How pista became the colour of hope
Priya Ramani -
Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:53 PM
Sure Michelle Obama feels the pressure to do things differently from her predecessors. She didn't want to be caught wearing the usual colours of the US flag for the Inaugural. And black might be considered a downer at a time when the economy's feeling blue. But pista (pistachio) as the colour of hope and multi-culturalism?
I don't know about you but for years I cringed when my mother told me: "Yellow looks soo good on you." Every time we shopped together, it was war. I liked myself in eternally fashionable black, brown and grey. My mum always maintained I looked "brightest" in yellow.
When my brother moved to the US and my parents began to visit him regularly, I had to trust my mother to buy me clothes. "Everyone's wearing white trousers. They look stunning," she would call and report. "Let me buy you just one pair," she would plead, despite my shrieks of horror. But over the years, she came around and eventually mastered the art of knowing exactly what "boring/dull" clothes to shop for.
Then I got married and the husband got on my colour case. Earlier this year in Peru, I saw a gorgeous black turtleneck Alpaca wool sweater. "You have half a dozen sweaters that look exactly like this," he said, and picked up a violet turtleneck with, horror of horrors, tassels. "Try this on." I'm almost certain the flighty Delhi winter will end before I can gather the courage to wear the sweater in public.
But, guess what, as I grew older, I began to agree that colour was not such a bad thing after all. I own a pink sweater, several reds and even one long sleeved canary yellow tee shirt, way brighter than the colour Michelle Obama wore on her first day as first lady.
And what was that colour anyway? Was it yellow? Or yellow-green? Or gold? Or champagne? Even the US press, which has had so little celebrity exposure to the colour, couldn't make up their minds. Here's what some of them said:
Time magazine: The glamorous, creamy yellow dress and matching overcoat were made of satin-backed wool guipure, a kind of lace used most often in French haute couture.
Bloomberg: The new first lady's sparkling lemongrass-colored ensemble, created by little-known Cuban American fashion designer Isabel Toledo, is in keeping with her preference for "accessible glamour".
The New York Times: As for her vivid yellow inaugural outfit, it seemed designed to stand out against the traditional red and somber black coats on the Capitol steps.
The Wall Street Journal: For the moment that Michelle Obama officially became America's First Lady, she chose a champagne yellow ensemble by Isabel Toledo, a Cuban-American, independent fashion designer who has spent her recent career on the fringes of New York's Seventh Avenue.
San Francisco Chronicle: The nation's new first lady continued to surprise fashion lovers with her unpredictable wardrobe choices Tuesday, starting with a dressy wool lace yellow-green coat and sheath and culminating in an elegant, understated one-shoulder tiered white inaugural ball gown by up-and-coming New York designer Jason Wu.
Boston Globe: As the new president gave a speech on the renewal of America, Michelle Obama stood out from the sea of dark winter coats in a pale gold Isabel Toledo brocade sheath dress, jeweled collar, and matching coat in Swiss wool.
Chicago Sun-Times: A nation hungry for style looked up to the nearly 5-foot-11-inch first lady on Inauguration Day. And she didn't disappoint, wearing a gold dress and matching overcoat of satin-backed wool lace to see her husband sworn in as president. Not everyone can pull off that shade of yellow-the color of hope.
The Washington Post: For that moment when she officially became first lady, Michelle Obama chose a metallic gold coat and matching slim-fitting dress by the Cuban-born designer Isabel Toledo. The dress made a glamorous statement with its regal color, and it separated the new first lady from those wearing the more traditional red and blue.