Michelle
Obama's fashionable clothing has become something of a given in her
five-plus years as first lady. Yet her wardrobe still is the subject of
endless public fascination and one long-simmering question: Who pays for
those incredible outfits?
It's
no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday,
off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns
can run into five figures.
In
recent weeks, Mrs. Obama has turned heads with a forest-green Naeem
Khan dress at the opening of a new costume gallery at New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art. She shimmered in a silver Marchesa gown at
the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. And her flowered
shirtdress for a Mother's Day tea at the White House (recycled from an
earlier event) hit the just right note for an audience of military moms.
High fashion: Mrs Obama turned heads with a
forest-green Naeem Khan dress at the opening of a new costume gallery at
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art
Couture: Mrs Obama wore a Marchesa gown to the
White House Correspondents' Association dinner (right) - a custom
version of a dress from the Marchesa Fall 2013 collection, seen on the
runway (left)
It
takes money to pull that off, month after month. Those three dresses by
themselves could add up to more than $15,000 retail, not to mention
accessories such as shoes and jewelry.
Is it the taxpayers who foot the bill? No. (Despite what critics say.)
Is it Mrs. Obama? Usually, but not always.
Does she pay full price? Not likely.
Does she ever borrow gowns from designers? No.
The
financing of the first lady's wardrobe is something the Obama White
House is loath to discuss. It's a subject that has bedeviled presidents
and their wives for centuries. First ladies are expected to dress well,
but the job doesn't come with a clothing allowance or a salary.
Mary
Todd Lincoln racked up tens of thousands of dollars in clothing bills
and considered selling manure from the White House grounds to pay them
off, according to the National First Ladies' Library. Jacqueline
Kennedy's father-in-law stepped in to finance her Oleg Cassini wardrobe
to keep clothes from becoming a political liability for President John
Kennedy. Nancy Reagan got grief for borrowing designer gowns and not
always returning them or reporting them as gifts.
Laura
Bush, in her memoir, said she was 'amazed by the sheer number of
designer clothes that I was expected to buy' as first lady.
How does Mrs. Obama, a fashion icon with far more expensive tastes than Mrs. Bush, swing it?
For starters, the Obamas reported adjusted income of $481,000 last year, and assets worth $1.8 million to $7 million.
Accepted on behalf of the U.S. government: The
blue Carolina Herrera gown that Mrs Obama wore to February's state
dinner for French President Francois Hollande was a donation from the
designer
And like most people, Mrs. Obama (mostly her personal aide, really) looks for discounts.
And, for really big events, the first lady has an option not available to every fashionista.
Here's
how Joanna Rosholm, press secretary to the first lady, explains it:
'Mrs. Obama pays for her clothing. For official events of public or
historic significance, such as a state visit, the first lady's clothes
may be given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the U.S.
government. They are then stored by the National Archives.'
'For official events of public or historic
significance, such as a state visit, the first lady's clothes may be
given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the U.S.
government'
That saves
Mrs. Obama considerable money, although the White House refused to say
how often the first lady wears donated clothes and the National Archives
declined to say how many such items it has in storage. The White House
did say that the first lady doesn't borrow any clothing and, for the
most part, buys her own clothes.
The
clothing donated by designers includes Mrs. Obama's two inaugural gowns
made by Jason Wu, a lesser-known designer before Mrs. Obama turned him
into a star in the fashion firmament. Wu declined to discuss how he
works with the first lady.
Mrs.
Obama and Wu both were there when the first inaugural gown was
presented to the Smithsonian in March 2010. The first lady said in her
remarks: 'The dress I donated today, made by Jason Wu, is a
masterpiece.' But the Smithsonian lists the gown as a 'gift of Jason Wu
in honor of first lady' Michelle Obama, making clear it came from him.
The first lady's office had no comment on that.
