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Posted on 08/26/2026 2:13:45 PM PDT by simpson96
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, a seasonal resident of Edgartown, drew enthusiastic crowds that filled the 791-seat Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center twice on Sunday, for a pair of onstage talks with journalist and fellow summer Islander Michele Norris.
Discussing her new book The Look, Ms. Obama recalled the fierce media spotlight that was aimed at her clothing choices, and her body itself, during her husband Barack Obama’s campaigns and presidency.
“It wouldn’t matter what the content of the speech was. The way the press often covered it was, ‘She was wearing X, Y, Z. Her arms looked like this,’” Ms. Obama said.
The scrutiny began while she was campaigning for Mr. Obama’s party nomination in 2008, and came from male and female reporters alike, she told the Island audience.
“When the media started taking notice … I think some of our Democratic opponents felt like ‘We need to target her,’ and that’s when the negative press started,” Ms. Obama said.
Attacks on her appearance continued during the general election campaign and her two terms in the White House.
“If they want to go after a woman, they go after how she looks, how we feel about ourselves,” Ms. Obama said.
Determined to outwit her critics, she developed a fashion agenda unlike any other First Lady’s before her.
“It is a job, and fashion was always going to be a thing. They were always going to focus on my shoes before they focused on anything I said,” Ms. Obama said.
“I needed to be smart about what I wore, what it meant. My clothes had to tell a story,” she said.
That story, Ms. Obama said, was about inclusion and opening up the White House to the American people who put her family there.
“You know, there isn’t just one kind of America. There’s this big, whole, wide-open, beautiful tapestry of possibility,” said Ms. Obama, who wore fashion by American designers from a variety of backgrounds throughout her time in the White House.
Her new book, a large-format hardback with more than 200 photographs, illustrates the choices she made and the messages they were meant to send.
Instead of Oscar de la Renta, the Dominican high-fashion heavyweight who had gowned First Ladies from Jacqueline Kennedy to Laura Bush, Ms. Obama chose the young designer Jason Wu for her first inaugural ballgown.
“That’s the beginning of just a broader story about who belongs,” she said.
Each crowd member got a copy. — Jeanna Shepard “I wasn’t doing [Mr. Wu] a favor, you know. I looked at other dresses, and I picked his,” Ms. Obama said.
“It changed his life, and it said something to a whole array of young minority designers that you are now going to get a chance,” she said.
Ms. Obama also became the first First Lady to employ a personal stylist, Meredith Koop, whom she promoted from a staff position because of Ms. Koop’s fashion sense.
“I realized this whole getting-dressed thing is a job in and of itself, let alone thinking about traveling and doing high-end ambassador work or doing state visits and trips,” Ms. Obama said.
“I really had a plan substantively to work on nutrition and education and a whole range of things, and I was like, ‘I can’t spend a whole lot of time on this clothes thing,’” she said.
Ms. Koop found new American designers to outfit Ms. Obama for everything from her National Portrait Gallery painting to overseas trips where she played hopscotch in bare feet with children in India.
Ms. Obama also supported aspiring designers, hosting a day of fashion to connect teenagers with top designers for hands-on workshops at the White House.
“It was Gloria Vanderbilt, it was Jenna Lyons, it was Marc Jacobs. I mean, you talk about some of the biggest designers, and [the students] were in breakout rooms learning how to drape and sew and [create]costume and jewelry design,” Ms. Obama said.
Ms. Obama and Ms. Norris greet the second show, with new outfits. — Jeanna Shepard On Sunday afternoon, she and Ms. Norris recognized a group of young Island designers from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s art and technology program, asking them to stand for applause.
For her appearances at the performing arts center, Obama wore a crisp blue and white striped sundress and heeled sandals.
It’s not her typical Island attire, she said.
“This is dressed up [and] we don’t do this here. I don’t even wear shoes,” said Ms. Obama, who thanked the Island community for embracing her family as seasonal residents.
“This place is magic to our family. I mean, it really is. It’s one of the few places where we can go and just be, and that’s thanks to everybody here who loves us but gives us space — maybe excited, but not too crazy,” she said.(snip)
Ticketholders — a majority of them female — received Ms. Obama’s new hardback at the door and underwent thorough bag checks and a metal-detector screening by Secret Service agents before entering the auditorium, where seating was unassigned.
The afternoon audience gave Ms. