The latest gossip about Melania Trump insinuates that the now former first lady, at the news of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential elections, already had his suitcases ready, determined to escape the White House as soon as possible. What is certain is that the new tenant couldn’t be more different. Italian-American, teacher, graduated, loving grandmother, smiling wife: Jill Biden could be the first first lady to have a paid job beyond her official duties. Sixty-nine years – including over forty years with Joe Biden – Jill brings her decisive attitude to Washington, concrete and slightly bourgeois elegance of those used to work, made of turtlenecks, comfortable boots and pastel coats. The two women in common have only a modeling experience: for Melania it was the golden ticket to the United States. For Jill it was the way to pay for his studies at the English literature faculty, waiting to fulfill his true dream: to teach. A passion that Ms. Biden does not intend to give up even during her four years in the White House. And the press has already nicknamed her “Professor Flotus” or “doctor flotus”, From the acronym of First Lady of United States.
A rightfully given name: Jill Biden, nee Jacobs, boasts two degrees – earned while working and raising a family, points out the White House website – and a PhD in Education, thus specializing in training and teaching. At the beginning he had chosen to study marketing and fashionbut the prospect did not thrill her at all. She decided to try again with the material that always fascinated her the most, English literature, posing as a model to put aside some savings. Legend has it that one of these shots was noticed by Joe Biden, who was struck by the blue eyes and smile. It was his brother, Frank Biden, to organize a blind date between Jill, then a twenty-four year old student, e Joe, the man who would become the 46th president of the United States.
At the time, however, he was a young widower at the beginning of his political ascent. Three years earlier, when he had just been elected a Delaware senator, a phone call had changed his life forever: his first wife, Neilia, was going out shopping for Christmas with the kids when a tractor hit his Station hard. Wagon, killing her and her daughter Naomi, who was just one year old. The other two children, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured: Biden was sworn in from the hospital, and for several months he commuted between Washington and Delaware not to leave them alone. Meeting Jill in 1975 brought serenity and confidence back into Biden’s life after years of pain. “She is the real rock of this familyThe newly elected president repeated often. But it wasn’t love at first sight. “I was dating guys at the time in jeans, t-shirts and clogs,” Jill Biden told Vogue telling about their first date. “Then he shows up at the door, with his coat and moccasins. I thought: oh my God, it will never work, not even in a million years “. And instead something snapped between them: he, nine years older and two children, took her to the cinema in Philadelphia. She returned home from an unhappy first marriage and phoned her mother: “I have met the perfect gentleman”. Two years later, Joe Biden asked her to marry him. Not once, but five times. “I had to be absolutely sure – recalled Jill during the interview with Vogue – those children could not lose another mother“. Beau and Hunter were on either side of the altar when Jill and Joe exchange wedding rings, in a New York Catholic church, and they were with them on their honeymoon.
Over forty years togetherIn between was a daughter, Ashley, her husband’s political ascent, her academic career, work in charities, from breast cancer research to supporting military families. When Biden became Barack Obama’s Vice President in 2008, Jill Biden made a lot of talk about her decision to work at Virginia Community College: she was the first second lady to do it in over two hundred years, and she promised she would do it even if she became first lady. Now, twelve years later, will be the two women of Joe Biden to make history: Kamala Harris, the first female vice president, e Jill Biden, the only Flotus to date with a salary (earned outside the White House).
During the election campaign we saw her pull her husband by the jacket – literally – when she got too close to the reporters, to enforce the distancing; we have seen her give speeches from empty classrooms due to the pandemic, we have always seen her attentive by her side, strictly with the mask coordinated with the clothes. Like the black flower embroidered dress she chose for victory night: a model of Oscar de la Renta, the same one who dressed Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton e Nancy Regan. When you’re the president’s wife, even your clothes speak: on the night of the first debate, as her husband dueled on TV with a president who denied climate change, Jill wore a teal cocktail dress by Gabriela Hearst, an environmentally conscious designer, already used on other occasions: a political message that is not too subtle. But sometimes the message was much more explicit: in September she was photographed in a purple dress and a pair of black boots with the words “Vote!” in large letters on the calf. A limited edition of Stuart Weitzman which, needless to say, immediately became a cult. Of course, she does not have the impeccable rigor of Melania, the perfect mannequin wrapped in magnolia dresses, in Gucci blouses and in sophisticated military suits. Jill won over the voters with his practical and casual style, with career woman blazers (which she is), with suede boots instead of high heels (general relief) with the bold colors she is not afraid to wear: fuchsia, acid yellow, lilac, fire red.
And while the world waited spasmodically for the votes to be finished, a small Sicilian town crossed its fingers stronger than the others. It deals with Plaster, a fraction of Messina, from which the last century started Gaetano Giacoppa, Jill Biden’s grandfather, set out to try his luck overseas. And once he arrived, he first changed his surname to the more English-speaking Jacobs. He wanted to look more American: who knows what he would have said knowing that his niece would one day live in the White House.
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