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Michelle Obama was the commanding officer of chic fashion during her nearly 10-year tenure as first lady. But with great power comes great responsibility.
The former first lady and wife of President Barack Obama, often praised and criticized as a style icon for her head-turning looks, spoke candidly about the complexities of her fashion journey in an interview with People magazine on Tuesday, October 28th.
“During my eight years in the White House, I intentionally didn’t talk about fashion or beauty,” Obama, 61, told the magazine. “I was worried it would swallow everything up.”
The reflection on Obama’s wardrobe comes as the lawyer and former first lady prepares to release her memoir, “The Look,” on November 4th. The book features more than 200 never-before-seen images of Obama, accompanied by text about the evolution of her style, giving readers a behind-the-curtain glimpse into how some of her most memorable looks were created.
“This book celebrates fashion, but more importantly, it celebrates confidence, identity, and authenticity, and I hope it inspires us to think deeply about how we define style and beauty,” President Obama said in the book’s foreword.
Penguin Random House Audio will also simultaneously release an audiobook version of the story, with Obama himself reading it.
Michelle Obama talks about pressure to show her ‘feminine side’ in fashion
As a presidential fashion figure, President Obama “understood the mission,” but it wasn’t easy.
While the first lady’s fashion choices garner public attention, much of the criticism of Obama was racist in nature. In 2022, President Obama revealed that he wanted to wear braids while in office, but decided against it because Americans were “not ready” and said he wanted to focus on the Obama administration’s policies rather than hairstyles.
“It was a complex mission. The role of first lady is a job, not a job,” Obama told People magazine. “You know that you should be both inspirational and approachable. You should be yourself, authentic and expressive at the same time.”
Obama, who made history as the first African-American woman to serve as first lady, also reflected on the cultural tightrope she had to walk as first lady. “I felt like I had to let people see my feminine side,” she said.
“Especially in the early days of the campaign, when I was being attacked as angry, as a shrew, as degrading to my husband, all sorts of labels were thrown at me that essentially tried to strip me of my femininity,” Obama continued. “I took my role as first lady very seriously. Although I was a celebrity, I was not a starlet, which meant that my clothes could never speak louder than what I had to say.”
Michelle Obama talks about embracing fashion ‘freedom’ and working on confidence
Obama is still a girl from Chicago’s South Side who grew up loving groovy fashion like Soul Train. But after her time in the White House, she was no longer interested in following the dress code.
“Fundamentally, I’m the same person,” President Obama said in an interview with People magazine. “But as each decade has gone by, I’ve gotten wiser. I think I’ve become more confident in who I am. Maybe this version of Michelle doesn’t care as much what other people think.”
Part of this increased confidence, President Obama says, is that he finally wore his hair in braids in public when a White House portrait of himself and President Barack Obama was unveiled in September 2022. “In addition to the discourse of black women in positions of power, I wanted to send a message that this is also an appropriate and beautiful way to wear your hair,” she recalled.
“When I’m away from public life, I swim and play tennis, and braids represent that kind of freedom to me,” Obama said. “[At the White House]we didn’t know if the country was ready for that. The Crown Act hadn’t been passed yet, and like fashion, we didn’t want hair to get in the way.”
But President Obama will be the first to admit that he is still a work in progress in the area of self-love.
“I still try to wake up every day, look in the mirror, and tell myself that I’m smart, I’m beautiful, I’m kind, I’m worthy,” Obama said. “I don’t think women, especially women of color, are going to stop working because they’re not always going to get back to work.
“Women today, we face a time when those in power seek to silence the voices of those who disagree with them, and I think now, more than ever, we must fight to remind ourselves that we matter and that we are valued.”
Contributor: Claire Mulroy, USA TODAY
