Nancy Pelosi

When I first started thinking about writing this blog, I knew my first subject would be Nancy Pelosi. I wanted to write about her because her style has evolved this year to reflect the fact that she looks best when she breaks some of the "rules" that seem to govern how most political women dress. What rules? The rule that seems to recommend that these women all dress like Nancy Regan, regardless of their own coloring, hair texture, or personal style.

For example, here's Pelosi in January 2009:A structured tomato red jacket; short, stiffly styled hair, button earrings. Everything considered de riguer for women in politics. But it doesn't suit her. The color washes her out, the shapes don't relate to her features, the reflectiveness of the earrings make her eyes look a little beady. Sorry, but it's true.

Fortunately her style has moved on from this image. First, the colors started to soften. Here's May 2009:
Now we see her face instead of her jacket. Then the hair started to come down:

And when you put it all together, she looks great:
She looks professional and authoritative but she still looks like herself, not some clone of an outdated idea. And when she leaves the Hill, the look softens even further, without losing the essence of who she is. This was at a charity event in June 2009:
I'm interested to see how her look continues to change. Maybe the Speaker can finally change some of the rules...