Reply #12: I think black is great for day

[RainDog]

and if you wear it, you should wear a reddish shade of lipstick (if you wear it.) Is your coloring like your daughter's? If you have pale skin, a black dress and lipstick.. you'll look great. don't wear a not-meant-to-be noticed shade. --but put it on and kiss it off a few times so it's more like a stain. if you make your lips "dramatic," you should be light with eye makeup. that's a general "rule." -- one or the other or women can look like they belong in a window in amsterdam. :)

what color is your hair? do you like to wear it in a french twist? That's really easy to do and I do that all the time because it looks like I made an effort but totally did not.

you don't want a scarf, etc. with that dress because you already have the side tie. but you should wear some "important" earrings... but daytime earrings.
I like silver hoops. ymmv, and if you have a thick bracelet or two, that would be nice. with bigger earrings, I wouldn't wear a necklace...I never wear them anyway, so maybe it depends on what the earrings look like.

OR - you could wear pearl earrings, a short pearl necklace and your hair up. with lipstick.

do you have any nicely colored pumps? obviously black is the safe color, but if you have conservative looking pumps in an odd color... goldenrod, turquoise... sometimes that's something fun to do.

now, why am I telling you all this? I look like a mess every day. but if I WERE going to be somewhere like the situation you note, that's what I'd wear, I guess.

women in politics generally wear conservative and (to me, at least) frumpy looking clothes. like no one ever invented anything to wear after a jacket and skirt with a hem that stops just below the knee. If I were in that situation, I'd rather wear pants and long jackets... which is probably one reason I will never be a politician... beyond the fact that my past would most definitely not pass muster... and I couldn't live and let live with some of the fund-ier types about science, etc.

I like your rep too. He's one of a few in Congress who actually believes in democratic values.

oh, and ignore my thing above about the dress if you don't like the idea. not that you wouldn't anyway. :)