Barack Obama wore the same tuxedo jacket for years and no one noticed… except his wife.
Michelle Obama made the announcement while talking at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this week where she was speaking about women in technology.
She told people that women constantly face a double standard, especially when it comes to fashion.
“Now, people take pictures of the shoes I wear, the bracelets, the necklaces — they didn’t comment that for eight years, he wore the same tux, same shoes,” she said, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“This is the unfair thing — you talk about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers — no matter what we do, he puts on that same tux.”
It’s reminiscent of the time when an Australian news anchor wore the same suit for a year, as an experiment to see if anyone noticed.
Karl Stefanovic told Australia’s Fairfax Media that while no one asked about his suit, people regularly commented about and criticized the outfits worn by his female co-host Lisa Wilkinson.
The mayor of Coquitlam, B.C., did the same thing just last year.
Michelle said her husband was always pleased about how little time it took him to get ready.
“He was proud of it too, he was like, ‘Mm! I’m ready. I’m ready in 10 minutes. Mmm — how long did it take you?'” she said.
While she was first lady, she was regularly criticized on her appearance and her style, right from the beginning when she decided to wear a sleeveless shirt.
“Obama’s Choice to Bare Arms Causes Uproar,” a headline from ABC news in 2009 reads.
Since then, she’s become something of a fashion icon, with people still chronicling her fashion even though she’s out of office.
In honour of her words, here’s a look at her evening wear, compared to her husband’s, throughout all the years they lived in the White House.
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