First Lady Michelle Obama creates her own fashion trend

[azmouse]

http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-michelle17-2010jan17,0,6134013.story

When Michelle Obama took on the role of first lady dressed in a lemon grass-colored lace suit by cult designer Isabel Toledo, fashion observers rejoiced. Obama would be a one-woman stimulus package, able to rescue the industry from financial ruin with her bare biceps.

Or so they hoped.

Last year, she was on the covers of Vogue, Essence, Oprah and Glamour magazines; she was honored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in New York; and she made the Vanity Fair International best-dressed list. Books were rushed to market, including Mary Tomer's "Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy" and Mandi Norwood's "Michelle Style: Celebrating the First Lady of Fashion."

*snip*


...though she may not have been the sartorial superhero retailers had hoped for, the first lady is a fashion force. By virtue of her wardrobe choices, Obama is an inspiration for experimentation, embraced by designers but not beholden to any. She has made it OK for smart women to care about what they wear, and her real-world physique is challenging the runway's ideal.

"It has to have an impact on the next generation of fashion shoppers, model bookers and up-and-coming designers that one of the top style icons in the world is not white, not a 20-year-old and not a rail-thin size 0," said Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine, which saw newsstand sales increase 11% for the December issue (compared with December 2008) featuring Obama on the cover.

[goclark]

1. She is one classy first lady

in every way.

I loved her MSM clip for donations for Haiti.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Wow! I admit that I am a follower of every outfit I see on the First Lady --

and, as a bit of a guilty-pleasure Fashionista myself, I appreciate her admission (as an intelligent woman) that she "loves clothes." It's so obvious she has fun with fashion. And, as the article points out, in the end, fashion is an industry like any other, with many folks who depend on it for a livelihood.

[Cha]

3. And, she sells magazines, too..

Along with that husband of her's.

Always glad to see real figures on women getting role model attention..I grew up in a day when the models were all ultra thin and some young girls are too impressionable and mess themselves up physically, as we all know.

[Number23]

4. "It has to have an impact on the next generation of fashion shoppers,

...model bookers and up-and-coming designers that one of the top style icons in the world is not white, not a 20-year-old and not a rail-thin size 0."

One can only hope. Lord knows the fashion industry has been all too content with only having 3 or 4 prominent models of color over the last 40 YEARS. Vacant eyed 20 year olds have their place but I will never understand why they can't be balanced with accomplished women in their 30's and up as well as women with actual bodies (ie breasts, hips etc.)

If Michelle Obama can help bring about some desperately needed change to this outdated industry, that will be yet ANOTHER massive feather in her cap.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Excellent points! nt

[bigwillq]

6. I think Mrs. Obama is very stylish.

A very classy lady. Her height helps. She looks good in almost everything she wears.