort to be as good as you can be," Mrs. Clinton said at an event in Little Rock, Arkansas with Wintour and fashion magnate Oscar de la Renta.

Fashion savvy is among the attributes Mrs. Clinton adds to her list of impressive credentials as she prepares her presidential candidacy.  She's certainly dressed for success and Anna Wintour agrees.  It's a terrific strategy to come out of gate in a presidential campaign with the fuel of a fashionista like Wintour already endorsing your public image.