Friday
Oct022009
On a Winning Streak (Update)
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 10:50 AM 
Photo by John Gichigi / Getty Images
The president has joined Mrs. O to attend the Chicago 2016 presentation at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen this morning, where the first lady has continued her fashion tour de force. This morning Mrs. O is wearing a lemon meringue brocade matelasse sheath dress, paired with a coordinating cardigan. More to follow.
Update #1: Despite an impressive showing on the part of our first lady, Chicago has lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The AP writes: "Chicago had seemed to pick up momentum in the last few days, with many IOC members seemingly charmed by Mrs. Obama." Count us among those charmed, indeed!
Update #2: Mrs. O is wearing a Michael Kors sunshine metallic silk matelasse sheath dress!
tagged Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Reader Comments (89)
Re the question of whether some of Mrs. O's looks might be too dressed up (specifically the cognac ballerina dress worn in Copenhagen & the red metallic suit at the UN). Remember that these are diplomatic affairs where women of status being dressed to the nines (or even slightly over the top) is very well received. Diplomats and royalty LOVE that!
I should have know the Dress was KORS! He is the man!
Was this a daytime affair? If so, the dress as lovely as it is, is inappropriate. imo
I also was reminded of an obi sash when I saw the pics. The softness of it with the bow is very flattering. It would be great to see this look more often as opposed to the wide, black misplaced belts, which looks very hard.
Aren't there more people like me who find Mrs. Obama's wearing evening clothes to daytime events? The outfits are gorgeous, no question, but in questionable taste. It is one thing to want to wear clothing that stands out in a crowd (nothing wrong with that), but it is quite another to wear clothing that stands out because it is inappropriate for the time of day. This dress, is just one more example of this.
I'm happy for Rio, despite my disappointment. There's justice in giving it to South America for the first time. I understand there are reasons why America would not be attractive to the committee just now. I'm sure the Obamas will rejoice for Rio, too. They played hard, gave it their all, and another team won. It's all in the Olympic spirit.
Maybe the belt works so well here because it's wide like a cummerbund (is that the right word for a wide, pleated belt for a woman?) I recall a dress we all adored which had a burgundy cummerbund?. It had a light-weight, sleeveless top, softly colored in white, pink, and grey, I think. The skirt was a heavier woven fabric of grey and white. The fit was perfect. We all loved it. (Sorry, I don't recall the designer.)
I think that huge bow also makes this belt work. I LOVE this dress, and I think the fit is perfect.
I agree with everyone else. My favorite photos are of the two love birds! Better than any romantic movie.
I love the dress and the bow. The color is fabulous. I like that Michelle wears yellow and lemongrass. Both colors flatter her. Too bad about the bid. Oh well, many residents in Chicago didn't want the Olympic headache anyway.
I remember when they came to Atlanta. Can anyone say B.O.M.B.
Phewww! It's getting hot in here....
I'm sitting at my desk just catching up and laughing at all this "passionate talk".
Have a great weekend ladies!
@ Original Ms. A
Whatever, and yes I can read properly. "Love life" equals sex, even kids KNOW that. Don't play dumb now, because you've been called out. Google "love life" and you will have your definition.
I found a photo of the dress I referred to. It's # 18 in This slide show The designer is Rachal Roy. I'm sorry the belt/cummerbund? is mostly hidden by the lectern.
I'm sad Chicago didn't win but happy Rio did. In spite of their problems they unite for one goal while our country is rife with haters trying to derail any sign of progress. I'm glad the president went, all countries sent their PM's and Spain sent both their king and their queen...yet Michelle and Barack have been called everything but a child of God for trying. Other countries are more united while the US is not.
Oops. It's also # 17, and the belt is not as wide as I remembered. There goes that theory. ;-)
Hey Willow, that dress you were referring to with the burduny,grey and pink is by Rachel Roy. She did look splendid in that one, too.
Yes, it was a daytime affair.
I think this dress is great for daytime. Maybe your days are just a little too boring to be able to handle the awsomeness that is this dress.
I think the cut of this dress was unflattering to her figure. In still pics it looks ok, but in the videos, especially a side vie showing her walking, its was not good.
Also, the short sleeved cardigan detracted from the dress.
Sorry, this one is a miss.
Very pretty dress; but not appropriate for the setting or presentation. Seems very out of place.
I'm a fan of MO and love her style (very refreshing and feminine), but this gold outfit was a poor choice indeed! As beautiful as it looked on her, the color and shine made USA appear arrogant and presumptuous.
Mrs O can where what she wants, when she wants. We all know, she always do. Just make sure you where the right material for the right time of day. So glad she sets her own style boundaries.
AND
love life does not necessarily mean sex. Must be a cultural thing, because love life in my family growing up has never been equal to sex.
Camille, that made absolutely no sense.
she looks adorable, i just love her cardigans...
This dress would be hard for anyone to wear, just remember how frumpy it looked when Lady Bird wore it. The short sleeves of the cardigan cut her of in the wrong spot making her great arms look a little like sauages. Either do long sleeves, or better yet, leave the cardigan off.
Attention all Mrs O regulars!!!
