“It’s fantastic. I’m really excited and honored,” says Peter Soronen of the First Lady’s choice to wear his dress to a state dinner with the Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife Margarita Zavala. “I could have done a shade of blue or yellow, but it had to be floor length and have the structure I am known for,” he says of the directives given when the look was commissioned, though he did not know prior to that night that his design would be the chosen one.
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"She's the epitome of a modern, American woman in the truest way," says Prabal Gurung of Mrs. Obama, here in his custom red matte jersey dress at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. "She not only embraces the younger designers, but also international (designers), the high and the low—even different hairstyles. Just because she's the First Lady doesn't mean she has to wear the traditional look. She's absolutely brave, courageous and intelligent."
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Gurung found out via Twitter that Mrs. Obama wore his black and white painted look to the Smithsonian for the museum's induction of her inaugural dress. "It was perfect timing for me: my third season, my first time showing in Paris for sales," says Gurung.
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Thakoon Panichgul was about to make dinner at his Chelsea apartment when he noticed Mrs. Obama's dress on television during the closing of the Democratic National Convention. "I saw this red flash, a print and then said, 'Wait, no?,'" says Panichgul. "Fashion is what I love to do—what I live for, but such a small part of what the country is about. This is a bigger stage."
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"I was watching, watching to see what she was wearing," says Panichgul of Mrs. Obama's selections after the DNC. He was at his grandmother's house in Thailand when he saw her in his floral silk jacquard dress and coat standing next to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at the NATO Summit Arrival Ceremony. "We were in the middle of nowhere. It was really the first time I was able to share the excitement with (my family)."
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This year, Mrs. Obama wore a Thakoon custom black chiffon evening dress. "Very simple," is how Panichgul describes the look. "I was very happy, but really wanted to see more pictures," he admits, citing limitations placed on photographers due to the affair's heightened security.
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"I'm always excited," says Maria Cornejo of seeing Mrs. Obama in her label Zero Maria Cornejo. Before becoming the First Lady, Mrs. Obama often wore Cornejo's designs, including her "Ita" dress. "For me, it was very touching to see a campaigning woman wearing this quite edgy dress named after my grandmother," she says. " I have so much respect for Mrs. Obama—and my grandmother."
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"I always get a kick out of when she is wearing the clothes, doing interesting things," says Cornejo, "when she has to really be on." Here, Mrs. Obama's in a Zero Maria Cornejo black jacket with camellia.
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Mrs. Obama has worn Cornejo's geometric print dress on more than one occasion. "My daughter, Bibi, is always looking and telling me, 'Mom, Michelle's wearing your things!' She gets very excited," says Cornejo of her little messenger. "I also hear it at my son's school, 'Mommy, teachers told me Michelle O. is wearing your things.'"
JEWEL SAMAD
“It was so American to me, but still with an Indian touch from my part of the world,” says Naeem Khan of the custom silver sequin champagne dress he created for Mrs. Obama, which she wore to a White House state dinner for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur. Khan was watching television at his Miami house over Thanksgiving weekend when Mrs. Obama appeared in his dress. “You feel you’ve arrived in a way. You know things are going to be different going forward,” says Khan. “It’s a very accelerated feeling.
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"I design clothes for the woman I aspire to be, when a woman I aspire to be like chooses something (of my design) it's amazing," says Rachel Roy who created this skirt Mrs. Obama chose for a state dinner preview for the Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. The "marble" print was a deviation from Roy's usual painterly patterns. "The print was inspired by a moment when the country was under stress," says Roy of creating it amid uncertainty about President Obama's eventual election. "I went for something that signified strength," she says. "(Mrs. Obama) wore my print skirt, of course, not knowing the story. It came full circle as the print was inspired by her and her husband." Roy found out on Twitter.
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Like the Zero Maria Cornejo print dress and de la Renta shift, Mrs. Obama has worn Rachel Roy's mixed media dress multiple times. She chose the dress with a silk print on top, rust waistband and tweed skirt for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service held in San Francisco last summer. "I was with my girls and someone sent through an email," says Roy. "I made my girls look at it and called and emailed my friends, making them pay attention, wanting them to care as much as I did. I was over the moon."
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