Bamalot

“Michelle is Not the New Jackie”

Comparisons between the two first ladies make little sense.

"There seems to be this moving train that simply insists that Mrs. Obama is the new Mrs. Kennedy," says Carl Anthony, historian for the National First Ladies' Library. Like many fellow fashionistas, reports Newsweek, Wendy Donahue in her style column for the Chicago Tribune is rushing to cram Michelle Obama's 5-foot-11-inch frame into the mold left by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The trouble, historians say, is that it's a lousy fit. “Kennedy was the epitome of 1960s haute couture. Her style was aspirational, unattainable. Obama is more of a fashion populist. It's hard to imagine Kennedy, in her pillbox hat and leopard-skin coat, dishing about shopping at J.Crew,” writes Katie Connolly.