Michelle Obama at the White House Fashion Education Workshop (photo by Cloud 12 Group via Refinery29)
FASHIONING THE FUTURE
Fashion’s Mentor Moment at the White House
First Lady Michelle Obama and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour hosted the first White House Fashion Education Workshop on Oct. 8 in Washington D.C. The event brought together some fashion industry hopefuls with some fashion industry success stories—such as Spanx founder Sara Blakely.
Among the designers in attendance were Blakely, Diane von Furstenberg, Thom Browne, Phillip Lim, J Crew’s Jenna Lyons, Jason Wu and Zac Posen, who captured the Anna/Michelle moment perfectly on Instagram. There were students (and alums) from Parsons The New School for Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Pratt Institute of Technology.
Obama addressed the crowd in dress designed by FIT student Natalya Koval, one of two winners in a competition leading up to the Fashion Workshop.
“When it comes to the fashion industry, so often people think it’s all about catwalks and red carpets and “who wore it best,” and whether some famous person wore the right belt with the right shoes,” Obama said. “But the truth is that the clothes you see in the magazine covers are really just the finished product in what is a very long very complicated and very difficult process, as I’ve come to learn working with many designers. What most people don’t realize is that there are so many different aspects to this industry. Whether it’s business marketing or technology and manufacturing, even agriculture that produces the wool and the cotton that ultimately becomes our clothes, it’s a big, complicated industry.”
The First Lady also recognized the impact the apparel industry has on the U.S. economy.
“Last year alone, Americans spent more than $350 billion on clothing and footwear, and about 1.4 million American workers are employed annually by retailers and others in the fashion industry—so a lot of jobs, a lot of income that is generated by many of the people who are sitting in this room,” she said.
You can read the full text of Obama’s speech at the White House Press Office website. And you can see a gallery of photos (like the two above) at Refinery29.
