Last Saturday morning, I got a call from my granny. “Switch on the television; there’s the opening of Parliament: what do you think of the Prime Minister’s wife dress?” she asked.
Mrs Muscat needs a sensible assistant, who is protocol conscious, to help her express herself in the limited way that her position, as the Prime Minister’s wife, allows
She has a nose for news, my grandmother. By the morrow, Michelle Muscat’s dress was what everyone was talking about during the Sunday lunch.
Of course, you wouldn’t really know about this if you scanned the traditional media, which in Malta is very conservative in these matters and abides by the premise that outfits are a person’s private matter and should not make the headlines.
But elsewhere on the continent – the UK, Italy, France, Germany – the dress of the wife of the top man in the country would have been dissected minutely – with several experts brought in, the style analysed, the dressmakers crucified, the cost of the dress compared to the economy of the country and with commentators asking whether the dress reflects the political message of her husband.
Many will scoff and grunt that “it’s just women’s frivolous stuff and givvus hard core politics any time”. True, ‘style stories’ tend to be about women in limelight but that’s only because the feminine wardrobe is far more diverse. But this is not gossip news; rather we could call it ethnological politics.
It’s a recent phenomenon. In the days of Barbara Bush, or say Mary Fenech Adami, no one thought of commenting on their dresses. Wives were meant to be in the faded background. But look at Michelle Obama now – and the worldwide craze she caused when she cut her bangs.
Robb Young, author of Power Dressing, said in an interview in Forbes Magazine that discussing clothes of people in power is a taboo in some places partly because it is often interpreted as silly. “Politics wants to present itself as a serious institution about substantive issues, rather than a popularity contest based on what the contenders look like. But the fact is that fashion… can be mighty powerful political currency.”
We could compare this to the shift in archaeology. For a long time we were only interested in dates and treasure chests. But then, fortunately for us, there was a shift. We wanted to know what our ancestors wore, what they ate and what they did in their free time – because these say more about their real lives than a king’s crown can. It’s an insight into their anima, if you will.
In any case, to get back to Mrs Muscat’s dress: much has been said about her outfit in the real and virtual world. At my house, the consensus was that the style didn’t do her justice. And I also think she would have looked lovelier if she had not pinned her hair up in a stiff upstyle.
I don’t think any other Prime Minister’s wife has been given as much attention. For two reasons: she is younger, and refreshingly, she does not tend to don the dowdy dresses and sensible skirt suits of the typical PM wife.
And because of this, she has a responsibility towards her appearance more than the ones that came before her. She is a self-confessed fashion lover, but her promotion of fashion should not simply be reflected in encouraging her husband to put fashion on the electoral manifesto. As a public figure – albeit not a political one – she needs to make strong statements with her style.
Put simply, she needs to promote good taste and support home-grown talent: designers, dressmakers, hat makers – and ideally, details about her attire need to be made available to the press.
She also needs to keep in mind, in these dire economic times, that austerity begins at home. The Duchess of Cambridge recycles her clothes, so does Mrs Obama. Samantha Cameron, the wife of the British Tory PM, last year went to the party conference opening in Topshop skinny jeans and a cotton jersey collared top from Cos, both costing €35.
But to do this, Mrs Muscat cannot be surrounded by over-the-top fashion stylists screaming: “You look wow in this Mich!” She needs a sensible assistant, who is protocol conscious, to know when to halt the breaks and yet help her express herself in the limited way that her position, as the Prime Minister’s wife, allows.
She definitely needs to be the torch holder for manners and etiquette. For example: she needs to be on time for her official engagements – having young children and getting stuck in traffic are no excuses for the Prime Minister’s wife – although perfectly valid for the rest of us.
Perhaps I’m an old-fashioned stickler for protocol and perhaps I’m giving too much importance to sartorial issues, but what am I to do? I take after my granny.
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti