Finally, the Obama Inauguration Dress…with non-matching gloves

It's yellow! The nation waited months to see what Michelle Obama would wear to the Inauguration. Here it is: an Isabel Toledo sheath and matching beaded coat in sunny yellow. Michelle paired that with sage green leather gloves by J. Crew. At first, I wasn't feeling the green gloves and yellow dress, but they've grown on me in the past 30 seconds since I started writing this blog post. That is because I googled “Laura Bush, Inauguration 2005” and came up with a photo of the former First Lady's Inaugural outfit–a conservative winter white Oscar de la Renta cashmere suit, matching conservative white gloves. Matching the gloves to the dress is old school. And Obama's administration is about new school. Hence, idiosyncratic modern color combinations.

Incidentally, I tried going to J.Crew's website, but the “Scarves & Gloves” section is down. “We are unable to process your request at this time…we apologize for the inconvenience,” it says. Is everybody trying to buy a pair of Obama gloves? In the sale section, not even these pink opera gloves are left. They've still got some Viking warrior-esque shearling gloves though, in bright orange (or “Papaya”) on sale for $49. Maybe Michelle should pick up a pair of those as well for when she and her hubby start doing battle to turn this craptastic economy around.