Trimmed in Lace for the Luau

Photo by Mandel Ngan 

We *love* Mrs. O's choice of dress for tonight's White House luau. Her lei seems to coordinate with the purple floral print of her dress. And what is that peek of orange fabric at the neck? Plus the lace trim... This is one of our favorites of recent weeks. What a delight of a dress!

We have a hunch that this may be another Tracy Feith creation, showcasing the designer's trademark mix of prints and texture. Click here to see a similar version of the Spirit dress by Tracy Feith.

A Day in Paris

Picture by KCS Presse / Splash News

Mrs. O has been to the Pompidou Center today, and is now enjoying a bit of shopping around Paris, seen here. The first lady is wearing the "Lei dress" by Tracy Feith, last seen for a daytime event during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. Click here to see our earlier post on the dress.

The dress features a bodice of hand dyed cotton and silk, trimmed in strips of metallic shot, tea dyed chiffon and cotton batik. The skirt is heavy linen, with peace lace trim at the hem, hand beaded with tiny beads and sequins, at the hem.

Feith Redux

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Mrs. O is in New York today, where she spoke at the United Nations.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice introduced the First Lady by saying, "You insist on reminding people that your extraordinary life is rooted in the ordinary women that surrounded you. We love your style, your warmth, your brilliance."

For the event, Mrs. O wore a Tracy Feith dress, with fitted bodice and full skirt; the dress was last worn for the National Prayer Service following the Inauguration. The printed fabric, depicting cranes nestled among Asian flowers, is produced by Kona Bay, a Hawaii based fabric company. Image via Kona Bay Fabrics

Have a Little Feith

Image via Flickr user Studio08 Denver / Creative Commons

Mrs. O's patronage of under the radar American designers, many of them up and coming, some established but lesser well known, is becoming a hallmark of her style. After she wore a bold crane and floral print dress for the National Prayer Service on January 21, we really began to sit up and take notice of one designer in particular, Tracy Feith. As we noted at the time, Mr. Feith's designs tend to have a maverick quality to them, reflecting his surfer roots.

Even before the National Prayer service dress debuted, the January 2009 issue of Voguementioned Tracy Feith in a shortlist of Mrs. O's designers. Was it foresight only Vogue could have? Or had, perhaps, Mr. Feith dressed Mrs. O in the past?

In fact, the article referred to a bold, yet intricately detailed Tracy Feith dress that Mrs. O wore to a daytime Black Caucus event during the Democratic National Convention in late August 2008 (pictured above). We reached out to Mr. Feith's partner, Susan Winget, to get the scoop on the dress. First spotted at Ikram, and later custom altered for Mrs. O, the design is known as "the Lei Dress". Ms. Winget's description: "the bodice is hand dyed cotton and silk, and trimmed in strips of metallic shot, tea dyed chiffon and cotton batik. The skirt is heavy linen. The peach lace trim at the hem is hand beaded with tiny beads and sequins." Additional images of the dress can be seen here.

We love the striking originality of this dress, which combines an almost graphic, sleeveless silhouette with unusual yet effective combinations of fabric and a thorough attention to detail. Perhaps the designer also had this dress in mind when in January he told U.K. magazine Grazia:

"[Michelle Obama] likes things that are feminine but somewhat adventurous. She's not afraid of those things.'"

In the same interview, Ms. Winget commented on the Tracy Feith dress Mrs. O wore for the National Prayer Service, adding:

"It was a real thrill for us in our little-engine-that-could company to see our First Lady in Tracy's dress and to receive such quick recognition. We are beyond flattered."

Tracy Feith is currently working on a lower-priced collection for Target. Look out for it in early May 2009 when it's expected to debut in stores. With endorsement from both the First Lady and Target, Tracy Feith's name is surely on its way to earning well-merited household status.

The Most Wonderful Icon

Well, it may be a few weeks past, but this NPR segment is worth a listen. Vogue's Fashion News and Features Editor, Sally Singer, weighs in on the Fall 2009 New York shows, recession fashion, and of course, Mrs. O. Speaking of the latter she shares:

"She's the most wonderful icon for us to have, in a way, because she's not someone who ever sought it out," Singer says. "This is not a woman who's put herself forward as a fashion icon — she's a woman who's an icon for all the right reasons."

Obama wears clothes well partly because she's beautiful, tall and poised, Singer says, but also because she doesn't let clothes overwhelm her. "She wears clothes that she looks good in, that fit her life, and in doing so inspires us all to think about ways that we can do that with clothes for our lives," Singer says.

Ms. Singer's words gained all the more credibility with us when we stumbled upon this April 2008 photo of the Vogue editor (far right) wearing a Tracy Feith dress of the exact same print as that worn by Mrs. O to the National Prayer Service in January. Kindred style spirits, they clearly are.