Jill Biden, the new First Lady who doesn't want to stop working
With a Ph.D. and a professorship in English, Dr. Biden promises to be very different from Melania Trump. But she too knows the power of fashion well
For some, moving their residence to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. is a move like any other. Almost. It seems this will be the case for Jill Jacobs Biden, wife of the newly elected US president Joe since 1977, who in the space of four years passed from the status of Slotus to that of Flotus (i.e. from Second to First Lady of the United States), but who did not changed the title she wants to be called by: Dr. Biden, Dr. Biden, please.
"As I have said on other occasions, I am Jill's husband - said Biden in his Victory Speech delivered in the mega parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware -. Jill is a mother, mum of a military man, and an educator. You have dedicated your life to education, but teaching is not only what you do, it is also what you a re ».
If Kamala Harris is the first woman to be elected vice president of the United States, Jill Biden was the first wife of a vice president to continue working during her husband's tenure. In 2009, the year the Obama-Biden duo arrived in Washington, Jill Biden held the chair of English at Northern Virginia Community College, a role she has never left, also teaching immigrants and political refugees, like herself. he told proudly. “A tough teacher, get ready to study”, reads her students' comments on the school website. And Jill did not give up her pen even during her husband's last, crucial election campaign: it seems that she corrected her homework between one move and another between the coasts of the country.
"I want to continue working"
A mission, more than a job, for the passionate Jill, who after the birth of her daughter Ashley, in 1981, wanted to go back to work. After graduation and two masters, in 2007 he obtained his degree with a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Delaware. “I will not stop doing my job if I am First Lady. I will be able to be an important support for teachers, ”she said last August while interviewed by Rita Braver for CBS.
Melania and Jill, two opposite Flotus
Jill Biden therefore promises to be a very different First Lady from Melania Trump, and not only in terms of political vision. Ms. Trump would hardly have stuck with the steadfastness of a bodyguard a lively protester of her husband (it happened in Los Angeles, during the Super Tuesday rally). Even more unlikely is to imagine her interrupting a meeting of her husband in a bikini and with a huge NO written on her stomach, like Jill did. It was she who told it in her biography "When The Light Enters": it was summer, she was in the swimming pool and Joe had welcomed at home some advisors who wanted to convince him to challenge Bush in the 2004 presidential elections. Jill did not agree and saw that NO slip in front of him, Biden also chose it as an answer. The energy of Dr Biden, the name also chosen for his Twitter account, feeds Joe, who during the same interview with CBS said «I love it and still today, when I see her going down the stairs, it makes my heart beat».
The wardrobe policy
Like Melania, however, and like all the Flotus that preceded her, Jill Biden is also aware that what she chooses to wear is a message, a textile and political statement. It may also be because when she was very young she had approached the study of fashion merchandising - a fleeting interest immediately replaced by that for literature -, and by virtue of a short experience as a model, but Dr. Biden knows well that blogs, posts , articles about the shoes or coat he will wear.
From Oscar De La Renta to Dolce & Gabbana
The first analysis concerned the Victory Speech evening, where she wore an asymmetrical dress with floral print by Oscar De La Renta, a choice considered interesting for several reasons: the first, the most obvious, is that it is a favorite brand of First Lady, transversal because loved by Jackie Kennedy and Nancy Reagan, a symbol of American style, wasp but not too much. Secondly, because it recalls the choice of Michelle Obama, who for the similar event in 2008 chose a dress by Narciso Rodriguez, a Cuban designer who had created her American Dream just like the Dominican Oscar De La Renta. An identity that continues even after the death of the founder in 2014: De La Renta is led by the duo Fernando Garcia (Spanish) and Laura Kim (Korean). Jill Biden's style is therefore patriotic, of course, but with not uncommon forays into Italian fashion: among the most popular brands is Dolce & Gabbana, chosen for some appointments in her husband's campaign but also for the evening of her last confrontation with Donald Trump, with a matching mask. And among her favorite shoes, often stilettos, there are a pair of Valentino Rockstuds. A bit of Italy is also in his DNA, given that his grandfather - whose surname was Giacoppo, which later became Jacobs - came from Gessi, in the province of Messina. Unlike Melania Trump, who before arriving at the White House was best known for 24-karat photo shoots in the Trump Tower penthouse, the United States is preparing to welcome a working woman who wants to continue to do so as the new Flotus. And that he will also be inspired by this when he has to fill his new closet in the White House.
