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When Sarah Brown and Michelle Obama hold their "spouses summit" in Washington this week, it promises to be quite a fashion moment. In the red corner Michelle will be channelling Jackie O's Camelot look. In the other red corner, Sarah will be pioneering English chic with a twist. Expect pieces by her new favourites Ben de Lisi and Jasper Conran, as well as a stylishly bonkers hat from milliner Stephen Jones.
Five years ago who would have thought that a meeting between two liberal, progressive First Ladies would be quite so stylish? Hillary, with her problem hair and unforgiving pant suits, was a formidable presence but hardly a fashion icon. While closer to home, the wives of Labour leaders (Cherie, Glenys) were regularly excoriated for their dress sense.
But now we have two women at the height of their power. Michelle sends a visual message that reads: "I'm in control." She knows how to work those stately shoulders in a series of lean, jewel-coloured shift dresses. Cleavage is off limits. But she unapologetically bares her beautiful, toned arms.
Sarah started badly. Exactly a year ago she had her own fashion nemesis. Hosting the visit of French premier Nicolas Sarkozy, she had to be photographed slap-bang next to his supermodel wife, Carla, looking like a dumpy headmistress.
But recently she has shed the New Labour chrysalis. We've seen her adopt svelte, one-piece dressing - essentially a tailored dress with statement jewellery. She was a big hit at Fashion Week last week and turned up at the V&A Hats exhibition party sporting a Stephen Jones pillbox headpiece.
Meanwhile, Michelle, who battled to be taken seriously as a young black lawyer in a white corporate world, is now unquestionably the most influential women in the world.
Both women know they musn't upstage their men, of course. Nor must they betray a Barbara Amiel-style extravagance. Michelle uses Chicago boutique owner Ikram Goldman as a gatekeeper between her and the fashion industry. For her inauguration outfits, designers worked from measurements provided by Goldman. The idea that the First Lady would rely so heavily on a retailer - not a stylist - has caused ripples.
Sarah is very much her own woman, but insiders credit her friend and ex art teacher (from Camden School for Girls) Helen Scott Lidgett, and believe it or not, her mother, a former teacher, for the new sophistication.
So what will they wear for the new Girl Power Summit? Michelle favours ethnic US designers - she put Cuban-American Narcisco Rodriguez on the map with her black-and-red shift dress on US election night and Taiwan-born Jason Wu created her fairytale princess dress for her husband's inauguration. But she knows how to do the "high-low" thing combining high- street chains such as Gap and J Crew (which supplied the girls candy-coloured coats at the inauguration) with pieces by Kors and Wu.
Sarah often wears stalwart British brands M&S and Jaeger but also loves Graeme Black, Nicole Farhi, Conran and Betty Jackson. And she's definitely the first prime minister's wife ever to sport a Charlotte Gray beret.
Both women are tall and substantial, but have made it their asset. Michelle's bold block brights (very Mad Men) make her "pop" against a backdrop of midnight blue suits. Sarah's outfit at the Elle Style Awards - a silk jersey dress by Ben de Lisi set off by sexy blood-red heels - won high praise.
And they have both honed the body beautiful: Michelle's 5.30am gym sessions have paid off with a lean, athletic look while Sarah is bringing up the rear with a new trim figure thanks to the gym beneath No 10. Her shapely legs and toned stomach are courtesy of a devotion to Pilates.
Occasionally Michelle's look can smack of indecision. The "lemongrass" coat and shift dress she wore to inauguration day were over- busy with diamanté detail and too many ribbon ties. The Narcisco election dress was dismissed by some as a "lava lamp". And we'd like to see a "do" that suggests her ethnicity rather than softens it.
It's fantastic to see two women in their mid-forties look the best they have ever done. But there is no denying the photocall will be nerve-racking for them both. Will it be a clash of styles? Or will the ever-clever Sarah let Michelle wear the bling while she steals the show from the shadows?
Reader views (8)
Comrade Sarah!
- David, Fleet UK, 04/03/2009 09:59
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Why is the taxpayer shelling out to send Clown's wife on a jolly in the first place?
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland, 03/03/2009 17:30
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Anybody who has read 'Private Eye' can only smile. Put a red star on the front of that beret and we are deep inside 1930's Russia. With the Government taking control of the Banks and everybodies private lives. Comrade Brown I salute you and welcome the return of communism. Karl Marx was right and Kirkcaldy will be the next spiritual home of the suppressed masses. God if there is one, please help us.
- Bondy, London, 03/03/2009 16:17
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Oh dear Sarah looks like she has just wandered off a Scottish highland.
- Hannah, London, 03/03/2009 14:58
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To paraphrase "intellectual blitzkrieg" Gail Trimble: It seems a shame that we feel the need to discuss their appearance at all.
- Karli, Tottenham, London, 03/03/2009 14:38
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Who cares?? They're not making the decisions that matter. I wish the British press would stop trying to transport this ridiculous American institution of the "First Lady" into the UK. It's even more irrelevant than it would normally be, given the scale of the problems that people are facing.
- Helen, London, UK, 03/03/2009 14:17
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I don't think she is there to be endearing, it's about substance not style.
- Emily, London, 03/03/2009 13:22
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Oh dear. I really hope Sarah is not going to step off the plane in Washington in the outfit pictured above. She looks like a Russian Navy seaman, and this will not endear her to the American public.
- Bloke, London, 03/03/2009 12:34
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