She dances to her own tune

Say what you will about Michelle Obama’s fashion choices on Inauguration Day (and many fellow Americans have already said, “Daywear. Yes! Evening gown. No!”), but one thing is clear: While her choices may not always hit the mark, our new first lady is a fashion free-thinker and champion of the fashion independent.

Obama has certainly sent hordes of shoppers racing to national retailers such as White House|Black Market and J. Crew to buy the exact affordably chic fashions in which she has publicly appeared. But she also, in just a few short months, has raised the profile of designers whose names were heretofore known primarily in the fashion world’s inner circles.

Chicagoan Maria Pinto. Narciso Rodriguez and Isabel Toledo. And a young Taiwan-born American designer named Jason Wu.

If you’ve first heard of these fine designers in association with Obama, stay tuned. No doubt their names will be on the tip of our tongues for years to come, if not stitched inside a garment at a Target near you. (Oops, Thakoon Panichgul, another Obama favorite, already hit stores in December.)

As for Inauguration Day, though some feel Obama’s choices were unexpected, her fashion philosophy was consistent.

She (mostly) avoids the traditional. She mixes high and low (her gloves were J.Crew). She’s not afraid to wear color, reveal her womanly figure or admit that she doesn’t abide by some of those archaic rules of fashion.

On the surface at least, as judged by her repeated return to these principles, Obama doesn’t seem too concerned about what anyone thinks of her choices. And maybe, that kind of confidence is the most important fashion lesson she can teach us.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

The inauguration ensemble

Cuban-born American designer Isabel Toledo said she chose the “lemon grass” color for the optimism it represents.

“I didn’t want a traditional blue or red,” she said. “That color has sunshine in it. I fell in love with it. So did she.”

That unusual shade of yellow “really popped” on Michelle Obama’s complexion, said fashion designer Kai Milla, wife of Stevie Wonder and an invited guest to the swearing-in ceremony.

—- Samantha Critchell, Associated Press

It remains to be seen how the Obama White House will unfold, but Michelle Obama made a bold sartorial statement Tuesday at her husband’s swearing in. As the new president gave a speech on the renewal of America, Michelle Obama stood out from the sea of dark winter coats in a pale gold Isabel Toledo brocade sheath dress, jeweled collar, and matching coat in Swiss wool. It was not unlike the 1961 swearing in of President John F. Kennedy, when Jacqueline Kennedy wore a pale pink ensemble and hat.

—- Christopher Muther, Boston Globe

The white gown

The gown’s designer, Jason Wu, said, “It’s soft, feminine, but powerful; I wanted to convey all that in a dress. I wanted it to look like a sign of hope.”

Hamish Bowles, Vogue magazine’s European editor-at-large, who curated the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute exhibit on Jackie Kennedy in 2001, called the gown “supreme modern elegance. A pitch-perfect choice: appropriately formal but romantic and imaginative.”

Clearly President Barack Obama approved. “First of all, how good-looking is my wife?” he asked a cheering crowd just before their first dance at the Neighborhood Ball at Washington’s Convention Center.

The gown’s slight train swirled pleasingly and the new first lady’s shoulder-sweeping earrings picked up the gown’s sparkle.

—- Samantha Critchell, Associated Press