Michele Bachmann is going gray

No sooner do we identify Michele Bachmann's switch to dark suits with white shirts than she blends it together and chooses all-over gray for her announcement of her Presidential run.

Here is a view of her silver shift with matching jacket:


Here we can see the sleeve, turned up to three-quarter length, which is perfectly on-trend this spring:

By Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone

This fabric has a little bit of sheen to it, which is only a bit problematic in the bright sunlight here. What's trickier is the continuation of a single color in the whole outfit, especially when it's a light one. It's the core of the problem with Hillary Clinton's pastel pantsuits that got her needled in the press for years. Matching suit pieces in a light color can sometimes make you look a bit like a cartoon character. This particular suit also bears an unfortunate similarity to a recent Bachmann parody in Rolling Stone: Her supporters won't be likely to make this comparison immediately, but others might.

Gray isn't turning up in Bachmann's wardrobe just for this announcement, though. We saw another (more familiar) gray suit in her pre-announcement media appearances as well:



The trouble with gray is less about the semantic implications of it sounding dull, and more to do with it having the potential to be dull. So far, Bachmann has avoided that fate. Although a color that complements your complexion can an extraordinarily effective tool for looking good, medium gray is also considered a "universal" color that looks good on everyone. (Want to know the others? Email me for a color consultation appointment!) But it seems unlikely that she can go on without color forever.

I'm officially declaring a color watch for the Bachmann 2012 campaign.