Kate Betts

Kate Betts is a fashion journalist and a contributing editor at Time magazine. Betts is also a columnist at The Daily Beast and until this year, she was also the editor of Time Style & Design.

Previously, Betts was the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, where she completely redesigned the 134-year-old fashion title and became known as the youngest editor ever to take over a fashion magazine. She moved to Bazaar from Vogue, where she was the fashion news director from 1991 to 1999. Betts was recently named one of the top 10 fashion editors by Forbes. She is also the author of Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style.

In this audio interview with Debbie Millman, Kate Betts discusses the difference between fashion and style, what it means for First Lady Michelle Obama to be a style icon and the visual image she projects, her use of color, her sculpted arms, and the inevitable comparisons and differences between her and Jackie Kennedy.

Posted in: Design Matters

Comments [1]

I just read Kate Betts' article about Michelle Obama's fantastic style! My goodness, is Ms. Betts totally blind, or what? I have never seen such a lack of style in my lifetime! The red-brown dress Mrs. Obama wore in Rio, looked much like a teepee, with a child climbing out the top of it. SOMEBODY needs to tell the lady to wear close fitting skirts, with a hip length jacket over it, to help camoflage the petite size of her upper body, in comparison to the gargantuan size of her lower body. She is a 6'4" size 16 from the waist down, and a 5'2" size 8 from the waist up. Better to look like a size 12 head to toe, than to emphasize her totallly disproportinate shape. Her arms might be toned, but who even sees those, when one is staring in shock at yet another fashion fau paux?

Joyce
03.21.11
04:28

Debbie Millman is a designer, author, educator, strategist, and host of the podcast Design Matters.

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