Ever since Seth MacFarlane sang that silly song about seeing actresses’ boobs and everyone got mad, I’ve been of two minds about whether it’s worth our time, as women, to keep fighting this particular battle.
One the one hand, we seem to have time-traveled back to the Mad Men era. Across the land, from Hollywood to Fargo, nostalgia for twinsets, garish lipstick and back-alley abortions is in vogue.

On the other hand, I too want to laugh at boob jokes, and of course, I want to be able to welcome a compliment from a president of the United States.
But O got himself a Saturday Night Live skit and a million blog posts last week when, besides praising her brilliance, dedication and toughness, he added of California Attorney General Kamala Harris: “She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country ... it’s true ... come on.”
Whoops. As the play-by-play announcers on Obama’s favorite network, ESPN, would put it: out of bounds!

He knew it, too, and shortly afterward he apologized. That pissed other people off. Because why should he apologize for saying something so nice?

It’s not like he said, “She has a really nice ass!” But the way some feminists are reacting, he might as well have.

Before we jump on O, which I am sorry to say that I am about to do, let’s remember that he gave us two really great female Supreme Court appointees who are not by any standard definition “hot.” And by saying that, I’ve just implicated myself. I can’t help it. I am hardwired to. More on that below.

I wish we were at the point where we could welcome a flattering comment from a male public figure about how a female public figure looks.

After all, what’s the first thing a woman says when she meets another woman? That’s right: “You look great.” “Love those shoes.” “Where’d you get that sweater?”

There’s a whole industry devoted to how women look, and it keeps a large swath of our city employed. Women in the U.S. spend $250 billion a year on looking good.

Of course, O was being genuine in his flattery. He clearly values good looks, and he likes looking good himself. He works out, gets photographed shirtless, praises his wife Michelle all the time (that’s okay!) and doesn’t have his own body insecurities. When asked in 2008 whether he wears boxers or briefs, he replied, “I don’t answer those humiliating questions. But whichever it is, I look good in them!”

So how is telling a woman she looks good offensive? Because in a country where trafficked women’s bodies are for sale, where gang-rapes of teen girls and victim-blaming are on the rise, and where statehouses across the land are trying to return women to forced child-bearing, reminding women that how they look still matters is sexist.

It is offensive as long as women—historically valued chiefly for how we look—still have vastly less power than men and are egregiously underrepresented in all corporate boardrooms, in Congress, in academia, in the elite media and, yes, in the White House.

The other problem with the president drawing attention to a female officeholder’s looks is that women believe—and objective evidence backs them up—that being pretty actually helps women succeed.
The opposite is, quite unfairly, totally not true.

I realize cute males in politics like Gavin Newsom and centerfold ex-Senator Scott Brown get their fair share of attention. But the vast majority of powerful men are not hot. They never have to be. Whenever I run into Harvey Weinstein, for example, or look at pictures of Mitch McConnell, I try to imagine a woman looking that way and getting to where they are.
Impossible.

Sexism is subtly and pervasively sewn into the fabric of society. Because women participate in it all the time, it’s easy for men to complain that they don’t get why our president ought not to be commenting on how prominent public officials look.

There’s a name for what O did. Social psychologists call it “benevolent sexism.” Melanie Tannenbaum, writing in Scientific American last week, pointed out how benevolent sexism explained The New York Times’s obit of rocket scientist Yvonne Brill, which started off with a description of her cooking skills.
Benevolent sexism looks a lot nicer than hostile, open sexism, Ms. Tannenbaum writes. It justifies the power imbalance between men and women, as much as—or perhaps even more than—open misogyny.

Calling a woman a bitch, a ho, a stupid girl is actually not as insidious, because it’s out in the open. Benevolent sexism perpetuates ideas that diminish women’s already limited power without giving outright offense. And if you don’t like it, you are missing a good-humor chip.

“Although it is tempting to brush this experience off as an overreaction to compliments or a misunderstanding of benign intent, benevolent sexism is both real and insidiously dangerous,” Ms. Tannenbaum writes.

