First Lady Fashion - Really Michelle...Really?

How is it that Michelle Obama can look so perfectly appropriate one night
as she does in this Tom Ford gown and dangle earrings

and then then the next night
totally blow it with pairing a beautiful Ralph Lauren dress
with tacky and trashy Tom Binns costume jewelry?

With access to all of the great new fine jewelry created by American jewelry designers

not to mention all the beautiful estate jewelry that could easily be loaned to her

why would she choose to wear art project gone wrong costume jewelry nonsense by an Irish designer?

No disrespect to the Irish here...

it's just that Michelle Obama's job is to promote American design, products and industry

as Carla Bruni Sarkozy does so well for the fashion and jewelry houses of France.

Is Mrs Obama even aware of the fact that there is a fine jewelry industry in the US that employs thousands of Americans and provides tax revenue to coffers of Washington DC?

I don't care what she wears in her private life,

but her fashion choices for a state dinner should reflect her position as First Lady.

I am so annoyed by this that I'm adding to my post

Since virtually any American fine jewelry designer would have happily loaned the first lady jewelry

why couldn't her people have contacted some of the great American women designers

such as

Rhonda Faber Green

Cathy Waterman

Lorraine Schwartz

Cynthia Bach

Elizabeth Locke

Judith Ripka

Lori Rodkin

Wendy B

and the list goes on and on....

Mrs. Obama, please promote your peeps.

Jewelry Biz - Oh La La - An Afternoon With Lorenz Baumer

After an online discussion about who is glamorous over at Tish Jett's blog A Femme D'un Certain Age
I thought that I would weigh in on the subject.
I am not a big fan of glamour because I believe that above all it is built on artifice.
Take most film stars and celebrities.  Can they even be described as glamorous if in actuality they rely entirely on stylists to put together their public looks? 
So instead I look for elegance and accomplishment.
Yesterday I was very pleased to spend several hours with Lorenz Baumer, who is the epitiome of both elegance and accomplishment.

Lorenz Baumer is one of the world's premier jewelry designers.  He has designed for Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and not the costume fashion nonsense stuff either.  He designs Haute Joaillerie.  Here's an example of his work.

Now he has a boutique and atelier located at the Place Vendome in Paris where he creates exciting, colorful and clever pieces based on his view of nature, poetry and architecture.
Like this

and this

I just fell in love with his pieces yesterday...
and a little bit in love with him too because he was so elegant in that unique way that french men are.
And accomplished.
Next month he is going to receive the Legion D'Honneur in Paris.
So check out his website and the next time that you are in Paris, be sure to visit his boutique.