The election of Barack Obama may have exhilarated the nation with hope and new energy €” but who knew the fashion implications? Elect a president and get a bonus: the most stylish, sophisticated and fashion-conscious First Lady since Jacqueline Kennedy cat-walked through the White House.

Michelle Obama is beautiful, strong, elegant, a career woman, wife, mother, and now — subject of her own style book, Michelle Style: Celebrating the First Lady of Fashion. The author is Mandi Norwood, an award-winning women’s magazine editor (Company, Cosmopolitan UK, Mademoiselle, and Shop Etc.).

Michelle Style celebrates the distinctive style of the First Lady, featuring color photographs, exclusive illustrations and descriptions of her most iconic looks. Get a new look at the sleeveless Maria Pinto purple silk crepe sheath that she dazzled the crowd with on the night Barack clinched the Democratic nomination. Or admire, again, the ivory fairy-tale gown by Jason Wu worn for the inaugural balls.

The book also has quotes from world-famous designers, stylists, and fashion insiders €” and inspired advice on everything from dressing to suit your body type to shopping at Target.

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Did you hear the opening salvos?

Last week a WWD.com story (subscription only, sorry, you’ll only get a peek) with no small amount of slant held forth on the fact that Michelle Obama is championing the cause of little-known American designers and ignoring the big players: Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, to name a bunch.

With the fashion industry in an economic crisis of its own, it’s not a surprise that the bastions of American style are wondering why the First Lady won’t deign to don some of their beautiful clothes. We can feel — and appreciate — their frustration. Still, most of the designers quoted — Wang, Hilfiger, Karan, Herrera – tempered their comments with support for a fashionable First Lady breaking boundaries.

Another story, in the New York Times, took issue with the fact that Mrs. Obama is relying apparently exclusively on the design choices of retailer Ikram Goldman, the owner of Michelle O’s favorite Chicago boutique for years (a picture from the store below).

Arnold Scassi (hmm, we remember that name from somewhere) chided her, (more…)

You’ve probably seen all the news footage and photos from the Obamas’ trip to London, but we wanted to offer a quick run-down of the clothes she’s worn on this high-profile trip:

The first couple left for the G20 Summit in London earlier this week, and Mrs. O wore a Chanel-like knee-length white coat with black trim by Thakoon, one of her favorite designers. The silk tulle coat was made to look like tweed, according to Style.com. Underneath the coat, no one could get much of a view of her black Michael Kors dress.

Michelle did a quick change on Air Force 1 and emerged in London in a brilliant chartreuse sheath dress by Jason Wu (one of the young (more…)

Oh, goodness. We have gotten so distracted by runway shows and red carpet gowns that we haven’t been paying attention to Michelle Obama’s week of wardrobe choices. She donned all manner of pretty designer dresses — worn everywhere from her husband’s first address to Congress to the cover of People magazine.

First, let’s make peace over this right to bare arms argument.

Fashion observers and some grumpy old-school others have tut-tutted Mrs. O’s choice of several sleeveless dresses in a row (four times in a week, according to the Huffington Post), including one for her official White House portrait (an elegant black simple crepe jersey dress from Michael Kors’ spring collection, above). Excuse us, but have you seen the woman’s arms? They are cut, so hush!

And, by the way, here’s another fabulous First Lady who opted for bare arms in her official portrait. So there.

(more…)

It has come to our attention that while we were busy with the Oscars, Michelle Obama was going on with her life, wearing scrumptious clothing and not giving us advance notice. Clearly, we need to pay better attention. Because while we were ogling the red carpet, the Obamas were giving their first State Dinner, welcoming the National Governor’s Association to the White House.

For the occasion, the First Lady chose a strapless gown in a shade of ink black with a hint of purple. The dress, by Chicago (but of course!) designer Peter Soronen (at left), was entirely embellished with sequins, which sparkled when she walked. With a modified princess neckline and a (more…)

OK, OK, we know you want to see the pictures. We won’t show you all of them, but hopefully these two will suffice until you get your copy of next month’s Vogue.

Here she is on the cover:

Obama is only the second First Lady to reach the fashion heights of Vogue’s cover, clad in a magenta Jason Wu sheath dress (he designed her one-shoulder inaugural ball gown). Hillary Clinton was on the cover during her husband’s presidency in the ’90s.

In another photo, Michelle O. makes notes while clad in J. Crew all the way: sweater set and skirt.

A third shot features Mrs. Obama in a Narciso Rodriguez dress, another one of her fave designers. The story is available for all the world to see at Style.com, Vogue’s Web site.

Hot from the Web pages of WWD,  we’ve learned that tomorrow, editors of Vogue Magazine will reveal their March cover: a picture of Michelle Obama taken by uber-photographer Annie Liebovitz during the inauguration.

The story says the First Lady is wearing a bright pink Jason Wu sheath for the shot. She reportedly chose clothes from her own wardrobe for the photographs, including a J.Crew ensemble. Vogue’s larger-than-life editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley interviewed Obama for the magazine.