New Year's Resolutions

Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? Have you broken them already? Still searching?


Photo courtesy of Nancy Pelosi's photostream on Flickr

Resolve to have some style in politics:

1. Show a girl she can lead. Highlight good examples. Be a good example yourself. Consider supporting one of the many wonderful organizations that support girls in leadership - I like Running Start.

2. Support a woman running for office. Look high AND low - the House is full now, but your county, city or school board may have elections this fall or even this spring. And again, there are incredible organizations like Emily's List to help you support some of them.

3. Seriously consider running for office yourself. We know that one reason we don't have anywhere near gender parity in elected office (even in this banner year for Congress) is that not enough women run for office to begin with. Don't imagine that you aren't qualified or aren't ready. You probably are, and if you aren't you can get there. And guess what? You don't have to have it all perfectly figured out. Consider a few tools, like Kathy Groob's excellent Pink Politics guide to preparing for a campaign.

What to wear to your polling place

Comfortable shoes! Hahaha!

Ok, this is sort of a joke, but it sort of isn't. Somehow, I always imagine this fantasy polling place where I waltz in, flip some levers, and affix a sticker to my blouse as I prance off to work five minutes later. Perhaps this has something to do with my first voting experience at 18, in a local school board election in September, where I got to cast a ballot for my dad and this guy. No lines then. But I digress. The reality is that you should be prepared to wait. I'm not suggesting you do anything crazy, just maybe don't wear the 4 inch platforms that look great under your desk but don't hold for an hour straight on your feet. Maybe something more like this:


Many of the women we've written about on this blog are on ballots today: Claire McCaskill,  Elizabeth Warren, and of course all the women (and men) in the House of Representatives. I hope you'll judge them all by their words, and not their clothes.

If you've somehow made it here but still don't know what's up today, go here and find out what you need to know. Voting matters!

Not all pink is created equal

This week, Secretary Clinton created a video announcement of the Diplomatic Culinary Partnerships Initiative. She wore pink:


I admit, it's been a while since we talked about blondes wearing pink. It's time to talk about it again.

As I said before, pale pink can be very difficult to carry off if you have fair coloring. Secretary Clinton was right to pair this pale pink jacket with something darker.

BUT

This neon pink is much too saturated for her. We've essentially gone too far in the other direction. Now instead of looking pale, she's swallowed up by the color, even with highly defined makeup that was probably intended to counteract the effect.

It's also too much to have a ruffled neckline AND a droopy, sheer pocket square. It's so soft it starts to look costume-y, which she surely wasn't going for.

Perhaps she would have been better served by something like this:

Pink but not too pink by styleofpolitics featuring diane von furstenberg

Paul Ryan's clothes don't matter. There I said it.

The internet discussion of Paul Ryan's image has reached critical mass. Yes, everyone from Pulitzer Prize-winner Robin Givhan to the twitterverse is talking about his hair, as we noted earlier this week.

But it's not just the hair. It's the lack of a tie. It's the ill-fitting jacket. It's his overall "hotness."
 


And now, in a way only possible in the internet age, people are talking about how much people are talking about what Ryan looked like at Romney's announcement: here's Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast.

All this discussion of image and hair and clothes reminds many of us of the last time the Republicans announced a vice presidential nominee. Jen Doll draws it out for us on the Atlantic Wire.

But here's the thing: Paul Ryan will soon go back to wearing ties and jackets that fit. And then this discussion will be over. Blogs like this one and fashion columnists might continue to have something to say about what colors he selects for the vice presidential debate and so on, but barring a major gaffe, this will be the last time we see his wardrobe discussed on CNN. There will be no close scrutiny of photos to try to identify the designers and prices of his clothing on morning network talk shows. And while we might see endless references to his blue eyes and "boyish charm," they will appear in preface to whatever it was he actually said or did. And in this way, Ryan will benefit greatly from the accident of his gender. He will not see his wardrobe become an entire conversation independent of anything else he says or does, as it has for Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, or any number of the women who have appeared on this blog. Women must work much harder just to draw the focus away from their clothes. This is why I write this.

The hair ticket

Much has already been made of Mitt Romney's slicked back hairstyle. Now that he's added Paul Ryan to his campaign, we might expect even more follicle-based discussion. Here they are together at the announcement:


Clearly Rep. Ryan has been using some hair products, too. It remains to be seen whether Ryan's famed boyish quality will make Romney look more the elder statesman or actually less appealing. I expect it will be the former. And people are already talking about it. Buzzfeed has lots of pictures, too.