The costs of benevolent sexism can be seen in every boardroom and political body in America, where women are underrepresented because they are not considered powerful or serious enough to do the job.
The day might come—for our granddaughters, I wish, but probably beyond—when gender parity arrives. Then, how America’s female political leaders look and dress will matter as little as it does for our male leaders. And then, our president will be able to say whatever she wants.

editorial@observer.com

Michelle Obama.

Shindigger doesn’t do early mornings. But when Michelle Obama and her husband (perhaps you’ve heard of him?) come a-calling, we suddenly become quite awake—and available. Thanks to our friend Tim Morehouse, the silver-medal-winning Olympic fencer, we were invited to attend the 135th White House Easter Egg Roll this past Monday.

We set our alarm for 3 a.m., and Shindigger and Mr. Morehouse booked it down to D.C. just in time to be among the first of the 30,000-plus invitees to arrive. Guests included politicians, athletes, do-gooders and lottery-winning families, all of whom would soon wreak havoc on the White House’s South Lawn.

Let’s Move!, the first lady’s initiative to get America’s children fit and active, was the driving theme behind this year’s festivities. By 8.30 a.m., thousands of kids could be seen rushing through obstacle courses, playing field hockey with Olympic team members, shooting hoops, dancing at a series of concerts and even dabbling in acrobatic yoga—all in the Obamas’ backyard.

“I got invited and I couldn’t say no,” NFL star Anquan Boldin told Shindigger during the first social session. “It’s a great opportunity to come and mingle. I’ve heard about this event for a couple years. I was here last year.”

And that wasn’t his first visit to the executive mansion.

“After winning the national championship at Florida State, I got invited,” Mr. Boldin explained. As he had just been traded from the Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens, it was unclear if Mr. Boldin would be coming to visit the president as part of the team’s victory lap.

After some more coffee, Shindigger tried to make friends with Oscar-nominated Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), with whom we had been escorted through the VIP entrance at the East Gate. She looked spunky in a loud pink-and-rose ensemble, complete with a white-and-magenta puppy purse, and was presently queueing up to enter the White House and kick it with Mrs. Obama.

“What do you do to stay fit?” Mr. Morehouse asked the 9-year-old actress.

“Just dancin’,” she said, crossing her arms with a touch of sass.

“Wanna show us your dancin’ movies?” he asked, bopping to a nonexistent beat.

“Mmmm, mmmm,” she buzzed with an unimpressed look on her face.

A few minutes later, Robby Novak, who plays “Kid President” in a viral video series (and appeared as the “president” in the White House’s April Fool’s Day video), exited onto the Truman Balcony with the Easter Bunny, and thus began the presidential welcome. Jessica Sanchez belted out a rousing rendition of the National Anthem, and then President Barack Obama took the podium.

“When does Bo and Lady Obama come out?” one nearby youngster asked his guardian. Even Mr. Obama could sense he was playing second fiddle on this day.

“And I now want to introduce the star of the Obama family, my wife, the first lady, Michelle Obama.”

Followed by much applause.

“So today, we want you to have a great time. We want you to run around,” Mrs. Obama said. “We’re going to come down and do some Easter egg roll. We’re going to read some stories. But overall, we want you guys to have a good time and keep moving and be healthy.”

Then, as the superstar first family descended toward the lawn, all hell broke loose (and only one day after Easter!). Parents jostled for that perfect iPhone shot. Some hoisted their children into the air for a closer look.

We looked to get out of the scrum and ran into another hardbody.

“They called me up and asked me if I wanted to participate,” Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson told Shindigger, as screeching little tykes darted around him, knocking into inflatable tackling dummies.

We asked Mr. Peterson if he had met the Obamas and if he had refrained from subjecting them to his notoriously bone-crunching handshake.

“I didn’t wanna get tackled by Secret Service or anything,” he said with a laugh. “So I took it easy on the president, but I got a little peck on the check from Mrs. Obama. It was pretty cool.”

That’s more than Shindigger could say. Where was our presidential kiss, we wondered? Come to think of it, where were our glasses of wine? Between toddlers screaming for Dora the Explorer and Jordin Sparks’s crooning, a glass of red would have been perfect for our fitness regimen.

We then decided to investigate the food situation back in the roped-off tent area.

“I was on the basketball court when Obama came down,” said Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, who was handing out sandwiches to volunteers. “It’s like a tailgate, but with water and healthy food—and a lot of kids.”

