This is Maryanne George with the University of Michigan’s College of LS&A.
We are talking with Robin Givhan,
Pulitzer Prize Winning Fashion Editor of ‘The Washington Post’.
Robin is an U-M alumni, she will deliver a lecture on The Washington Catwalk,
the convergence of fashion, power, and politics on October 28.
lecture is free and open to the public.
I asked her some questions from her recent columns.
Why does fashion matter in a society beyond the analysis of colors, styles, and hemline?
I have always had a pretty broad definition of what fashion really is.
I mean, I don’t necessarily see it as something
that’s just coming down a runway or photographing the pages of a magazine,
I think it’s really how we choose to present ourselves to the world,
how we choose to define ourselves publicly.
And a woman who wears a burqa
versus one who wears CHANEL every other day of her life
are each carving out a different place for themselves in society
and asking people to respond to them in different ways.
The newest Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan
has not accessorized her black robe with any personal touches,
unlike Ruth Bader Ginsburg or William Rehnquist.
What message can the unadorned black robe send about justice before the court?
Well, it’s probably a bit heretical for a fashion writer to sort of say that
she doesn’t want someone to accessorize their clothing,
but I kind of think of the black traditional robe as pretty much a perfect symbol of dignity,
and most importantly, humility.
It’s already intimidating enough for just an average person to be facing the Supreme Court,
so I think the robes in a way bring the judges down
to at least a little bit off of a pedestal,
and it often hides expensive clothes or eccentric attire,
anything that sort of makes,
I think, the judge seem like they are an individual
passing judgment as opposed to a representative of the law.
Michelle Obama’s preference for both high-end and off the rack fashion
has been endlessly analyzed for the messages that it sends.
What will her wardrobe on the campaign trail attempt to accomplish?
Well, I think some of this is trying to get inside of her head,
which isn’t possible, but I do think that
she has been very cognizant of the implications that her clothes have,
and she has been very savvy about mixing sort of mass market,
brands like J. Crew and Talbots with more high-end pieces.
And often those high-end pieces are from small design houses,
people who could be defined as small businesspeople.
So I think that is part of her way of sort of delivering a message
that this is not just about fashion and glamour,
it’s also a reflection of our economy and who we are.
But I also think that she has got to walk a tricky line.
She is not just a candidate’s wife she is also the First Lady,
so she has to kind of maintain that role while she is also sort of dabbling in the political.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently decided
to grow her hair out into a longer layered length in Washington,
where short hair is the norm for women over 50.
What broader implications are there for women of a certain age in Secretary Clinton’s new coif?
I was really struck by the amount of feedback that I received
when I wrote about Secretary Clinton’s longer hair.
In women who were older, some of them sent me photographs of themselves with longer hair,
and I think in a lot of ways there is this sort of expectation
that when a woman reaches a certain age,
she is kind of grown out of flirtatiousness and girlishness,
and those are all things that are kind of connected to longer hair.
So when a woman gets to a certain age
and everyone is sort of looking at her and saying,
why are you wearing your hair so long,
it’s almost like they are accusing her of,
why are you still clinging to this idea
that you can be flirtatious and whimsical, and I think that’s unfair.
Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height,
who died in April at the age of 98,
was remembered for her feminine suits in lush colors and glorious hats.
How did she use her distinctive style
to further her message of equality and dignity?
One if the things that was really striking to me about Dorothy Height
was that she was often the lone woman on stage,
and as a result I think she recognized that she wasn’t just representing herself,
she was representing sort of Black womanhood,
she was representing a whole enormous group of people.
And with her clothes, for me, one of the most striking things was that,
xit wasn’t just about, for her this idea of expressing quality,
it was also recognizing that dignity was also on the table,
that, that no one needed to give her, her dignity, she already had that,
and that all came through in her clothing.
And I think even now if we look back,
we can sort of look at the clothes that she wore
and be reminded that you have to respect yourself before anyone else will.
We have been talking with Robin Givhan,
the Fashion Editor of ‘The Washington Post’.