The scarf has it

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito was on Fox News this week to discuss the coal industry. She wore a scarf over an orange blouse:


This look is very successful for the setting. Here's why:

1. It's soft and casual but still professional - exactly what is needed in these "town hall" style appearances. 
2. The scarf brings softer colors closer to her face, preventing the hot orange color of her blouse from reflecting on to her skin under the bright television lights.
3. Although orange is actually a good color for her (a difficult one!) the color palette of the scarf works well for her too, as does the round organic pattern.
4. See how the scarf is just draped around her neck? Not too structured, not too fussy. Just put one on and forget about it.

Clinton finds the separation

Secretary Clinton spoke at the African Growth and Opportunity Forum last week. She wore a gold suit: http://youtu.be/MIiq9dd_yPI



This is a lot of one color, especially one that's so close to her skin tone. What makes the outfit work? The accessories!

• The chunky necklace in a darker color creates a strong visual separation between her skin and her outfit. The length of the necklace is just right too - wearing large beads too tight around the neck will make you look like you're choking, even if it doesn't feel that way. This is particularly important for women of a certain age, who tend to have looser skin on their necks.
• The jaunty pocket square helps break up the solid color further down the outfit.

A look for every leader

Judy Woodruff hosted a panel of current and former women heads of state for a discussion on foreign aid and assistance programs last week. Their outfits varied widely:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/IDF/start/126/stop/4925



Sometimes it's good to remember that even when we think of women's clothing in the US being so "variable" the variation we employ here is really just a small portion of the global spectrum.

Why does Melissa Harris-Perry's hair look like that?

I know I have a number of readers who mostly just read this blog - that is, you don't play the video, or don't play it for very long. But today, I hope you'll make an exception. Find some time on your lunch break, save it for after work, but watch these clips.

Over the weekend, Melissa-Harris Perry devoted nearly half an hour to a discussion of hair because, she said, the subject of her own hair makes "regular and frequent appearances" in the emails she receives from viewers.

First, a primer and vocabulary lesson:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And while that primer was a much needed public service, there's more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

My favorite quote: "It's amazing that it's considered revolutionary to wear my hair the way it grows out of my head." My sentiments exactly - I was so relieved when I discovered Lorraine Massey and her staff, people who didn't view my hair as something that needed to be tamed in to submission! In DC you can have an equally revelatory experience at Parlour - tell them you want a Deva cut, which is dry. Yes, your hair can be cut the way it grows out of your head, too.

There's lots more of the MHP roundtable, that you should watch as well, on the business and socio-historical contexts, which includes Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's recommendation that hair should not take precedence over health.

Soft but strong

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers took on the medical device tax issue at the Republican House press conference last week. She wore a silk blazer: http://youtu.be/Q4Qfp_XX0uw

The color, fabric and style of this jacket ensure that there's no risk of confusing it with something a man would wear. But this is still a look of clear strength.  Here's why: it's fitted, but not tight, and the whole look is streamlined, with no accessories or jewelry and a very carefully coiffed hairstyle.

When tone on tone is out of key

Rep. Shelley Berkley gave a floor speech last week on student loans. She wore a beige suit with a beige top under it: http://youtu.be/mW7OL-1OFWc


A tone on tone color palette can give you a very streamlined look. BUT not if the clothes themselves slouch. In this case, Rep. Berkley really should have kept the jacket buttoned to complete the streamlined look. And then I would have chosen a bright top to peek out over the top of the jacket. It's such a small part that would show, it's better to make it a little more noticeable - this beige color blends so well in to her skin that it would basically look like nothing at all.  Maybe something like this instead:

Boxer and Hutchison face the neckline

Senators Boxer and Hutchison were on CNN this weekend for a discussion on taxes. Each of them wore a blouse with a jacket over it, but with two different techniques for complimenting face shape using "balance points." Look at http://youtu.be/9-CNkHlXlCg (you can see both of them on screen at about 2:15):


Senator Boxer's neckline compliments balance point 1: the distance from the top of her face (below her bangs) to her chin is equal to the distance from her chin to the neckline of her blouse. The oval shape of her face is perfectly echoed in her clothes.

Senator Hutchison has highlighted balance point 2: the distance and shape from the widest point of her face to her chin is the same as from the top of her shoulder to the neckline of her blouse. Her rectangular face shape is in harmony with her high rectangular blouse.

Either technique can work for you, no matter what your face shape. You can even combine them, hitting one balance point with your neckline and the other with a necklace. Jewelry also works well if your first balance point is lower on your chest than you would like your neckline to be.