Michelle Obama Meets the Queen: She’s No French Hooker

You can take the First Lady out of America, but you can’t take American designers off the First Lady. Michelle Obama is probably well past her first meeting with the Queen of England at this point, and, while photos of what she wore to tea with Queen Liz haven’t surfaced yet, rest assured she’s wearing something American-made. Mrs. Obama is in London accompanying her husband as he greets the G-20 summit; her wardrobe choices thus far have only solidified the fact that her style doesn’t change whether she’s in Washington or across the pond. For the flight over the Atlantic in Air Force One yesterday, Mrs. Obama donned a dress and coat from First Lady designer favorites Thakoon and Michael Kors, respectively. Then, for her descent into London post-sunset, she changed into a vibrant yellow Jason Wu dress. This morning, it was back to J.Crew; Mrs. O slipped on a sparkly cardigan and an understated jacquard pencil skirt from the retailer for afternoon meetings with Britain’s First Lady, Sarah Brown.

What’s interesting is Michelle Obama’s allegiance to American designers, not to mention her lack of fear of letting loose once the sun goes down. Or, as Cathy Horyn put it: transforming “from prim white to rock star Michelle.” For her part, Tina Brown muses on what makes the First Lady’s style especially appealing to a British audience: “her casual elegance feels as if it came out of her own closet on her own salary. The clean lines of Mrs. Obama’s jewel-colored shift dresses, skinny cardigans, and ballet flats have that effortless air that always gets high marks in dress-down Britain, where ‘she’s trying too hard’ is the ultimate putdown.” It’s a far cry from the style of another fashionable First Lady, points out Brown. Specifically, that of supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on her premiere trip to meet the Queen: “That fake-demure little Dior suit she wore to lunch with Queen Elizabeth seemed in retrospect like the kind of get-up a reformed hooker might wear to meet her latest CEO for lunch at the Savoy.” Maybe it’s a good thing France’s First Lady chose to skip this particular trip abroad.