feminine AND powerful?

Visit to Dnipropetrovs'k - 1/14/08

In Niapol, Italy - 9/19/07Working visit to Odessa oblast - 2/7/08
I love this photo, feminine style amongst a sea of men in serious business suits.

Press conference - 2/2/08

Government meeting, 2/13/08

Remember my post about Hillary Clinton's fashion choices, titled must we pretend to be men? I know you do, my faithful readers.

Not to harp on the subject, but I couldn't help but to be inspired by Yulia Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister of Ukraine. She is the quintisential example of a woman in power (named 3rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, 2005) who presents herself as both feminine and fashionable. From the Princess Leia braids to the designer shoes, Chanel pearls, puff sleeves, and flouncy dresses and skirts, she is making no attempt to hide her femininity behind men-inspired pant suits.

A lesson for H. Clinton or a sign that Ukraine is ahead of the U.S. when it comes to femininity and women of power?

Side note: Not without controversy, Tymoshenko has been criticized for her accumulation of wealth by way of the gas industry; some of which she has clearly spent on designer clothing.

image credits: tymoshenko.com

must we pretend to be men?

When it comes to fashion, Hillary Clinton has been disappointing in her dated power-suits, reluctant to show femininity because of whatever political repercussions she feels that might entail. I don't know if this is a knock on Hillary or more on our society as a whole.

However, in sticking with her power-suit theme, she has managed to show some signs of girlishness.
She steps outside of the black, grey, brown pallet pretty often, as seen here:

And, there is some definite femininity here in this suit, eyelet lace & all:

Would it be political suicide for her to wear something other than pants on the campaign trail? And, what about a great bag or a fashionable pair of shoes? Is there no power in fashion....

Clinton recently snubbed Vogue by declining their invitation to be featured in the fashion bible (and photographed by Annie Leibovitz no less). Anna Wintour lashed back at Hillary in February's letter from the editor:

"Imagine my amazement, then, when I learned that Hillary Clinton, our only female presidential hopeful, had decided to steer clear of our pages at this point in her campaign for fear of looking too feminine. The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying. How has our culture come to this?"

image credits: dbiking, myrezyness, and nymag