Joyce Culver, 92nd Street Y“Fashion advertisements are hateful,” said Isaac Mizrahi at tonight’s 92nd Street Y panel discussion on the future of fashion, “but they work.”

Glamour’s Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive moderated the talk between The Washington Post’s Robin Givhan, Ashley Olsen and Isaac. The group discussed Michelle Obama, the economy, Ralph Lauren’s ad scandal, fast fashion and the fate of platform heels while Mary-Kate Olsen and Justin Bartha cheered from a few rows back.

Robin and Isaac spent the first ten minutes relishing the First Lady’s effect on the fashion industry. Robin heralded the example she’s setting “for women over thirty with busy careers and families who feel disenfranchised from fashion,” while Isaac finds her balance of mass and high fashion “so inspirational.”

Cindi asked the group why the fashion industry is so hated and Robin brilliantly responded that people have no problem condescending to fashion because it’s a women’s industry.

“No one ever says spending thousands of dollars on season tickets for football is a waste of money, but spending $5000 on a dress…” to which Isaac almost jumped out of his chair in agreement.

“Right on! Misogyny rears its ugly head again!”

“The fatter the general population, the thinner the idealized woman. And for all the public posturing and blogging, the only force that stopped people from buying clothes and magazines was the souring economy, not righteous indignation over skinny models. Fashion doesn’t just reject the overweight and the obese. It also gives the average a hard time, too; it makes them worry about every cookie eaten at the end of a meal or every exercise commitment that goes unmet. Fashion is a purveyor of status. It is a badge of honor for having outrun, outfasted saddlebags — unless they are floral-printed and made by Dolce & Gabbana. Those who can indulge in fashion feel their prize is that much more valuable.” —Robin Givhan in an article on why it shouldn’t be surprising that thin is still in in the fashion industry.

Having a career in fashion and magazines has always meant that I have not had to follow many of the stricter dress code rules that some of my female friends have had to over the course of their careers. Of course, we’ve got our own codes in this business, but that’s a different matter.

I remember the first summer we all lived in NYC after college and the envy I witnessed in the eyes of my friends heading off to their jobs at Goldman or McKinsey, their looks completed with panty hose and closed toed shoes. I was in a skirt (sans hose, of course) and sandals.

I thought of this when reading Robin Givhan’s piece in the yesterday’s Washington Post on the sartorial choices of Sonia Sotomayor during last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

“In many ways, the first lady has made people see — really see — black women for the first time. For example, when a black model appeared on the May cover of Vogue, news articles credited the ‘Obama effect,’ ignoring the concerted lobbying by fashion industry activists that began long before Barack Obama was even a presidential contender…Enthusiasm over glossy-magazine beauty as defined by a darker-skinned black woman has to be seen against the backdrop of history, when black women’s appearance was used as a tool of oppression. High culture rhapsodized in love sonnets about ivory complexions, flaxen hair and ruby lips. And today, black women still mostly surface as sidebars in beauty stories.” Robin Givhan in her interesting story from today’s Washington Post on Michelle Obama’s cultural role, and her real and fictional predecessors.

Have you had your fill of Michelle Obama style news, complete with that Sonia Rykiel belt?

If so, too bad: The Washington Post is so committed to creating a beat on the First Lady’s style, they’ve relocated Robin Givhan (the Post’s famed fashion reporter who - fun fact - was the first fashion writer to win a Pulitzer for criticism) to DC so she can cover Michelle’s every choice of sleeve.

And since Robin will have the kind of access other Mrs. O followers only dream about? Consider the Post the new People of the First Family.