Ukraine doesn’t know the pleasure of having an actual first lady, let alone ones as glamorous as Jacqueline Kennedy was or Michelle Obama is.
President’s Viktor Yanukovych’s spouse, Lyudmila, rarely makes public appearances. She lives in Donetsk and doesn’t participate in the country’s official life, depriving Ukrainians of the joy of watching and discussing the first lady’s priorities, outfits, manners and tastes.
Most of Ukraine’s big-shot politicians follow the president’s path of keeping wives in the background. This makes Election Day about the only time when people get to see many politicians accompanied by their wives.
The leaders of almost every party that got elected to parliament this time went to the polling station with their spouses, so did at least one former president, Leonid Kuchma. No matter how the political programs of their husbands differed, all the wives had something in common: an unfortunate choice of outfits.
Black dominated wives’ Election Day apparels completely as if all of them had something to mourn.
It is quite unlikely that opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk’s wife, Terezia, 42, and Kuchma’s wife, Lyudmila, 72, agreed on what to wear. But both chose similar black trench coats with light-patterned scarves underneath. Lyudmila Kuchma, just like her retired husband, had no political function that day, other than to exercise her right to vote as a citizen.
Unlike her, Terezia Yatseniuk’s came to vote and support her husband’s ambitions with a proper look. Her gloomly appearance is even more surprising, since she was previously seen wearing white, blue and purple outfits.
Anna Turchynova, 42, wife of former deputy prime minister and current opposition leader Oleksandr Turchynov, wore a black coat and a sad look, both unflattering. She has been photographed before in white, beige and pink outfits. One even shows Turchynova in a T-shirt with her husband’s picture on it. Wouldn’t that have been nice to wear on Election Day?
Turchynova tried to improve this bleak appearance with a purse. But honestly, Christian Dior’s Lady Dior wasn’t the best choice. Wearing a recognizable $2,000 handbag while helping your husband earn public sympathy in a struggling country – well, not a good strategy.
Quite ironically, wives of nationalist Svoboda leader Oleg Tiahnybok, Party of Regions’ head and Prime Mnister Mykola Azarov and fresh political star Vitali Klitschko wore black and red.
Klitschko’s wife Natalia, 38, a former model, was the most lively-looking one, but did not avoid the curse of black. Formal trousers, turtle-neck and a coat with red-collar decoration were this brunette’s choice. Her mismatch with Klitschko, wearing a light grey jacket and white shirt, was striking.
Olga Tiahnybok, 43, added a black-and-red shawl to her… yes, black coat. And Lyudmyla Azarova, 66, combined her coat with black-and-red hat and a non-matching red bag.
The devilish look of Azarova, Turchynova’s luxury accessories and Klitschko’s choice of colors are their own business, but not in political performances like the one on Oct. 28, when their styles can potentially help or hurt their husbands’ images.
It may be sexism, but female politicians (former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton, among them) and the wives of male politicians are scrutinized heavily in the West – including their choice of clothes.
Now it seems that, no matter who succeeds in the 2015 presidential election, there is little likelihood that Ukraine will get its own Jackie Kennedy, unless a miracle occurs in the next three years.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at rudenko@kyivpost.com.
