It must be amazing to have the ability to sell out jersey dresses and cardigans just by wearing them in public. Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama, future and present first ladies respectively, both hold that power but also suffer the consequences.
Kate Middleton’s style, as publicly known, defies the royally aging sartorial stereotype while still remaining conservative trend-wise. Michelle Obama’s experimentally chic ensembles, on the other hand, have caused her to have both religious fashion followers as well as unbelievably harsh critics. Both of them, however, are often subject to primary judgment on their outfits before anything else, something I see to be completely unfair.
As a fashion-conscious female embarking on the internship and career search myself, I often find it amusing how downplaying one’s individual style is an essential part of securing ideal positions and being perceived as a capable human being; for Middleton and Obama, the pressure to fit the stereotype must be a thousand times that. What I don’t understand is why having fun with fashion and being intelligent have to be mutually exclusive. Every day, inside and outside of class, I see smart, capable Northwestern women who manage to balance the two without batting an eye; why can’t the world just realize that first ladies can do the same?
graphics by Taylor Thomas