It did indeed feel like some sporting event. Case in point: race car driver Danica Patrick was making her first-ever pit stop at the White House. “I got to meet the whole family, including the dog,” she said, adding that the president’s knowledge of NASCAR was impressive.

Shindigger asked if she had spotted U.K. boy band The Wanted creeping around the South Lawn.

“I don’t know who they are,” she whispered.

“They’re right in front of you,” we whispered back, pointing toward the East Wing.

“Where?” she said. “I have no idea what ‘the wanted’ is, but the kids these days—they find out about stuff first.”

Probably because they wake up so damn early.

Models wearing Prabal Gurung's "Regiment" collection at Fashion Week.

As New Yorkers woke up under a blanket of snow Saturday morning, the Transom braved the ice-lined streets of Soho en route to St. John’s Studio, where—inside the unmarked brick building—a battalion of models had assembled in preparation for the launch of Prabal Gurung’s fall 2013 collection, “Regiment.”

Just before the chic soldier-models marched down the runway before the likes of Vogue’s Anna Wintour—properly seated in the front row—the Transom ventured backstage to find out more about the collection’s inspiration.

As makeup artists and hairstylists hustled about, we found Mr. Gurung looking calm, cool and visibly happy in front of a collage of his designs.

Clad in a black sweater, black jeans and black boots (everyone wears black except the models), the designer was busy smiling and pleasantly shaking hands with the growing horde of photographers, editors, publicists and stage managers who wanted a piece of his time.

It’s no surprise he’s in such high demand. Four years since his Fashion Week debut, he counts Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton among his fans. Even so, when a staffer offered Mr. Gurung sips of water between interviews, the humble designer was almost overly gracious. “Thank you,” he told the young man. “Thank you so much.”

So what inspires the man who designs for the world’s leading ladies?

Mr. Gurung told the Transom it was Time magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2012” feature on body armor for female soldiers—combined with the Pentagon’s decision last month to lift the ban on women in combat—that sparked his imagination.

“All these years, women have been wearing men’s uniforms, and now they’re redesigning,” he said. “That led me to think about, ‘Oh my God, I’ve taken it for granted. Women need a separate kind of new uniform.’”

Fear not—the models didn’t walk the runway in camouflage and flak jackets. Instead they sported military-inspired pieces with classic Gurung touches: black woven leather harnesses over military-green peplum jackets and a mink patchwork coat with feathered red fox, all designed to embrace feminine beauty and strength.

“What is empowerment, and what, as a woman, does it mean?” Mr. Gurung pondered before the show. “It’s not necessarily about being aggressive, but about totally embracing your femininity, totally being comfortable with being a woman in a man’s world and ruling it.”

Minutes before the show began, amid the hustle and bustle and dramatic lighting, there was a rare moment backstage when Mr. Gurung was left alone to himself. In the few seconds of silence, he turned slowly around to study the wall behind him, where photographs of his collection were mounted in orderly rows.

Asked what he hopes to conquer next in the world of fashion, Mr. Gurung mused, “I just hope that creatively I’m challenging myself and pushing myself and the business is growing. And I just hope I’m around for a long time. I just love the industry.”

With that, the Transom departed Mr. Gurung’s world, trudging through slush and frozen puddles in a pair of weather-inappropriate high heels. Channeling the designer, we embraced our feminine uniform (in our own small way) and walked, empowered, down the sidewalk to hail a cab.

Illustration by Jason Seiler

Amid all the speculation about Barack Obama’s newfound mojo, a hotly anticipated stiffening of his political spine inspired by his decisive victory in November, a somewhat more intriguing question has scarcely been asked.

Will Michelle finally step out?

The Harvard-trained attorney has always been, for those on the right, a more threatening character than her husband. After all, Mr. Obama merely received that famous fist bump—or as Fox News had it, “terrorist fist jab”—in the moments before delivering his speech at the Democratic National Convention; Michelle initiated it. It was she who revealed that the future president woke up “snore-y and stinky” in the morning, part of the campaign’s aggressive bid to humanize him that had the side effect of further elevating her (After all, if America’s demigod wakes up less than perfect, what would she think of us?) And it was Michelle who included a line about how the nation is “just downright mean” and “guided by fear”—in her 2008 stump speech—and once notoriously allowed that she was “for the first time in my adult lifetime ... really proud of my country.” And, of course, it was Michelle who finally extended the right to “bare arms” to political spouses and, as the Times Style section put it, “spurred an epidemic of sleevelessness.”

