Timing is everything — particularly in fashion but also in public affairs. One would assume First Lady Jill Biden knows this quite well. Making such an assumption, apparently, would be wrong.
By now, you’d have to be living on Grimsey Island off the coast of Iceland to be unaware of President Joe Biden’s egregious debate performance on Thursday of last week.
The president mumbled, gazed into nowhere, and didn’t make much sense. The result has been utter chaos and panic with everyone from The View ladies to Thomas Friedman begging, pleading, and stomping their feet asking him to step down.
So imagine, just days later, Mrs. Biden pops up on Vogue for the second time in perhaps her most preposterous decision as FLOTUS. To land the cover of the August issue means this had to have been planned months prior, in coordination with Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and stylist Max Ortega, knowing its release would coincide with the CNN debate.
Rather than appearing, say, in the October issue which would then be released at the start of September, Mrs. Biden made an enormous gamble that her husband’s debate performance wouldn’t be the worst, some have argued, in presidential history.
It is also an unusually daring choice for Mrs. Biden.
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She has mostly been a FLOTUS who plays it safe. Her wardrobe is remarkably flat at times (that’s not a knock on her, she’s just not interested in fashion as has been the case with many first ladies), her causes are largely unknown to the public, and she keeps a relatively low public profile compared to former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
When it comes to the Vogue cover and accompanying shoot, photographed by Norman Jean Roy who has taken breathtaking portraits of Linda Evangelista and Cyndi Lauper, it’s certainly less inviting than Mrs. Biden’s prior Vogue cover from August of 2021.
Mrs. Biden’s ivory silk tuxedo dress by Ralph Lauren Collection, retailing at $4,990, is regal from every angle. Likewise, her Kingman Turquoise super bloom flower earrings from Irene Neuwirth, retailing at $4,550, are a subtle hint of color to highlight her deep blue eyes.
The issue is in her stance, shoulders back and staring into the distance like Eva Perón, which seems all too … dare I say, presidential.
As dull as her former Vogue cover was (at the time I noted that it exuded no sense of regality), there was an inviting aspect to the colorful portraiture. Sure, it wasn’t fashion or style, but at least she looked like a nice, sweet lady who’d get your mail for you while you’re out of town.
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Meanwhile, this cover could easily be the photograph captured to be used for Mrs. Biden’s official portrait once she leaves the White House. In fact, I hope it is used for that purpose. But for a Vogue cover right now, it seems, uncomfortable and oblivious.
Most of the photos included in the editorial are candid and from the campaign trail. They’re good photography with superb lighting but have little to do with fashion.
Only two photos included in the spread are posed.
The first sees Mrs. Biden leaning awkwardly on a classroom desk at her alma mater and overly styled in voluminous hair and heavy makeup. Her heritage c suede trench coat from Coach, retailing at $1,800, is chic but bulky.
The other photo should have been the cover as it has Mrs. Biden sitting for a portrait in a navy silk shirt from Michael Kors Collection and Irene Neuwirth’s oval gumball double drop earrings, retailing at $4,530. Her grin and glance are welcoming, warm, and natural.
Unfortunately for Mrs. Biden, this shoot will undoubtedly be overshadowed by the public’s rightful concern over her husband’s stamina, or lack of it. There are some things a Vogue cover just can’t fix.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