I am not the "camille" who posted the deceptively ridiculous & hokey post @ Friday, October 2, 2009 at 10:13pm.
I NEVER post without signing in and if the new game by the trolls is to impersonate registered regulars like me then maybe it's time Mrs T. INSIST upon registration as a requirement for posting.
The idea that people want to have full and uncontrolled access and participation on this site without any restrictions including something as basic as registering is absurd.
We have seen what unfettered access has done to this site.
If this is just a "fashion blog" and comments made here are "innocent fashion-focused opinions" as argued by some, then what are the unregistered posters so worried about??
The recently instituted registration requirement was designed by Mrs T to weed out the trolls, but as long as these unregistered trolls continue to very easily post unrestrained, the original purpose has been totally defeated.
By the way, this Camille with a capital "C" remains unwavering in my longheld opinion that the First lady of these United States, Mrs Michelle Obama, can do no wrong and ALWAYS cuts a most strikingly beautiful and undeniably scrumptious figure. I wouldn't change a single thing about this very thoughtful and positively unique woman. God bless and protect her and her amazing husband OUR President, AMEN!!!
p.s-
I never address the first lady as "MO"
I agree with Nakajima. Pretty dress, but this is a black tie (evening/cocktail) dress -- WAY too shiny and dressy for a morning event.
What the ladies of the Danish royal family wore was more appropriate -- see Princess Mary in first photo here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/chi-michelle-obama-dress-pg,0,1092600.photogallery ).
The Os would have been give dress code details for all these events well in advance -- Mrs O needs to learn how to interpret them. There is a difference between standing out and looking inappropriate.
And, please, no more BUB! (belt under bustline!)
Hey Cammille, I never thought for a minute that was you when I read that wierd post. I too suspected it was one of the pitiful characters determined to wreak havoc on this blog.
I love the dress (fabric and colour) but the cardigan makes the whole outfit look too casual for the event. The dress would have been better with some kind of sleeve.
I would still love to see the dress alone, without the cardi.
Oh dear oh dear. Lots of people here who would be better off reading 1946 issues of Vogue than visiting a PRO-MrsO blog.
The dress is perfect for the occasion. Mrs O looks fabulous. Metallic is a major trend for this winter, and she looks great in it. She was also dressing for two events (as in London) and needed something that would work for both - which it does.
For those bleating on about it not being an appropriate colour/outfit/fabric to wear while meeting Danish Royalty, you might like to have a quick backtrack over Queen Margrethe's outfit choices over the years! She's an artist and not afraid of wearing some inyaface acid colours! I was surprised to see her in a pinstripe, frankly. Perhaps she was keen to keep the Royal family out of the IOC politics and look as neutral as possible. Crown Princess Mary (not Princess Mary, she is married to Crown Prince Frederik, not Prince Joachim) wore her usual neutrals. She rarely wears bright colours, and most often wears mushroomy shades.
I presume that all you little negative bunnies will only be happy when Michelle Obama greets royalty in a nasty frumpy boxy suit that's below the knee and made of navy polyester. Thankfully, it'll never happen!
LOL Posh Tater - wouldn't add a thing to your perfect retort.
Re: the issue of wearing a "cocktail," "shiny" dress to a daytime/morning occasion:
Is it just me who saw that Michelle was clearly making a tongue-in-cheek visual reference to gold medals through her clothing choice? Of course, one wouldn't normally wear this kind of dress to a daytime occasion. If she was visiting a classroom, giving a presentation before the U.N., or going to talk to Army wives, I'd raise my eyebrows. it's not the right dress for those events.
But to me, this outfit was a pretty straightforward allusion to the whole Olympics/gold medal thing. I'm not sure why that's being missed. It was kind of... a costume, I guess, for lack of a better way of describing it; I don't even think she was trying to be "trendy." I think she just wanted to wear a gold dress.
I guess the fact that so many people are saying "inappropriate!" shows that it didn't work for everyone. Humor and cheekiness can be like that, sometimes. But it worked for me, on THIS PARTICULAR occasion, because of where she was and what she was doing. If she had worn a red, white, and blue ensemble, it would have been the same sort of thing.
I have a feeling that the people who were watching her in Denmark "got it." Gold dress=gold medals=Olympics. Pretty straightforward.
There aren't "many people" Christina, just a handful if that, with a specific agenda. Let's stop pussyfooting around and start calling a spade, a spade.
More people other than folks on this board criticized this dress. I don't think they all have some dastardly agenda. And I've been critical myself when I've thought an outfit didn't match the tone of the occasion.
But this time around the color and the style seemed to be sending a clear message. Oh well. Maybe not that clear.
I didn't say this yet, but Rio is a great city. You couldn't look at the pictures of the president of Brazil and other officials cheering and crying and not just feel wonderful for them. I hope they have an awesome Olympics.
Hey Christina,
Thanks for being you because I can always come to you with these type of questions.
Who said wearing shiny material during the day is inappropriate? Especially when metallic is in style, but even if it wasn't. Who is the person that makes these rules? Or maybe it is better to ask you why if she was at another event this dress would not be appropriate or look strange to you?
