Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm appeared on CNN to discuss job creation and the State of the Union address. She wore a navy blue blazer and a striped shirt:
Look carefully at the shirt. It has square buttons that are off center and diagonal piping along the edge. These are nice feminine touches, but they aren't enough too keep this outfit from looking rather masculine. Same thing with the pearl earrings - they are too small to have the desired effect. A brooch could have warmed up the blazer, or the same shirt in a different color would have looked less like menswear.
Her makeup is warm and colorful, so no one is going to mistake the governor for her brother, but I'm concerned that this look overall makes her look too young - like an intern who doesn't have a good wardrobe of "work clothes" yet.
Senate candidate Carly Fiorina broadcast her reaction to the President's State of the Union address. She wore gray:
This medium gray looks good on most people, and Ms. Fiorina does well to compliment the nature shade of her hair. The best part of this video, though, is her makeup. Violet eyeshadow shades like this are usually a good choice on brown eyes, especially with cool hair colors. Soft powdered eyeliner and natural mascara also draw us to her eyes without distracting us. The rest of the face has a natural look - smooth, even foundation, minimal blush and a soft rose lipstick.
Tape up a screen shot next to your makeup mirror, ladies. This is the way to do it.
Senator Landrieu discussed the federal arbitration award of damages to Charity Hospital last week. She wore a blue blazer with a scarf:
I think (I hope) by now you already know what I'm going to say. The pattern of this scarf is extremely distracting. We look right at the dots on the scarf first - before her face, before anything else. And even when we look at her face, our gaze is still drawn back to the scarf. The colors are nice on her, but to say this pattern overwhelms her is an understatement. There is also the unfortunate clash between the pattern of her scarf and the pattern of the chair she's sitting on. Seeing that chair should have been a sign to ditch the scarf. Or at least tie it up or something. Please.
Eleanor Holmes Norton was on a local news affiliate to discuss Harry Reid's remarks on Strom Thurmond. She wore pants:
This is a great suit. The shorter length of the pants looks elegant and feminine. If you ever wondered whether dark colored pant suits are "too masculine" to wear for a public appearance, this should answer your question.
Ms. Norton famously keeps her hair quite short, which is well balanced by bold jewelry and bright colors. She might consider a slightly stronger eyebrow color, though, considering that she also wears glasses.
Representative Loretta Sanchez filmed a public service announcement on flu prevention for the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. She wore cream:
Shades of white are not usually recommended for television, and this clip show us why. Her jacket seems to glow a bit, appearing much brighter than her skin or her face. It also pops out the highlight color of her eyeshadow in a way that isn't intended. See how we end up looking above her eyes instead of at them? She would also benefit from some brow filler and less activity with the tweezers. A more even shape to her brows would bring our focus back to her eyes.
Senator Lisa Murkowski keeps a lot of color in her wardrobe. Let's look at two examples. First, a press conference by Senate Republicans on EPA regulations. She wore fuschia and black:
The style of this jacket is a good one for her, but this saturated color has clearly overwhelmed her delicate natural coloring. We see her jacket first and second and maybe third, and then we see her face, and then we see that her hair looks a bit washed out.
Now let's have a look at her floor speech on health care. She wore black again, but with a round neckline, and this time paired with a pale aqua blue jacket: This color works so much better for her. We see her face first and her jacket later. It also gives the warmth back to her haircolor.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson gave a press conference on greenhouse gases and climate change. She wore a silk blouse under her suit:
In general, I'm a great fan of pairing a silk blouse under a suit, even one with some sheen to it, like this one. But I think Ms. Jackson has a combination of wardrobe factors going on here that have conspired to create a look that is pretty, but perhaps not as professional as it could be. As I said, shiny silk is fine. A little bit of ruffle is fine. Together, probably still ok for the office, but not on the day you're giving a press conference.
There is a similar situation with her jewelry. Big hoop earrings (of good quality) are fine. A stylized cross is fine, on a rope instead of a chain, probably also acceptable at work, but not on camera.
Ms. Jackson has a great hairstyle. Very short looks can be work to maintain in terms of the frequency of the cut, especially when keeping your look consistent is important. In this video, I would guess that it was just cut, within a week or so, and probably looked even better a week or two after this. But short cuts can be great on women with straight hair and fuller faces. The very short bangs help keep this style looking current and youthful.
We know grooming is important, but there is such a thing as an over groomed eyebrow. Ms. Jackson might do well to back off the tweezers a little here and maybe even add some brow powder to her makeup bag.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano appeared on CNN to discuss the government's actions and reactions related to the attempted bombing in Detroit. She wore a stone jacket with a mandarin collar with a dark shell under it:
Secretary Napolitano is definitely going for sober here with her choice of neutral colors, but something more saturated like charcoal gray or medium navy might have suited her better. I'm also very concerned about the fit of this jacket - it appears too tight across the shoulders, which is why she's getting those little points sticking up above the natural slope of her shoulder. It can be difficult to find jackets that fit well when you have wider shoulders (as a woman or a man) but it is critical and can't be altered. If it doesn't fit in the shoulder, it doesn't fit.
Her makeup looks great. I wonder if she's wearing Benefit silky finish lipstick in nice knickers. A fantastic color for a lot of people, it's always selling out at Sephora...
I don't know whether you saw Cathy Horyn's piece in the New York Times last week on the styles of Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama. Given the Christmas Eve timing, I hadn't until the Mrs. O blog brought it to my attention. Mrs. T and her commenters largely get it right, and I encourage you to read.
Horyn's biases and contradictions have already been thoroughly highlighted, but if you ever wondered why Michelle Obama never appears in this space, it is precisely because of the false comparison Horyn tries to set up in her article. Their purposes and roles are fundamentally different. The First Lady is not elected, appointed or hired. It's a role, not a job. We're talking about the working women here.
Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared at a rally on Capitol Hill opposing the health care bill being debated in the Senate. Although it is December, she wore white:
This is a great looking jacket, but it's completely out of season. If I didn't know for sure that this happened last week, I would assume it was footage from earlier this fall. I don't hold very tightly to the idea of no white after Labor Day, but the style is summery too, not just the color.
Also, notice her necklace - it's so long it goes below the podium and out of the frame, which is distracting.
I was asked this weekend to explain why I use video on this blog. There are two reasons, really:
1. Video lets us see the clothes, hair, face in motion. It mitigates the some of the risk that it's not a bad outfit, just a bad picture. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't get caught in a bad picture in the print and digital media, but in the interest of instruction on how to dress, we'd rather have as balanced a picture as we can.
2. Every woman I write about here is (or was) an elected or appointed official in our government. They all have something important to say. Image matters, but it doesn't matter more than their words. I don't ever want to reduce these women to images. I want to give you the opportunity to hear their words, which is why they got dressed that morning anyway.
I know video has ways of being inconvenient as well, but I hope the benefits outweigh the nuisance.
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