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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We got a glimpse. It was quick. We have a grainy picture yanked from a BBC video. We can’t really see it clearly.

And because we are hopelessly obsessed with handbags, a glimpse was enough to send us wheeling through the internet, trying to find something akin to the black patent leather purse Michelle Obama carried on Saturday’s train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

(Do we know that more important things are at stake here, you ask? A bigger picture, a global view, a grand plan? Of course we do. But since we have no details as yet on the inauguration gown, we are making do with this.)             

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It’s the question on every designer’s mind: What will Michelle Obama wear for the inauguration ceremony, and then the inaugural balls? There hasn’t been quite this much buzz about dressing a first lady since Jackie O. stepped foot into the White House in 1961.

So WWD.com, the online incarnation of Women’s Wear Daily, asked some top designers to sketch their vision of an inaugural gown for Michelle Obama. Unfortunately, we can’t show you the sketches, but here are a few choice descriptions:          

Monique Lhuillier has shown some great red evening gowns in recent seasons, and her proposal for First Lady Obama is a sweeping one-shouldered brilliant red gown with gathers in the front and a large sweeping full skirt to the floor. A somewhat similar dress is in Lhuillier’s spring 2009 collection. (more…)

Enough about Michelle Obama and the Narciso Rodriguez dress she wore on election night.  It’s Sasha and Malia Obama and their pretty party dresses that have everyone talking now.

Malia’s pretty red bubble-hemmed dress is by Biscotti, and the same dress and versions of it costs $110 at Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom or at select children’s clothing sites, such as Best Dressed Child (where it is $104). Everyone is saying the dress is sold out, though. Malia made her own little fashion statement by wearing a different belt with the dress.

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Everyone is excited. Today is the day when the most heated, expensive, watched and pundited presidential election in American history takes place. And you have waited a long time to get in that line and cast your ballot. 

But stop. You can’t just throw on any old duds. You need to be different. You need to be a proud American. You need red, white and blue garb that looks good and will also keep you warm €˜cause you may be standing there for three hours.

We’ve put together a quick voter’s guide: There’s no time to order online, so here are some trios of items from four major retailers. Just rush in, grab this stuff and proudly proclaim your freedom.

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