This March,
First Lady Michelle Obama has graced the cover of the renowned Vogue magazine, making her the second First Lady to ever be featured on a Vogue cover, the other being Hillary Clinton. First ladies have been photographed for Vogue in the past, the first being Lou Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, but although they made the magazine, very few have had the honor of gracing the cover. The story going along with the cover is brilliantly written by Vogue editor,
Andre Leon Talley.
Taken by infamous celebrity photographer
Annie Leibovitz, Michelle Obama is pictured in the cover photograph stretched across a comfortable-looking beige sofa in the Hay-Adams Hotel where the Obama family stayed the few days prior to the inauguration of
Barack Obama. Michelle looks exquisite, pictured in a magenta Jason Wu dress, this same designer being the one who designed her gown for the historic inaugural ball.
Inside the magazine, another photograph portraits the First Lady in her very own professional atmosphere, featuring her in a black Narciso Rodriquez dress with the White House peering in from the far window. The article was meant to take a look into her new lifestyle, and the adjustments that the Obama family have made to make way for the flood of changes that have washed into their lives. Michelle talks of finding a new church in the area, as well as getting the Obama girls adjusted at school and in the white house. The article takes a look into Michelle Obama's own dreams, goals, and aspirations, as well as her own personal wardrobe which, might I add, is fabulously stylish and as sophisticated as the leather-bound books on her mahogany shelving units. Even the hard-to-impress and highly judgmental
Vogue Editor-In-Chief, Anna Wintour, wrote how impressed she was by the inauguration dress designed by
Isabel Toledo, and the aforementioned custom-made ball gown designed by
Jason Wu. Personally, the
Narciso Rodriguez camel coat she so stylishly adorned at the Lincoln Memorial opening ceremony was what caught my eye!
Vogue has always and persists to be the nation's premier mainstream magazine for fashion. Putting a woman of colour on the cover, and a First Lady at that, really gives insight into how the editors of the renowned mag view the new administration. The ideals behind how beauty can intersect with power, even politics if you will, brings new light into the fashion world, and maneuvres the ideals of how power can be beauty. And how a south side Chicago-born black woman with curves can be fabulously portrayed of a symbol of beauty for all women to idolize.
"Change was the clarion call of Barack Obama's election campaign," writes Vogue's editor, Anna Wintour, "though I don't think any of us at Vogue initially realized that would include the difference that was going to be made by First Lady Michelle Obama's wardrobe. It wasn't just that her choices projected a simpler, streamlined, more modern attitude, rejecting the ridiculous idea that the only way for a First Lady to dress is in the dreaded White House standard-issue uniform - the boxy, anonymous suit that always managed to look as appealing, and as comfortable, as armor. Instead, we have a woman who is happy in newer, less obvious designer choices like Wu and Toledo. . . . It's inspiring to see our First Lady so serene and secure in her personal style."
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