A Spirited Orange Swirl
Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 10:57 AM 
Photo by Flickr user veronica.decker / Creative Commons
Apologies for the delay, but photos from Mrs. O's Friday appearance have been slow to surface via our normal sources. Fortunately the Huffington Post has a nice selection here, and we've managed to finally find a few, above and below.
On Friday, the first lady gave a speech at the Norfolk naval base to mark the return of the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group and the USNS Comfort.
For those curious about Mrs. O's dress - the first lady wore a Talbots Swirl Cotton Dress in Sunset Orange, on sale for a very reasonable $38.99. Mrs. O accessorized with a vintage silk flower pin worn at the shoulder. The 1960s era pin is a design by Hattie Carnegie, acquired through the Carole Tanenbaum Vintage Collection, and first seen on the campaign trail last fall.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Desiree Green/Released
Reader Comments (28)
Mrs. O looks radiant. The bright orange suits her skin tone.
It was well worth the wait. I love the photo that was used. She is literally glowing in that photo. Wow.
Nice dress.
Beautiful picture you found, Mrs. T. I love it. Yes, she is glowing in the picture and looking her beautiful self, despite having to contend with some serious wind that day.
Simple dress with clean lines that accentuate her tiny waist that costs $40 accessorized with a simple and gorgeous pin. Yay, Michelle A+!! Hopefully she told TBG that it's a $40 dress.! Where are the shoes?
Double wow!! Love the dress, love the brooch!!
Ooohhh, real nice photo choice. This dress has a becoming silhouette with wonderful pops of color. And that orange compliments her complexion perfectly. I have been inspired to wear the many flower brooches that I inherited from my great auntie and I receive so many compliments.
LOL! Only Mrs O can rock a $38 dress with a $450 pin with class and sass all in front of top Navy brass.
I love the $38 dollar dress, but few of us can afford a $450 pin---or would not buy it if we could. That does not mean Michelle should not buy it---she will use it and wear it many times. I love her look here!
I love this dress......and I like that she is cost-friendly o'Couture.
Lovely! The orange dress really pops in a sea of NAVY dress whites. She knows how to pick color. Glad she was there for this happy day to so many NAVY familes. I'm sure they appreciated it. (I would love to look thru all of her pins/brooches)
She is so lovely, so natural, so real...a breath of fresh air indeed!
To mrs-o-org : Daylife.com often has numerous pictures on their website of Mrs. Obama. Perhaps you could work out an agreement with them to use some of their photographs?
Mrs. O looks lovely and I can't believe her dress costs less than $40! That's amazing.
Strong
I thought that was a Talbot's dress! Love it! But seriously, the pin looks like something from a craft fair. If it really cost $450 she was duped.
Gorgeous dress. The color and cut suits her very well.
I think the pin is supposed to look like something from a crafts fair. Its the materials and craftsmanship that adds to the cost. So, maybe you were duped into thinking that everything expensive needs to be loud, gaudy and bedazzled like rappers gear. LOL!
Anyhoo... does Mrs. O purchase her clothes or does she get gifts from designers like stars? Does anyone know?
Absolutely LOVING the dress -- she wears it so well!
she looks so young and lovely in this dress.
I simply must admit that Mrs. O carries off color like no other. Between her radiant smile and poppy wardrobe she lights up a room in a nanosecond! :)
super !!! super !!!! Michelèle est très belle avec cette robe lollllll
fantastique.
@Char'den: politicians or their wives aren't allowed to accept gifts like clothes- could be bribery. So she has to pay for everything. An exception was the Jason Wu dress she wore for the inauguration ball. Since the clothes (and I think the jewellery too) are traditionally donated to a museum after the ball the designers donate them. So the first wive wears the dress but doesn't really own it. But with Barack's book earnings and her own former good salary it shouldn't be a problem for her to afford her clothes. Other politicians and their wives struggle tough- the wive of the British prime minister Gordon Brown recently stated in a interview that it is a problem (I don't think she ever worked in the last couple of years and Brown has no best-selling books). She said that the media critize her if she wears the same thing several times, but that she hardly can afford all the designer clothes, so she sometimes rents designer clothes.
That's a really pretty dress and the pin is a perfect finishing touch.
The Talbots Swirl dress has had two markdowns. It was originally $139.00.
OMG. That color is *perfect* on her. Her skin tone is perfectly set off by it. And her skin is glowing! Amazing! Thanks for these photos of her in this dress.
Not dupe at all Char'den....I'm just not buying that expensive necessarily translates into wonderful. I don't think this pin is worth that kind of money. Kudos to Mrs. O for wearing a sale dress from Talbots. It also comes in blue and white. You can get really awesome markdown deals on the Talbot's website. However, go on the Carole Tannenbaum site and look closely at some of the vintage pieces. The money spent on this pin was excessive for what it looks like.
Rayonnante....
I love the dress. Beautiful color. It looks great on her. Love the cost also.
Cute outfit that looks fantastic on her. Very summery.
I like to imagine that Barack finds some of these pretty little treasures (the brooches, I mean) and gives them to her. An attentive husband like him would know his wife's taste and want to indulge her . . .