Michelle Obama for ‘Vogue,’ Round Two

Either out of lack of imagination, or out of total adoration of America’s First Lady, for its April issue Vogue India has recycled the Annie Liebowitz image of Michelle Obama that originally graced the cover of the rag’s stateside counterpart last month. The only difference, according to a post on Fashion Spot: the color of the font (Vogue India opted for bright pink instead of brown to compliment the color of the Jason Wu dress the First Lady is pictured in). Recession chic or not, if you couldn’t manage to land a copy of the First Lady on the cover of Vogue the first time around, here’s your second chance.

India is currently hosting its biannual Fashion Weeks (three to be exact-The Wills India Fashion Week, Delhi Fashion Week, and Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai), which has prompted an interesting piece in the New York Times today on the region’s evolving sartorial savvy. Guy Trebay muses on the new, more substantial role that fashion is playing in India, citing a dichotomy between interest in fashion and consumer demand. While there are empty malls a plenty in India’s cosmopolitan hubs, “the urge to participate in the global fashion fray has taken hold” of Mumbai, with everyone from “Bollywood types in dark sunglasses and dumpy housewives showing up [to Fashion Week] wearing 14-year-old sandals.” Not to mention, the three aforementioned Fashion Weeks have “demonstrate[d] the preparedness of Indian designers to forgo the parochialism of the vast domestic market that exists here to square off against competition from the West.” So, while change has been slow to come to India’s fledgling independent fashion community, it is surely in motion. Meaning, the choice of Michelle Obama as the face of this month’s Vogue India may in fact be perfectly timed. After all, the very public figure is just now truly stretching her well-toned fashion legs, meanwhile embodying the idea that fashion is for everyone.