A First Lady's Natural Beauty

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: A First Lady's Natural Beauty
In Place of Dazzle, a Taste for the Simply Pleasing
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 13, 2007; Page C01


Lady Bird Johnson, who died this Wednesday at 94, was not a favorite within the fashion industry, but she should have been. She had an appreciation for beauty and its potential to instill pride in people , to comfort them and to bring them joy.

The fashion industry loves a good clothes hanger, someone who wears a dress well and makes a point of being interested in the ebb and flow of styles. So it makes sense that Seventh Avenue has always had special affection for Jacqueline Kennedy and Nancy Reagan. Both women, during their years in the White House, knew how to make a statement with a frock. In the days before designers had so many interchangeable starlets on whom they could hang their wares, the impact a first lady could have on their business was significant. And even today, memories of Jackie Kennedy continue to inspire designers whenever they are trying to express a particularly American aesthetic of elegant informality.

Lady Bird Johnson was not a favorite within the fashion industry, but she should have been. Not because of her style but for her philosophy.

She had an appreciation for beauty and its potential to instill pride in people, to comfort them and to bring them joy. Her focus was not on the rarefied world of museums and symphonies, but beauty in a far more democratic form: nature. The fashion industry should have championed someone who saw grace, allure and power in places that others took for granted or considered unimportant.

With her death Wednesday at 94, much has been said about her dogged determination to see tulips and daffodils brighten the Washington landscape and to coax wildflowers to bloom along the country's highways. Notice that she was entranced by wildflowers, not painstakingly cultivated antique roses or finicky orchids. She marveled at the kinds of flowers that often fade into the background.

Designers should stand a little taller each time a dour Washington intersection turns Technicolor in the spring. Lady Bird made beauty -- the kind that is simple, familiar and accessible -- important....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR2007071202342.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[wildhorses]

1. she will live forever through those beautiful flowers.

may she rest in peace:patriot:

[Tekla West]

2. A real lady from Texas

as opposed to that one now.

[Recursion]

3. I pass 4 of her "triangle parks" on the way to work every day

The flowers will live on.

[applegrove]

4. I love that dress and the mixture of the two yellows. Beautiful. RIP.

[Lisa]

5. cheers to a person who did so much to decouple "aesthetics" from "wealth" ...

A friend and I went out today and collected wild lily seeds to replant, in her name.