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Move over Jackie O, here comes Michelle O: a new style icon for the new political era dawning in America. One certainty of a Barack presidency is that the First Lady will cut her own swathe in fashion. In her short period in the public eye during the campaign she has already turned herself into a major figure in the style wars.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to look pretty," Mrs Obama has said and she has taken her advice literally with a string of well-cut shift dresses for key events, the most outstanding being Carla Bruni-esque deep lilac with an Alaia belt and a bright turquoise version from her favourite Chicago-based designer Maria Pinto.
There is an obvious reverence for the tradition of Mrs Kennedy here, in neat fitted jackets worn over luminous figure-hugging dresses: but without the attendant sense of super-high spending.
So where Jackie O favoured real pearls, Michelle pays credit-crunch homage, wearing huge fake ones, which have duly become a trend.
After she was briefly outshone by Sarah Palin, whose $150,000 wardrobe looked good but cost her dear in terms of her claim to represent "ordinary" America, all eyes are now back on the woman most likely to move her wardrobe into the White House.
Not for her the Hillary Clinton hyper-groomed look of the sisterhood of the travelling pants suit - she is rarely seen in trousers, other than wide Calvin Klein palazzo pants for evening wear, with a tunic by Isabel Toledo. That brought a chorus of approval from US fashion editors who admired her judicious eye for a less well-known designer.
There is politics at play, too. Ms Toledo is a proud Latina and Mr O needs ethnic minority votes beyond the black community.
Fashion has already cast its vote. Mrs Palin's heroic attempts notwithstanding, Anna Wintour gave a fundraiser for the Obama campaign last week attended by big name designers, and Diane Von Furstenberg is a vocal supporter of the Obamas.
Mrs Obama's is a prosperous working-women's style, a mile away from the cautious Ralph Lauren uniform of Laura Bush or Mrs Clinton's forays into technicolour mustard and royal blue. You might actually want to wear something that Michelle owns.
However, she's unlikely to mince around so fetchingly in tight jeans as Mrs Bruni. Asked if she would go clubbing with her French equivalent, she replied recently, a touch curtly, that she went to bed far too early for such trivia.
Her trademark bob is on the messy side of neat, as worn by Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow and the new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. Now the old rigid TV anchorwoman blow dry, with enough root lift to launch a Nasa programme, is out, out, out and Mrs O is very definitely in.
Just don't expect her to lift the sales of Jimmy Choos: at 5ft 11in, she only wears flats. No one is allowed to be taller than the President, not even in the name of style.
Reader views (7)
I have seen most disrespect among some people the fact is she is beautiful, smart, and shapely. She is a role model for us. She is awesome. For the haters. Get over it.
- Pat Green, usa, 17/12/2009 16:12
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no he's right. she is pretty ugly. At least physically. Her face reminds me of one of them little flat faced dogs. Shittzu or however its spelled. EEEEEEICKY
- Jen, eria, pa USA, 25/11/2009 11:46
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Being white or black doesn`t matter at all!I have seen a lot of arrogance especially from the white guys ~ everything that they have from their body everyone else does have,so they should rub off that mentality of thinking themselves as supper "UFO" human beings.We are living in a changing world ,a world of love not colour .Michie Obama ,i big up your heart.Hate speeches doesn`t heal the world but ruin it.Look at Robert Mugabe,no one likes him in the world because of his hate speeches for the British people~but we can`t solely blame it on him because it started with the British themselves.He destroyed the once "jewel of Africa" , Zimbabwe because of his utterance.Leave the Obamas alone and lets concentrate on making this world a better living place.This is a learning tip !!
- Christopher, south africa, east rand, springs, 28/10/2009 22:30
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Michelle obama is the best 1st lady especially in fasion and she has a gud heart she has done her work so my beuatiful people stop the critisizim n go with the times keep going michelle
- Lynda, Jhb in south africa, 26/10/2009 14:53
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hey thats a big lie michelle obama is not ugly at all, she's a beautiful lady and what really matters is that clean your heart and be pure and thats what michelle obama is her heart is clean and pure, she's also inteligent and beautiful with a handsome husband, so people stop criticizing the first lady and her husband, stop beaing racist, i know all of you who are saying this are only the white peoples i hate white people....
- Pa Modou, the gambia, 01/10/2009 11:45
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DEAR SIR/Madam i had your comment u must remember this is the time that Michelle obama has succsesful changed the world ,that goes with fashion also u can not reeves the times back to Jackie O or Lady Diana MO, HER Clothing range is the best u could spend time come on ,she is the best first lady among all present and the past From fomer inter Fashion male Model Dunn maphalala mabunda.
- Dunn M Mabunda, South Africa Johannesburg, 01/10/2009 10:45
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Michelle O is simply to ugly inside and out to be first lady of the United States.
- Mark, Eden NC USA, 01/10/2009 10:45
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