My goodness, the guns on that woman!

Whether the infamous “whitey” video—a Holy Grail of the right, in which Michelle is said to employ the dated epithet—ever existed at all outside the fever dreams of dirty trickster Roger Stone Jr. (which it almost definitely did not), the first lady has worked hard to dispel our fears. Over the last four years, the perceived Angela Davis-style radical has been replaced by a smoothly competent political professional, whose causes seem more Lady Bird Johnson than Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Not that there haven’t been a few missteps: wearing Lanvin sneakers to a food bank, eating Shake Shack (albeit in moderation) despite her healthy-food exhortations and hugging Queen Elizabeth. In general, though, Ms. Obama has been a notably careful FLOTUS, campaigning for exercise (what could be less controversial than that?) and embodying the role of wholesome mom-in-chief. Far from reinventing the job of first lady, the first black woman to set up house in the East Wing has turned out to be something of a traditionalist. At least so far. Now, with the exigencies of a second presidential campaign behind her, some are hoping Ms. Obama will finally let her freak flag—whatever that might look like—fly.

“There’s this sense that the real Michelle Obama, this endearingly frank woman we met in the spring of 2008, is going to come back to the fore,” noted New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor. “I think any change in her during the presidency is going to be one of degree. The real change is going to be in the post-presidency. Once she’s out of the White House and her husband will no longer hold office, she truly will be liberated. She will still be a young woman, and she’ll be one of the most famous and influential women in the world.”

“For first ladies, I do think second terms tend to be a bit more interesting,” said Daily Beast fashion writer Robin Givhan, whose beat is the intersection of style and politics and who has often written about Michelle. “It was in the second term when Laura Bush spoke out about Burma. So I will be intrigued to see if Mrs. Obama decides that she’s going to add a third leg to her platform, which now is divided between the support of military personnel and the Let’s Move campaign.”

While Ms. Givhan declined to speculate as to what that third project might be, conservatives are plainly terrified. As a piece on Right Side News ominously put it, “Much like Hillary, she will be assigned more involvement in affairs of state, appointed to committees, and public appearances of a political nature will become more frequent, not to speak of a barrage of friendly television repartee on shows like The View, late night talk, and more. In essence, the grooming will begin.”

Blame Ms. Clinton for the lofty expectations: the former first lady-turned-well-liked senator-turned-presidential candidate-turned-secretary of state-turned-beloved Internet meme is the new paradigm for first ladies. (Even Laura Bush, the very picture of a traditional political spouse, went on an extensive book tour in 2010, during which she spoke out on her policy differences from her husband. Turns out she’s pro-gay marriage and supports Roe v. Wade!)

Ms. Obama, in spite of her rather rocky introduction, has the skill set of a politician, as she amply demonstrated with her 2012 Democratic National Convention speech, in which she passionately recounted the story of her early marriage and her dad’s health struggles, making Ann Romney’s tuna-salad recollections look hopelessly drab and out of touch. Though Ms. Obama was hardly the first first lady to get an advanced degree or work outside the home—Laura Bush has a master’s and was a teacher and librarian, and Nancy Davis acted in films after her marriage to Ronald Reagan—she was the first one to have a higher-profile career than her husband for a time. While Barack was working on his memoir and commuting between Chicago and Springfield as a state senator, Michelle was climbing the ladder at the University of Chicago Hospitals system; even when he became a U.S. senator, she was the spouse bringing home the real bacon. It’s not surprising that with Illinois Senator Mark Kirk up for re-election in 2016, speculation has already emerged that Michelle will make a run at the seat. A recent poll had her trouncing the Republican 51 to 40 percent. Trouble is, the first lady may not be interested.