Thanks in advance
Those "many other people" could as well be the very same faceless, anonymous folks otherwise known as trolls populating sites like this just so folks think they are in the majority. It seems to have worked brilliantly to the extent that "they" now seem to be deferred to and referenced as authoritative and compelling voices to be heeded. Sorry, but the MANY PEOPLE I've encountered and know thought otherwise.
Like the wise person said, at some point it will be wonderful to stop letting people pee on your leg while trying really hard to convince you that its just raining.
Dastardly agenda? Maybe not. Meanspirited, anger driven spite and spewing? Absolutely! Even when it's been sugar coated and played off as harmless.
Mais oui, Rio is a beautiful place and it will be a great 2016 Olympic experience for them, South America and the world for that matter.
Camille: I honestly feel that we would all be better served to just ignore comments that we don't like, rather than enter into some multi-post back-and-forth that just does nothing besides draw attention to unpleasantness. If you really think that people are here just to push the buttons of MO supporters, isn't it better to just not engage?
And, hey Nyon!
If MO were at another event in the daytime, like (just to repeat the examples I gave above) talking to Army spouses or visiting school kids, or volunteering at a food shelter, I would think this was too dressy. I think *she* would think it's too dressy. And, I think *you* would think it was too dressy. I don't think you and I are that much out of step, or that you don't have the same little voice in your own head telling you what works and what doesn't. It's not one person who makes the rules, it is just general convention picked up through cultural images.
To borrow an idea from Mara, I wouldn't wear a ball gown to a job interview. It's not because some specific person said "it's against the rules to do that!" I wouldn't wear it because "we" (American women) generally know that ball gowns are not the right outfit for job interviews.
So in this case, it's not just that the fabric is shiny that tells me it's an after-five dress. It's the style, it's the cut, it's just the whole look of the dress. Just like with that Medal of Honor ceremony dress. Some people were focused, for some reason, on the print, as if the print were the problem there. It wasn't that, it was just that the whole style of that particular dress seemed geared toward a different, more party-like occasion.
All that being said, this dress was gold, she was giving a speech related to the Olympics and I would bet $1,000 that she completely intended to draw attention to herself and make people think of gold medals. I actually laughed at the picture because I think she looks adorable, and I thought she was cheerfully embracing the whole Olympics message through her outfit. The fact that you're not "supposed" to wear such a dress in the daytime seemed to me to be immaterial; she was breaking the "rules" to make a point.
But obviously a lot of other people were *super* troubled by this dress, including the guys on Project Rungay. I don't understand why. You'd think if anyone would get what she was doing there, it would be fashion folks. Oh well. What can you do? To be completely honest, I think this dress is super-pretty. I love the brightness, and the sparkle, and that sash. I even like the little matching sweater. And I think she looks great in it. If I'm in the minority on that, so be it.
(And I liked that dress she wore the night before with the three brooches, too.)
Christina,
Too funny. Are you telling me that I am looking at this dress with rose colored glasses on because it is Mrs. O? That if I had to choose dresses for the day, I probably would think this one was too dressy? That's why I like asking you because you tell it like it is. You're right, I probably wouldn't wear it. I guess I hate the fact that I wouldn't. I also hate when people tell me something is odd or against the norm. That makes me automatically want to oppose them. Therefore, I am asking these questions just because so many on here say its not appropriate. With that said, I probably wouldn't wear it, but I probably would not judge the next for wearing it either.
Also, I got the gold metaphor when I first saw it as well.
Thanks Christina.
Btw, don't you think I am thinking a little too hard for a fashion blog. WTF!! ;-)
Please spare us all the self righteous, moralistic posturing. The Project Rungay guys are not exactly brimming with great fashion wisdom.
Audrey,
What do you mean? (the first sentence)
Nyon, you're not any more serious about it than I am! :-)
It's a fine line between being a trend-setter and being someone who is perceived as being out of step. And that kind of thing may differ from person to person, because people hardly ever do anything as obviously weird as wearing a ball gown to a job interview. The first woman who went out in a dress without wearing pantyhose probably had people pointing and laughing at her. Now, Mrs. O hardly ever wears pantyhose (has she ever?) and no one says a thing. I don't wear pantyhose that much either.
I generally like the way Michelle is bringing non-traditional elements to daytime wear, for instance, wearing that pretty red satin suit to the...I forget where she was. New York or something? Satin is traditionally an evening fabric, but that outfit worked for me (except for that bow at the neck.) Or wearing the sequined sweater to England. I liked the mix of the dressy stuff (sequins and sparkly beads) with the casualness of a cardigan. That's one of my favorite outfits of hers, actually. So I look at those things and say she's a trendsetter. Someone else looks at them and says she's out of step and she needs to follow protocol and get a stylist and blah blah blah.
I just try to take a deep breath and realize that we're all coming from different places with this.
(But sometimes it is reeeelly hard!)
As for the Project Rungay guys, I disagree with them a lot, lately, when it comes to Michelle. But, I don't think they're coming from a stance of disliking her personally.
Look at the way this man is looking at his wife! He loves her