'The Obamas have rebooted purple by making it modern'
With all due respect to the Vatican and the royal families of Europe, the Obama White House pretty well owns purple. At Barack's inauguration at the beginning of this year, Sasha wore a pinkish-purple coat, Malia a violet one, and Michelle aubergine J Crew gloves with her navy coat. Back in 2008, Michelle wore a purple dress in what was to become one of the best-known images of that election campaign: the Obama fist bump. (Purple shift dress, tooled black leather belt, outsize pearls, those arms. Remember?) Purple is the grandest of colours, but for the most part untainted by political association in the way that, say, red is. It is powerful and ceremonial, but graceful and nonpartisan.
Now the Obamas have rebooted purple by making it modern. In the pre-Obama era, purple was nailed by the Jenny Jones poem Warning: "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple." It was a colour that an essentially mild person would consider daring, which is a different thing entirely from being a colour of genuine rebellion and daring. The Obamas, with their knack for making the ceremonial photo op look unstuffy, have breathed new life into the colour. Samantha Cameron and the Duchess of Cambridge, both of whom channel more than a touch of Flotus in their wardrobes, wear purple – both, usually, as a crew-neck sweater with a white shirt or blouse collar showing over the top. The white collar is a cute everywoman touch, for aristocrats and royalty wearing purple, making the colour seem more down to earth.
The strongest purples are the bluish ones; the burgundy kind can be a bit school uniform. White always works with purple (popes and bishops know this); Michelle Obama wears it with black or navy, which is punchier. Purple with pink, however, or purple with blue, can look a bit Brash Wedding Outfit. For the same reason, I'd suggest we leave Jenny Jones's suggestion of a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit you as artistic licence. Also, the part about wearing it when you are an old woman. That's old-fashioned, that is.
• Jess wears dress, £699, by Stella McCartney, from harrods.com. Shoes, £235, stuartweitzman.com. Necklace, from a selection, jcrew.com.
Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson using Kiehl's Skin Rescuer.