In her book The Obamas, Ms. Kantor reported that Michelle Obama strongly considered the idea of remaining in Chicago and letting Barry turn the White House into a bachelor pad in order to allow little Sasha and Malia to continue their school year in Chicago. “It’s hard to overstate how little she wanted to go into politics,” Ms. Kantor told The Observer, “and it wasn’t just because of the family reasons she sometimes cites. She had a real objection to the nature of politics. She thought it wasn’t the right way to create social change.”

She’s disappointed liberals before. Many expected her to advocate strongly for progressive causes during her husband’s first term, but she largely kept quiet. Historian and America’s First Ladies author Betty Boyd Caroli said that she’d expected Mrs. Obama to more aggressively champion the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, for instance. “I was disappointed,” Ms. Caroli said. “I expected her to be Superwoman. But it doesn’t work that way. Enough voters, it is feared, are not ready.”

And blame Hillary Clinton for that, too, having so disastrously overreached with health-care reform. “Everybody learned a lesson from that. It’s not good to be too political as a first lady,” said Dr. Caroli. (The PR disaster was compounded by Mrs. Clinton’s maelstrom of press over everything from Whitewater to her ever-evolving hairdo, and the fact that her ambitions for a time outpaced her political talent.)

The result: Hillary entered the East Wing as a full-throated political player and left as a Vogue cover-girl and hostess.

“Hillary’s trajectory was the opposite of Michelle’s,” noted Rebecca Traister, the author of Big Girls Don’t Cry, a book about women and the 2008 election.

As for Ms. Obama, the conservative blogosphere still lights up with outrage whenever the healthy-eating crusader is seen nibbling a French fry, but the first lady’s childhood-obesity-prevention campaign Let’s Move and her advocacy on behalf of military families are not exactly Hillarycare. As Ms. Kantor noted, “There’s the question with Let’s Move about how aggressive and confrontational she was willing to be when it came to taking on corporate interests. With the military families initiative, is it rah-rah patriotic, or does it get into darker material? I’m curious to see how complete and thorough a conversation she wants to have with the country about the issues veterans face.”

In the first term, Mrs. Obama’s “mom-in-chief” moniker, derided by the left, allowed her to occupy an apolitical space. “There was some frustration among women, thinking she should do more,” said Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush and a scholar of the history of first ladies. “But the women’s movement is about choice, and this was her choice.”

Others agree that Ms. Obama’s old-school approach during the first term was in itself somewhat radical. “I consider myself a feminist,” noted MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry. “But I’m also a critic of second-wave feminism, which was bourgeois, white middle class, and said that work done outside the home is the most liberating kind of work. That ignores the fact that through vast periods of U.S. history, black women were not provided the income or space that they could make that decision. I find it kind of subversive and interesting that a black woman with a law degree from Harvard who’d been the primary breadwinner through college said, ‘I’m going to do what generations of white women have done, do the Junior League kind of work.’”

But even Dr. Harris-Perry sees an untapped political potential in the first lady. She cited Ms. Obama’s work negotiating between the University of Chicago and the city’s South Side: “It’d be really interesting to see if she could navigate that at a higher level—bridging this gap between the powerful and well-resourced and those that are being denigrated.”

Besides, a certain distaste for politics might just turn out to be an asset, creating a sense that, should she venture into the arena, she would be doing it not because she wants to—heaven forbid—but because her country truly needs her. A “Michelle Obama 2016” T-shirt with a snazzy stars-and-bars design can be found for about $25 on Google Shopping.

Ms. Traister compared Michelle to another formerly nonpolitical person who ended up taking out a sitting Republican senator. “Elizabeth Warren is somebody who did not have a political career, who was tremendously influential in terms of how we see the chasm between rich and poor,” Ms. Traister noted. Ms. Obama, she said, “could get very active in immigration reform, she could start talking about climate change.”

Dr. Harris-Perry had a different role model in mind: a first lady who, as “a dutiful soldier,” kept silent about her disagreements with her husband during his presidency but campaigned vociferously as a conscience of the Democratic party in the years that followed: Eleanor Roosevelt. “She became the legacy; she held the Democrats’ feet to the fire. She was very active in party leadership,” Dr. Harris-Perry said, adding that Ms. Obama “might be able to be a kind of queen-maker for women running for office. I could see her on the campaign trail.”