Donated: Mrs Obama in Jason Wu at a 2013 Inaugural Ball celebrating her husband's second term as President
First Ladies' Collection: Mrs Obama donated the
Jason Wu gown she wore to the Inaugural Balls in 2009 to the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington
Two
other examples of gowns worn by the first lady that were donated by
designers: the blue Carolina Herrera gown that Mrs. Obama wore to
February's state dinner for French President Francois Hollande and the
gold beaded Naeem Khan gown that Mrs. Obama wore to the 2012 governors
ball, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Herrera
and Khan declined comment.
National treasure: A Naeem Khan dress worn by the first lady to the 2012 Governors Dinner is now on display at the Smithsonian
The first
lady's office had no comment on whether the couture gowns worn by Mrs.
Obama for her six other White House state dinners also were donated. Nor
would it say how many gowns have been donated for the array of other
big events for which the first lady is expected to appear in couture
finery, such as the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies, governors'
dinners and White House correspondents' dinners.
Wearing donated gowns represents a change in practice from the Bush administration.
Anita
McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush during her time as first lady,
said Mrs. Bush paid for all her clothes, including her two inaugural
gowns: a red crystal-embroidered gown by Texan Michael Faircloth and a
silver and blue V-neck creation of Oscar de la Renta.
McBride
credits the Obama White House with finding a cost-saving way to 'keep
Mrs. Obama in all those incredible clothes and to have the use of them
not once but multiple times.'
The costs of a custom couture gown can be phenomenal, particularly if it is highly embellished with something like beading.
New Yorker Sarah Phillips, who
designed Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 inaugural gown, puts the full
cost of that violet beaded lace sheath in the range of $50,000, with the
Presidential Inaugural Committee paying $10,000 and Phillips and the
workshop covering the bulk of the costs. Phillips isn't sure whether
Clinton herself paid anything toward the dress, but the Smithsonian's
website describes the gown as a 'gift of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the
Presidential Inaugural Committee.'
Lawyers
who served in the Obama and Bush White Houses describe taking care in
working with the first lady's office to ensure that arrangements with
designers didn't run afoul of ethics rules designed to guard against
conflicts of interest and questionable quid pro quos.
Beyond
the unknowns about how often Mrs. Obama's clothes are donated, there
are questions about how much she pays for those she purchases.
Shopping her own closet: Michelle Obama recently
welcomed military moms to a Mother's Day Tea wearing the same
shirtdress sheíd worn to lunch with Katy Perry in 2012
In a 2011 Washington
Post story about Mrs. Obama's personal assistant, Meredith Koop, the
first lady's office said Koop acted on Mrs. Obama's behalf 'in arranging
for purchases, including considering the best offered price and buying
on discount if discounts are available.'
That's still true today, the first lady's office says, without elaborating.
Several
designers who have provided clothes for the first lady declined to
discuss their arrangements. But given the prestige that comes with
dressing Mrs. Obama, it's widely thought that designers are eager to cut
the first lady a break. Former White House lawyers said any discounts
provided to the first lady would have to be in line with what designers
offer other top customers to avoid being considered gifts.
'Some of the routine discounts that
people ask for are 40% off. Whether they get it is
subject to somebody's discretion'
Paco
Underhill, author of 'What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping,'
said the mark-ups on designer clothes are 'astronomical' and the
discounts can be steep as well.
'Some
of the routine discounts that people ask for are 40 per cent off,' he
said. 'Whether they get it is subject to somebody's discretion.'
First ladies have tried all sorts of tactics to hold down their clothing costs, including keeping some dresses in rotation.
Mrs.
Obama wore the same dress to this year's Mother's Day tea that she'd
worn to lunch with Katy Perry in October 2012. She often switches around
separates, belts and other accessories to give clothes in her wardrobe a
fresh look.
Recycling carries its own risks.
Mrs.
Bush, in her memoir, tells of arriving at a TV studio and noticing a
picture on the wall that showed she'd worn the same suit to her last
interview there.
'Quickly, I exchanged tops with my press secretary, so that it would seem as if I had more wardrobe variety,' she recalled.
