Mirror, Mirror: Fashion's nervous dance with Obamas

On the afternoon of the presidential inauguration, J. Crew blasted out an e-mail alerting the fashion media that first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama wore Crewcuts ensembles during the swearing-in and the previous weekend's inaugural festivities.

First lady Michelle Obama dressed them in wool pique Herbie coats for the outdoor "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial, and at the outdoor inauguration ceremony, the girls popped in periwinkle blue and guava pink outerwear.

Fashion bloggers couldn't stop typing. Fashionistas couldn't stop reading. Web shoppers couldn't stop clicking, even crashing the J. Crew Web site.

Oh, the free publicity.

But yesterday morning, when I contacted J. Crew to talk about the Obama Effect on business, I was met with a terse e-mail. The company appreciated the opportunity, but its spokespeople were no longer interested in talking to the press. "We are a little nervous about overexposing our relationship."

What a fashion-marketing conundrum.

In these tough economic times and pro-Bama world, retailers understandably want to shout from the Bryant Park tents to anyone who will listen that they had a hand in helping the first family with their aesthetic choices.

But the fashion industry - maybe more so than many others - relies on building the right relationship with the right clique. And if J. Crew aggravates the Obamas, especially Michelle, the company can kiss that endorsement-match-made-in-heaven goodbye. No more shout-outs for them on late-night talk shows in J. Crew buttercup-yellow ensembles.

"The fashion world has to be particularly sensitive on how to use a relationship without exploiting it," said Natalie W. Nixon, an associate professor of fashion-industry management at Philadelphia University.

"The Obamas are more than just well-known people who like a certain brand. They are political celebrities. And this relationship takes more nuance, because they are, in effect, private citizens."

Ty Corp., the creators of Beanie Babies, didn't get the marketing "sensitivity" memo.

Over the weekend, Michelle Obama said through a spokesperson that Ty Corp.'s Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia Beanie Babies were out of order.

"We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes," Obama's press secretary, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said in a statement.

On its Web site, Ty says the dolls - Marvelous Malia, her hair in a side ponytail and with blue-green shirt, and Sweet Sasha, in a pink-and-white dress - were not created in the likeness of the first daughters and were not named after Malia and Sasha Obama.

Yeah, right.

But is it all the company's fault when we the fashion public are craving all things Obama?

We may not be the first family, but we can have some of the trappings. And because these Obamas are real people, not celebrities in a sitcom, we feel that we know them, maybe can even be them.

Why do you think so many people are going to Obamaicon.com to download their image into the red, white and blue Hope painting by artist Shepard Fairey?

Fact is, most of the fallout from the inauguration has been good for fashion.

Aretha Franklin's gray church hat with the Swarovski crystal bow has turned the Detroit-based Mr. Song Millinery into the go-to style haven for "church women" across the world. (People actually put their own face under the hat in their Facebook profile pics.) Not to mention Ms. 'Retha finally proved to the world that she does have some sense of style, whether you like church-lady hats or not.

Jason Wu, the little known Taiwanese-born, New York-based designer, will see his white chiffon Michelle Obama inaugural gown in the Smithsonian by fall. For sure, attendance at his fall 2009 collections next month will be standing-room-only.

Isabel Toledo, the brain behind the first lady's inauguration-day shift and matching coat, fashioned from pashmina, cashmere and tulle with a lemongrass lace overlay, is finally getting the recognition for classy women's wear she deserves.

But there has to be a line that we won't cross. At some point we have to give the Obamas their space and develop our own personal style.

Because no matter how many knockoffs we can buy from eDressMe.com or Allen Schwartz, fashion will not really give us Obama stature. That is a result of hard work and dedication to family - and, of course, winning a big election.

And if we keep up this insane fashion stalking in copycat pursuit of style, we will lose ourselves and end up like Barack Obama's favorite suit company, Hart Schaffner Marx - which filed for bankruptcy Friday.