On Wednesday, during the third leg of an unofficial three-day trip to Washington, DC, Olena Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, became the rare first lady to address Congress.
But despite the fact that during the first two days of her trip she had engaged in what might have been called quintessential first lady stuff – posing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his office; greetings from President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, who greeted her with a bouquet of flowers; she wore a range of dresses and suits by Ukrainian designers, with nods to the colors of the Ukrainian flag – she wasn’t there, as she said in her speech, to talk about typical first lady stuff.
“Usually the wives of presidents are exclusively engaged in peaceful affairs,” she said as she stood in the Capitol in a black suit dress from the Ukrainian label AMG, a slice of white fabric that cut one side of the jacket. “Education, human rights, equality, accessibility.”
Instead of all that, she said, she was there asking for weapons, “weapons that will not be used to wage war against another’s land, but to protect one’s home and the right to take a life in that home.” build.”
It was an emotional, brazen appeal, framed by photographs of the devastation in Ukraine, of children murdered or maimed, and energized by the contrast between the familiar, soft-focused optics of the woman standing at the door. lawmakers and the harsh words she spoke. The image (literally) in black and white was a reminder of how much her job had changed because of the war. That the “normality” of everyday life, as she said in her speech, had disappeared from Ukraine.
Understanding the war between Russia and Ukraine better
It was also a reminder that, as in times of peace, the role of the first lady is to act as the symbolic mother (and hostess) of the nation, she is still, in times of violence, the human face; the bridge between the known and the unfathomable.
In such a context, every choice a first lady makes, every gesture, becomes ammunition to be deployed on the battlefield of public opinion, including what she wears. Especially, maybe, what she’s wearing, because for a first lady in her position, most viewers won’t be a match for her conversations with power brokers, but they can see the photos.
For example, they can recognize the “shared values” (as Ms. Zelenska called them) between themselves and a civilian in the camouflage of a softly fitted skirt suit, in a way that they would not be able to make contact with a soldier in real camouflage.
From the first day of Ms. Zelenska’s visit, it was clear that she understood the mission down to the last detail. While it has become an unwritten part of the work that first ladies support local designers, to promote their business and profile on the global stage, her wardrobe strategy (because that’s what it is) went beyond just boosterism.
Her olive green dress – strong shoulders, with an integral scarf at the neck – reflected her husband’s signature olive green T-shirt, spoke to traditions of military clothing and at the same time symbolized a refugee story. The designer, Lilia Litkovskaya (whose clothes Mrs. Zelenska has often worn), fled Kiev with her husband and small child and is now in Paris, promoting and supporting Ukrainian fashion from afar.
Ms. Zelenska wore a pin on the dress that reflected the traditional Ukrainian floral embroidery. It was from the Ukrainian jewelry line Guzema, part of a collection called Nezalezhna, or “Independent”; her earrings were a pair she had worn to her husband’s inauguration in 2019.
The next day, when she met the Bidens, she wore the brooch again, this time donning a light lemon yellow dress suit from Ms. Litkovskaya, which she paired with light blue shoes, as a nod to the colors of her country.
(For anyone who doubts whether this was a bit of a first lady pageantry, remember that for the photo, Dr. Biden chose a deep blue dress sprinkled with daisies, paired with bright yellow shoes. In a speech earlier this year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. , she said she sewed sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower, onto the sleeves of her blue dress before the State of the Union address because “I sent a message without saying a word: that Ukraine was in our hearts – and that we were with them.”)
And then there was Mrs Zelenska’s suit, for the speech to Congress. Against the austerity of the black jacket, the slash of white, covered with traditional Ukrainian embroidery, was unmissable. It was a sharp reminder under her words – “while Russia kills, America saves” – that depending on what happens next, out of the darkness may come the light. A card of hope, worn on the body for all to see.
