This week everyone’s talking about the reddish brocade Tracy Reese cocktail dress Michelle Obama wore when she spoke at the DNC and, in contrast, the cherry red Oscar de la Renta shirtdress Ann Romney wore when she spoke at the RNC last week. Full disclosure: I liked Ann’s look better. But I remain far more captivated by what Bill Clinton wore when he took the podium last night at the DNC. His performance was magnificent, perhaps because he was given the adoring the audience he craves without any of the attendant responsibilities. He wore a two-button navy blue suit (Donna Karan?), which, as handlers know, photographs better than black. It fit his tall frame gracefully, far better than the suit he wore two years ago at Chelsea’s wedding, which looked as if it had been sized for the pre-heart-attack, Big-Mac-guzzling Bill.
But it was his silk necktie, a striped, muted red with blue undertones, that clinched the look. Just as Bill explained, midway through his speech, that Obama values partnership over partisanship, the red-mixed-with-blue of his tie, which was both not-true-blue and not-true-red, went far to suggest ideological subtlety and sophistication. Compare it to the necktie Mitt Romney wore for his RNC speech, a schoolboy, stop-sign red one with narrow cobalt stripes. Mitt’s necktie wasn’t about anything but the color red. While there’s a huge divide between red and blue states, red is used across the board at mainstream political events to symbolize upstanding American politics. One has to admire both men for having enough sense to stick with the classics.