Jill Biden doesn't comment on her clothes - yet another way 'Professor FLOTUS' is making the role her own

• First lady Jill Biden's press team said they will not comment on her fashion choices.
• Her predecessor, Melania Trump, used fashion to convey bold messages to the public.
• The decision reflects larger ways Biden is redefining the gendered role of first lady.

In February, first lady Dr. Jill Biden stopped by The Sweet Lobby in Washington, DC, to buy desserts for Valentine's Day. To the delight of many on Twitter, she was photographed wearing her hair in a scrunchie.

When Biden's daughter, Ashley, told her about how people were loving the look, her response was, "What scrunchie?"

"I didn't know what she was talking about," Biden told Kelly Clarkson in an interview for "The Kelly Clarkson Show" later that month. "I still don't understand it."

As it turns out, fashion is not high on the first lady's list of priorities. In March, Jill Biden's press secretary Michael LaRosa told Women's Wear Daily that, as a general rule, the first lady's press team would not be commenting on her clothes. The policy seems to be a departure from her predecessor Melania Trump's approach to fashion and the role of first lady, and a reflection of how Biden is redefining the position.

"Every first lady gets into the crosshairs of the fashionistas," Myra Gutin, a professor at Rider University and author of "The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century," told Insider. "Everybody is looking at her clothes. Even if you don't give a hang about it, you're still going to be analyzed and criticized, and the question will be raised if you're trying to send any message. I think she's saying that she wants us to pay attention to what she's doing, to more substantive aspects of the office of first lady."

As an intensely private first lady, Melania Trump let her clothes speak for her

Nichola Gutgold, professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Lehigh Valley and author of "Electing Madam Vice President: When Women Run Women Win" among other titles, says Trump's modeling career likely guided her styling choices as first lady.

"She was a model - her appearance was how she made her living," Gutgold said. "I could understand how Mrs. Trump was more interested in how she looks because it was her professional identity."

During her years in the White House, Trump seldom granted interviews, and her prolonged disappearances from the public eye sparked questions about her whereabouts and well-being. Her mystique, coupled with her glamorous, aspirational style, became the hallmark of her time as first lady more than her nebulous "Be Best" platform.

Her high-fashion sensibilities occasionally spurred criticism for appearing out-of-touch, such as when she wore $625 Manolo Blahnik heels while traveling to visit Texas after Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. But Gutin says Trump's defining style moment was in June 2018, when she famously wore a jacket that read "I really don't care. Do U?" upon returning from a visit with detained migrant children at the US border.

While her press team initially denied the outfit's significance ("It's a jacket," Stephanie Grisham, her spokesperson at the time, told Insider. "There was no hidden message."), Trump later told ABC News in a rare televised interview that she intended it as a message "for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me."

"I want to show them that I don't care," she told ABC's Tom Llamas in October 2018. "You could criticize whatever you want to say, but it will not stop me to do what I feel is right."

Biden isn't totally above wearing outfits that send a message

On the campaign trail, she wore a blazer bedazzled with the word "LOVE" to a May 2019 rally in Pennsylvania, and a pair of Stuart Weitzman boots embellished with the word "VOTE" while packing food donations in Minnesota in October 2020. And after her husband won the presidency in November 2020, she wore a $5,690 black Oscar de la Renta gown, spotlighting the label's creative directors Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, who are both immigrants.

Since becoming first lady, though, Biden has most often sported the kind of workwear that wouldn't be out of place in her classroom at North Virginia Community College.

She pairs blazers and sheath dresses with slingback pumps and pearl necklaces. She has also been spotted wearing a dog tag necklace engraved with the name of her son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, at events for military families.

Her no-comment fashion policy represents yet another way 'Professor FLOTUS' is making the role her own

While Trump leveraged public fascination with her wardrobe to stun in haute couture and air her grievances, Biden is taking a different route. Her team's decision not to comment on her clothes reflects her vision for the role of first lady - one that focuses less on her wardrobe and more on her work.

"We're at the end of her first 100 days, and they've been very busy days," Gutin said. "She's really been a presence. She's certainly off to a much quicker start than Melania Trump was, but of course Melania Trump didn't get to Washington until six months after the administration had started."

Biden began with smaller projects like filming a coronavirus PSA with dogs Champ and Major to air during the Puppy Bowl, and decorating the White House lawn with giant hearts as a "Valentine to the country." In March, she was tapped to help promote the administration's American Rescue Plan, traveling the country to visit schools and vaccination sites as part of the "Help is Here" tour. She is also continuing her work with military families through Joining Forces, an initiative she launched as second lady with Michelle Obama.

Throughout her events and appearances, Biden has continued teaching English at NVCC, making history as the first FLOTUS to hold a full-time job.

"The Biden administration is filled with firsts," Gutgold said. "We have the first woman to keep her job as first lady, the first woman who is vice president, the first second gentleman. All of these things are showing a modernity to the Biden administration that just wasn't there before."

While members of the public and press corps will continue to watch her fashion choices with interest - she is still the first lady, after all - the main message Biden seems interested in sending through her clothing is that she's here to work.

"I don't think she wants to be minimized by what she's wearing," Gutgold said. "I don't think any woman consistently wants to always be evaluated on her appearance, because whether it's meant to minimize her or not, it does."