WASHINGTON (AP) – Michelle Obama said that on any given day during her eight years as U.S. first lady, she could give a speech, meet with a foreign counterpart or dig a vegetable garden with a group of schoolchildren.
And her clothes had to be ready for that. She said she had so many other commitments, including raising her daughters Sasha and Malia, that she didn’t have time to focus on them. what she was wearing.
“I was worried, ‘Can I hug someone in this outfit? Am I going to get it dirty?'” she said Wednesday night in a moderated conversation about her style choices, from her days growing up on Chicago’s South Side to when she gained national attention as the first Black woman to play the role. “I was the type of first lady who didn’t know what I was going to do.”
Obama will become one of the most watched women in the world, not just for what she says and does, but also for what she wears. She documented her fashion, hair, and makeup journey. Latest book “The Look” It was written with her longtime stylist Meredith Koop and published earlier this month.
As first lady, she was well known for her athleticism, catching footballs from NFL players, playing soccer with David Beckham, breaking the Guinness World Record for jumping jacks, and doing push-ups with Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
She wanted her clothes to be approachable and versatile.
“What I think about clothes is that they can welcome people or they can push people away. When clothes are so neat and so precious and things are so clear and the pins are so big, it’s saying to people, ‘Don’t touch me,'” she said.
She said she doesn’t wear white to roped-off events in case someone asks for a hug.
“I’m not going to push away people who need something, and I’m not going to let clothes get in the way of that,” President Obama said.
She says of her notable fashion choices:
The dress worn by President Obama at his first inauguration
White one-shoulder chiffon dress Jason Wuan unknown 26-year-old from Taiwan at the time. But the moment she showed up at the inaugural ball wearing a gown, Wu’s life changed. And that’s by design, she said.
“We were beginning to realize that everything we did was sending a message,” Obama said of herself and her husband. former president barack obama. “So that’s what we were trying to do with the choices we made to change our lives.”
She will continue to help other up-and-coming designers launch their careers by wearing their pieces.
chainmail state dinner dress
President Obama wore a Versace rose gold dress at an Obama administration ceremony. final state dinnerto Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in October 2016.
“So it was kind of an ‘I don’t care’ dress,” she said of the shimmering one-arm dress.
“I put it on and I thought, ‘This is sexy.’ It was the last time,” she said, but it meant their last state dinner. “My choices all boil down to what is beautiful and what I can wear to look beautiful.”
Joe Biden’s pantsuit worn at his inauguration
President Obama explained why he made this choice, saying, “I was really in hands-on mode.” Maroon Ensemble by Sergio Hudson She wore a flowing, floor-length coat that she wore unbuttoned, revealing a waist belt with a large round gold-tone buckle. Her boots had a low heel.
“The sitting president was trying to convince us that January 6th was just a peaceful protest,” she said.
The inauguration at the U.S. Capitol took place two weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by President Donald Trump’s supporters who sought to overturn Biden’s victory.
She said she was thinking about the possibility of having to flee if something else happened that day.
“I wanted to be able to move. I wanted to be ready,” she said. However, she said she and her team had no idea that the costume “would end up breaking the internet.”
white house east wing
Obama also spoke about the East Wing, the traditional home of first ladies, which was demolished last month to make room for a ballroom that Trump had long wanted.
President Obama said he remembered the East Wing as a happy place filled with apples, children, puppies and laughter, in contrast to the West Wing, which was about “horrible things.” There, she worked on a variety of initiatives, from fighting childhood obesity to rallying the country around military families to encouraging developing countries to send girls to school.
She said she and her husband never considered the White House “our home.” They considered themselves caretakers and had work to do at the mansion.
“But every president has the right to do what he wants with that house, and that’s why we have to be clear about who gets in there,” Obama said.
