A splash of spring flowers and a happy pose with her mother is the next piece of news in the ongoing Michelle Obama fashion chronicles. Mrs. O and her mother, Marian Robinson, are on the May cover of Essence Magazine, and the cover alludes to conversations about raising strong children and having a strong marriage. (Here’s a photo gallery of the magazine shoot on Essence.com.)

But we digress, because we want to talk about what she’s wearing. For that information, we turn to the always reliable and entertaining Mrs-o.org, which chronicles the First Lady’s every fashion choice. Her dress is from Talbot’s, the familiar fixture in malls. The dress is a brightly colored “lagoon blue” floral print (with paler blue floral print as well as green leaves) with a full pleated skirt. You can buy it on the Talbot’s Web site for $126.75, on sale from $169 (below).

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The Style Insider doesn’t have to tell you why we love Lucky Brand Jeans. We are completely under their spell. We could write sonnets. We could bribe store clerks. We could get a little bit obsessive, even, and have a different pair for every day of the week.

But we’ve never been happy about the price. Lucky Brand Jeans like to float around in the $100-$150 bubble, and we aren’t near that bubble these days.

Today, however, things are different. We have a happy little 40 percent off product code that’s good for everything — and by everything, what we mean is everything — on the Lucky Brand Web site, (more…)

What do you think when you see the Web site name thisisauto.com?

Something about cars, probably.

Nay, thisisauto.com is the online version of the trendy design-driven retail hot spot Auto in New York City’s Meatpacking district. Owners Roman Luba and Renata Bokalo, husband and wife, describe Auto as a mini department store.

This place looks like the MOMA of department stores, full of modern and lovely design-driven items of all sorts: clothes, jewelry, baby gear, furniture, bedding, books, art and gifts. It’s the kind of store that makes you feel totally au courant when you set foot in it. (more…)

The Style Insider would truly like to know what it is about Anthropologie that inspires so much bad behavior in so many people, including ourselves. We swear, even in a recession, even when we’re trying to be a responsible little Suze Orman type with our money, even when we don’t need anything, we walk into an Anthropologie store and we’re freaking doomed.

Their damnably cute combination of clothing, jewelry, kitchen treasures, linens and furniture gets us every time.

At least it’s nice to know that we’re not alone (Anthropologie 12-step group, anyone?). The chain  has 121 stores in the United States, and Women’s Wear Daily is reporting that Anthropologie’s Beverly Hills location just launched a new 16,000-square-foot, two-story store (up from its previous 10,000 square feet, which — excuse us — is no small potatoes).  The extra space gives them room for lots more inventory (including some designs exclusive to the store) and 17 dressing rooms. Seventeen. (more…)

Michelle Obama made a rather sassy fashion statement at Sunday’s Kennedy Center honors for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Her outfit was low-key, but her long, flashy, colorful necklace is rumored to be a Tom Binns creation.

Major bling. This has made us jealous and we wanted to find our own Binns items. Unfortunately, Binns doesn’t sell much online. The Irishman’s jewelry has a very limited presence on Net-a-Porter.com (only five pieces and we know at least one of them has been there for months). We also found a handful of pieces on Shopbop, but they’re not flashy like Mrs. O’s necklace.

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Talk about product placement.

It was an engagement ring for the ages, a 1.94 carat marquise-cut diamond surrounded by 170 smaller diamonds in a platinum ring (left). It was handcrafted by Neil Lane, and was waiting in the pocket of The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick, ready to adorn the finger of the woman he’d determined to be his true love (out of the 25 women he began with in January).

So in last night’s season finale (sorta/kinda — there’s still a wrap tonight), we see what the show had been building to all season - Jason sends Molly Malaney (above), a 24-year-old department-store buyer from Grand Rapids, Mich., home in the limo in tears, and then asks Melissa Rycroft (below), a 25-year-old former Dallas Cowboys

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 The Style Insider wishes we had a signature style. (Actually, we do, but we don’t want to admit how desperately it depends on blue jeans). Suffice to say we do not have designers fawning over us, hoping to dress us for this event or that to-do. The press does not wait to see what we will bring out of our closet next. We do not have “a look.”

So we are thinking of adopting part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s look. We are shopping for pins and brooches today, looking for those pretty pieces that can complete an ensemble with style. Look at Mrs. O at the Kennedy Center on “date night” with her husband, wearing a silver pearl starburst brooch with her black dress. Here she is at a public event, dressing up her navy blue sheath with a flower at the neck and finishing her J. Crew look on Jay Leno’s show with a round jeweled clip.

Just  yesterday, she wore twin bow pins on either side of her white sweater while reading to the kids at St. Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care in D.C.. And we’re still swooning for the vintage Carole Tanenbaum piece (left) she wore to the inaugural swearing-in ceremony, which added a signature piece of sparkle to an already glittering Isabel Toledo ensemble.

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