As the Obamas plan their departure from The White House following the US election, we decided to review the fashion choices of fabulous First Lady Michelle Obama, 52.
AKA The First Lady of Fashion – to see what style tricks and ideas we could appropriate on behalf of all mature women…
Overall, we would award the lawyer, mother-of-two and First Lady, 10 out of 10 for Style and Fashion Choices. Michelle Obama has consistently demonstrated – no, proved – that it is possible to look fashion-forward yet still appropriate.
The strikingly attractive Mrs Obama is tall with a toned body. As well as being toned, she is slim. Though not model-thin or actress-thin; just fabulous, real-world slim.
Like most real women, she also has a bust and hips. That means she tends to look her absolute best in sleekly-cut clothes that glide over her silhouette without clinging too close or hanging too loose. She also has well-defined shoulders, so tightly fitting pieces, even if intended to be worn tight, don’t work for her; we suspect this is partly because of those well-defined shoulders and also because she is long-waisted (i.e. her torso is very long), so she needs to be wary around any dress with a sharply defined waistline, as does every woman who is long from shoulder to waist.
She also looks her best in clean, uncluttered necklines; and in dresses with medium-high or medium-low necklines. Very high necklines don’t suit her, as they don’t suit any woman with a full bust.
We know the stunning Mrs Obama has fabulously toned arms, so she often goes sleeveless – and why wouldn’t you with such great arms? But when she does wear sleeves, they need to be straight and either three-quarter-length or long. Sleeves that are short or puffy make her look wide as they would any over-50 woman with a full bust.
With her dramatic colouring she looks sensational in bright colours and in black, but also in some icy colours and in warm colours.
There have been far too many outfits over the past eight years to sensibly appraise them all, but we would say that she looks especially fabulous in the four outfits (above): the pink sleeveless dress (1), the scoop-neck green dress (2), the chequer-board print dress paired with a pale lemon blazer (3) and that fitted cropped tweed blazer paired with black trousers (4). She looks particularly sensational in all those outfits because they all work well with her colouring, with her shape and with her need for clean lines and absence of clutter.
Oh, and she almost always looks extra sensational in long gowns because, in addition to being fabulous frocks, these balance her long torso.
Above are what we consider to be Mrs Obama’s mistakes and we show them only to help us all learn a style lesson! We dislike the monochrome midi (5); we hate that black frock with red poppies (6); we hate that pair of yellow satin frocks (7) and that monochrome dress with little cape sleeves (8). These are all Fashion Fails either because they are too fussy and cluttered (which is most of them) or because they have puffy sleeves (5 and 8). That bright yellow satin dress (7, right) is too girly for the elegant Mrs O as well as being over-fussy, while the black frock with red poppies is badly cut for her, too short by a couple of centimetres and too high in the neck – it just makes her look uncomfortable.
Perhaps we should rephrase: we don’t hate the clothes, we just hate how they look on the marvellous Michelle. Mrs O’s mistakes, in our view, demonstrate key principles in getting dressed which all we women over 50 can learn from. So this is the Style Steal: don’t depart from what works for your body type and shape. Where First Lady Michelle Obama has stuck to those rules, she looks stunning; where she has not, she looks a bit trussed up and lumpy…
Which is your favourite Michelle Obama outfit? We’d love to know…
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