FLOTUS just opened two art exhibits, and one was at the Met
Plus: How the “Choose Life” speciality license plate conquered the U.S.
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FLOTUS just opened two art exhibits, and one was at the Met
How do you dress for a Gilded Age Met Gala during sky-high inflation?
How the “Choose Life” speciality license plate conquered the U.S.
FLOTUS just opened two art exhibits, and one was at the Met
In less than two weeks, first lady Dr. Jill Biden opened not one, but two art exhibitions, including one in her own house, and the other at the Met.
Late last month, Biden opened an East Wing exhibition of artwork from children from military-connected families. She tweeted that art gives the children of service members and veterans “an outlet to express their experiences.”
Then on Monday, FLOTUS opened the preview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's In America: An Anthology of Fashion ahead of the Met Gala with a speech about the role fashion plays in making a statement.
“Our style helps us express things that can’t be put in words,” she said. “We reveal and conceal who we are with symbols and shapes, colors and cuts — and who creates them.”
Biden said she decided to wear a sunflower on her sleeve to the State of the Union to show support for Ukraine because she thought the only thing reported about her that night was what she wore.
“I ordered sunflower appliqués — the flower of Ukraine and a symbol of hope and solidarity — and had one sewn on the cuff of my dress,” she said. “I knew I was sending a message without saying a word: that Ukraine was in our hearts and that we stood with them.”
Biden called the history of American design “rich and deep” and said it has “often been written by those in the shadows.”
“As we celebrate the designers and the fashion that has shaped the very identity of America, I hope it will inspire all of us to keep learning,” she said. “I hope it will help us to see the beauty and art that surrounds us every day, and most importantly, I hope it will remind us to be bold and brave.”
Biden did not stay for the gala.
How do you dress for a Gilded Age Met Gala during sky-high inflation?
Criticizing the Met Gala as elitist is nothing new, but this year’s gala theme, “Gilded Glamour,” evoked a bygone era of gross income inequality during our modern-day era of gross income inequality and presented a challenge. How do you go gilded when inflation is on the rise?
Several attendees paid homage to the role of immigrants during the Gilded Age, including co-chair Blake Lively, whose copper-to-liberty-green Atelier Versace gown referenced the Statue of Liberty turning green due to oxidation. Riz Ahmed wore a jacket, trousers, and boots inspired by “the immigrant workers who kept the Gilded Age going,” he told Vanity Fair.
“I wanted to focus on the people without whom nothing gilded would exist: the laborers, the workers, the unseen,” Ahmed said. “This look is for everyone who thinks they don’t have a voice. They do.”
The “Tax The Rich” dress Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wore to the 2021 Met Gala was about as subtle as a MAGA hat. The unenthusiastic reception it got signaled the end of the “Resistance” era aesthetic, when politics was spelled out and worn on your sleeve. This year, former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wore a burgundy Altuzarra dress with the names of American women she admires sewn into the hem, but you had to squint to see anything that resembled writing.
Believe it or not, Kim Kardashian got the dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday” to JFK on loan from Ripley’s. In America: An Anthology of Fashion includes historical garments of its own, including a coat worn by George Washington, the coat Abraham Lincoln wore when he was assassinated, and a coat worn by an enslaved man.
In America: An Anthology of Fashion runs through Sept. 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
How the “Choose Life” speciality license plate conquered the U.S.
Should the Supreme Court go forward with striking down Roe v. Wade, more than two dozen states could ban abortion. Anti-abortion activists have been preparing for this possibility for years, and their efforts extend to speciality license plates.
There are 34 states that allow speciality “Choose Life” license plates, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and 19 allow a portion of the proceeds from the plate to go to groups opposed to abortion.
Florida approved the first “Choose Life” plate in 2000, according to the group Choose Life America, and since then, the group has helped introduce the plate in other states. Conservative strongholds like Alabama and Texas have their own versions, but the specialty plates have also popped up in Delaware, Hawaii, and New Jersey. They often feature a child-style drawing of kids, but others show images of babies, baby footprints, or parents with kids.
These plates sometimes face opposition. Then-Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee vetoed a “Choose Life” plate in 2013 because it would have raised money for a Christian pregnancy center, which he said would have violated the separation of church and state. Another plate was vetoed in Michigan in 2017.
That same year, Nebraska approved a Planned Parenthood “My Body My Choice” plate, a rare specialty plate in support of abortion rights, though all the fees from plate go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Trust Fund, and not Planned Parenthood, according to the Nebraska DMV.
How popular are these plates? At least in Florida, “Choose Life” is the 27th most popular specialty plate, and it can be found on 19,292 vehicles, per Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. For comparison, the No. 1 specialty plate in Florida is “Endless Summer,” on 110,139 vehicles, followed by “Helping Sea Turtles Survive,” on 98,123 vehicles.