Purple Reign

White House Photo by Pete Souza

Purple has certainly become Mrs. O's color of the season. Above Mrs. O is pictured as the first couple honored retiring White House butler James Ramsey on January 25th. Mrs. O wore a purple velvet cut-out jacket by Azzedine Alaia, which coordinates with the dress worn for Oprah's White House Holiday Special in December, below. For last week's event, Mrs. O paired the jacket with slouchy purple trousers and a printed blouse by Peter Pilotto (thank you, chrystelle, for identifying the latter).

White House Photo by Pete Souza

An Inventive Remix

Images by Jason Reed / Reuters

This morning the president and First Lady Mrs. O were joined by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for the 58th US National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. O was dressed in a plum silk dress, paired with a long sleeve top underneath and a thin belt at the waist. This is the same Narciso Rodriguez dress Mrs. O wore to attend the president's address to a joint session of Congress in February 2009. The notable addition for this appearance? Sleeves, of course!

Was this Mrs. O's tongue-in-cheek, sartorial rebuttal to "sleeve-gate"? Or perhaps the first lady simply getting mileage out of her wardrobe? Would love to hear your thoughts on the 2010 remix.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Mrs. O on Today

Mrs. O wears a dress by Rachel Roy (which first debuted in the summer of 2009, seen here) for her multi-part interview with Mr. Matt Lauer for the Today Show. In the second video, Matt asks Mrs. O a few questions about her style (kisses and hugs for that!). A few of Mrs. O's responses follow below.

On making her fashion choices: "I'll figure out what I'm going to wear over the course of a week or even two, so that I don't have to think about it."

On dealing with the attention: "I've learned: wear what I like, wear what's comfortable...and that really depends on the occasion."

And the criticism: "I don't take in a lot of feedback in that regard because you don't want comments like that to influence who you are. You can't feed on any negative. I just sort of find a way to keep that out, and if there's any criticism that's helpful, I take that in and try to learn from it."

Well-Suited

Image by Saul Loeb / Getty Images

First Lady Mrs. O met with cabinet and senate members in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House today to discuss her campaign to fight childhood obesity. The full initiative will be unveiled next week.

For her business meeting, Mrs. O looked smart and polished in a red herringbone suit by Peter Soronen. The suit originated from Peter Soronen's Fall Winter 2006 collection and was first worn by Mrs. O on the campaign trail in early 2008. A white blouse and pearls complement this timeless classic.

Striped in McQueen

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

First Lady Mrs. O returned to her pinstripe chalk stripe Alexander McQueen suit today as she began her campaign against childhood obesity. Mrs. O was joined by Surgeon General Regina Benjamin at a YMCA in Alexandria, Virginia, where they spoke on the issue.

This suit has certainly been a favorite of Mrs. O's in recent years. Mrs. O wore it several times on the campaign trail during 2007 and 2008, and for at least one public event last year. Click here to see our previous post the its history.

In the past paired with brooches, the first lady wore it with a high collar white shirt, red belt and coordinating lipstick for today's appearance.