“It’s very natural for that to be the next-step fantasy for people who appreciate her brilliance—oh, she’ll run for office!” Ms. Traister said. “One thing all those who want her to run could think about is other jobs she may want to have in her life, using her own model of working within communities. We need to be aware of is not letting her identity as a former first lady hold her back from having an independent life.”

Then again, you never know. Back in the 1990s, Dr. Caroli predicted that Hillary Clinton would never run for office: “She didn’t look at ease with groups of people,” she said. “But people change!”

And if they don’t, there’s always Sasha and Malia. 2040, perhaps?

Robin Givhan (Getty Images)

Newsweek/The Daily Beast's fashion critic, Robin Givhan, has published an essay today pleading for an end to the discussion of Michelle Obama's clothing--or, at least, "breathless, fanzine-style chronicling of her attire."

"[T]he flood of Joan Rivers-style verbiage about her day-to-day wardrobe has overwhelmed those nuanced conversations" about Ms. Obama's role as a fashion industry ambassador and the degree to which she could occupy both public and private lives.

The diatribe, consistent with Ms. Givhan's longstanding position on assessing clothes through a political lens (she won a Pulitzer for similar work at the Washington Post, and wrote a book on Ms. Obama's first year as First Lady), shares the page with a very apt example of the phenomenon Ms. Givhan decries. Just above the pullquote "Every garment is not symbolic. Every dress is not fraught with meaning" resides a link to the "Michelle Obama Lookbook," a 91-page slideshow of garments either devoid or possessed of meaning.

Either way, they're mesmerizing to click through.

Ms. Obama and the girls. Photo Courtesy of AP/WWD.

Word has gotten out from publicists and fashion news authority Women’s Wear Daily that first lady Michelle Obama has endorsed yet another one of Barbara Tfank’s ladylike designs for a heavily monitored public appearance. It is said to be the fifth time that the first lady has donned a Barbara Tfank frock. She wore the ravishing outfit at a meet-and-greet in Gainesville, Fla., for a young girls’ after-school program called Girls' Place on September 17.

"A friend, who Tfank had shown the unusual fabric to, spotted the dress on C-SPAN and called the designer to tell her the news,” reported WWD.

According to our perhaps inaccurate tally, this means that Ms. Obama has worn Tfank to more public appearances than any other high-end American fashion designer, which leads us to ask: Is Barbara Tfank Ms. Obama’s new designer of choice? Has Ms. Tfank overtaken the feminine and playful aesthetic of Jason Wu?

With the election fast approaching, this would come as no surprise. Back in February, during New York fashion week, Ms. Tfank told The Observer, “It really interests me that the people who gravitate towards my clothes ... they’re women that are communicators—they have very strong opinions. I think that my clothes allow for women to show themselves, their power.”

Barbara Tfank at her New York Fashion Week presentation on September 10.

While Ms. Tfank would not comment specifically on her working relationship with the first lady, respecting her privacy, she did tell The Observer in an email today that “she represents all that is good about America.  Her inherent luminosity and warm personality can only enhance the quality of any designer’s work.”

The cerulean, marine and sky-blue mosaic print dress was reported to have been made of vintage fabric from Bianchini-Férier and is silk twill, according to WWD. The newspaper stated that the print fabric was created by artist Raoul Dufy and that Ms. Tfank had purchased the material at auction.

“I am honored that she chooses to wear my designs,” Ms. Tfank concluded in her email.

We’ll have to wait and see what else comes from this dynamic design duo. Best keep your eyes on the red-white-and-blue podiums.

An exclusive backstage photo from The Observer's Wang-insider/tipster.

American fashion design has seen an exciting new crop of talented youngsters creep onto the scene. Creatives such as Joseph Altuzarra, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung have received a great deal of attention—and rightfully so. The majority of this bunch thrive on fanfare—not always on the design of their clothes, but on their front-rows, frantic check-ins and backstage dramas.

The Proenza Schouler duo, after several seemingly shaky years, have quickly become darlings of the global fashion elite, continually present interesting and attractive collections. Now sitting more comfortably with financial investments from Theory Group’s Andrew Rosen and a glossy new David Adjaye-designed boutique (albeit too damn dark to see any of the merch), its safe to say they are no longer emerging.

