The exhibit has been mounted just as a new first lady grapples with the fuzzy definition of her title and explores the privileges and responsibilities it bestows. The first lady is scrutinized and dissected. Since the Kennedys' tenure at the White House, fashion has become more difficult. Where once fashion sought to beautify, it so often now seeks to sexualize, deconstruct, politicize, subvert, mock and even offend. For a novice to embrace fashion is to step gingerly through a public relations minefield.
Voters are wary of clothes being self-consciously worn to send specific messages.
They're untrusting of those whose tastes appear too highfalutin. Monday night, a glance across the grand salons of the Met, which had been transformed by Robert Isabel into a romantic park reminiscent of the White House Rose Garden, revealed guests sipping white wine and double-bussing burnished cheeks. Borrowed diamonds glittered in the candlelight. Double-digit carats pulled from the home vault were even more blinding. Diana Ross was bedecked with yards of rough horsehair posing as a hat whose diameter approached three, perhaps even four, feet.