Fashion is message. Do I look rich? Do I look available? Do I look like I get it? Fashion is also context. And in the year since the industry placed its absurdly bright hopes on Mrs. Obama and her wardrobe, much has changed and dimmed. Is this how a modern, educated, working woman wants to be viewed in her first historic year — as a maven, an icon? Who’s Barbie now?

Cathy Horyn said in the NY Times via Fashionista