Mr. Altuzarra’s nomadic, opulent materials and prints seem to satiate the critics. Since PR Consulting has never invited us to one of his magical shows, we’ll let him be.

Jason Wu’s nearly flawless technique and practical glamour—not to mention being a favorite of first lady Michelle Obama—means he’s fine and dandy.

Same for Thakoon Panichgul.

The Observer will save Prabal Gurung, whose miscellaneous but splendid collection delivered a meager dose of sensationalism, mostly by way of models, for later …

The most interesting “up-and-coming” designer to The Observer is Mr. Wang.

Alexander Wang’s street-friendly sportswear, with its less daunting price tag and edgy wearability, enabled the designer’s swift and massive surge to the top. The party vixen created clothing that catered to his entourage of downtown creatures—models, anorexic rich brats, svelte power gays, artsy drunks—with a cost-effective production (even though a lawsuit claims allegations of sweatshop conditions!). It's no Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors, but the Soho boutique is crawling with new money eager to pounce, and one insider reported that sales are robust.

“He came on the scene just at the right time,” former Barneys bigwig Julie Gilhart was quoted as saying in New York magazine in 2011. Indeed he did.

The Observer is all too guilty of getting wrapped up in the Wang mystique. His shows are electrifying—a circus of outré celebs, aggressive fashion mavens and top-notch models. It’s sensationalism—perhaps even smoke and mirrors, except there is always something to covet. This is followed by the perennial blackout nights of mayhem at his costly, booze-fueled after-parties. But hey! Mr. Wang and his baby empire can afford it.

Look 14: Jordan Dunn. (PMc)

This season, Mr. Wang and his team returned to Pier 94. Tyson Chandler, Karen Elson, Justin Theroux, Sia, ASAP Rocky and Die Antwoord all showed up Saturday, September 8 to witness Mr. Wang's presentation of patch pocket separates, outerwear pieces with cut-outs or “zebra-embroidery,” and weird textured skirts and shorts in onyx, glacier white and desert sand. There were hints of menswear tailoring on shirts, fishline craziness and skeletal knee-high sandals that had people clawing with desire. For luxurious touches, Mr. Wang and co. used stingray detailing and crocodile beading.

It would be nearly impossible to top of the pack of supermodels, led by Gisele Bündchen, who stormed the runway at last year’s conclusion. Nonetheless, a gaggle of top models marched out in all-white looks. The lights dimmed and all their couture turned glow-in-the-dark.

The crowd ate it up like hotcakes, The Observer included. Tacky and stupidly club-kid-esque? Perhaps, but it was fashion entertainment at its American best.

But is this pot of fabulousness and spectacle about to bubble over?

One person, who wasn’t enjoying the fashion feast was New York Times critic Cathy Horyn.

“Mr. Wang ended with his white dresses being lit up like neon glow sticks, but the mood couldn’t be sustained,” Ms. Horyn wrote in the Times on September 9. “But, despite the styling of Karl Templer, who knows how to sharpen a designer’s message, Mr. Wang’s fancifully sliced-up clothes seemed to hit a wall. They had focus in terms of minimalist shape and futuristic textures, but there was no moment of uplift. A glow-stick snap of radiance isn’t enough.”

A bit harsh.

Die Antwoord Spreads the creepiness at Alexander Wang's after-party. (PMc)

The Observer would argue (not that we are deemed fit to challenge the legendary Ms. Horyn) that Mr. Wang’s shticks are exactly aligned with his boisterous lifestyle and extravagantly unfocused glamazon clientele. While we all might have been distracted by the blow-’n’-glow finale, The Observer is already sorting out the finances to scoop up a few of those garments and accessories. The scattered message rang loud and clear: Rave on!

"I get energized when I'm campaigning," said Ms. Obama. "Touching people, talking to people, it gets me focused on what we're doing and why we're doing it."

After Jodi Kantor's book The Obamas, released this year, alleged that Michelle Obama had an aversion to campaigning, but Ms. Obama has been a focused media representative of the campaign so far this campaign season, appearing on both The Late Show and Jay Leno's Tonight Show, The Daily Show, CBS This Morning, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In the near future, she will appear on Rachael Ray's and Dr. Mehmet Oz's daytime shows.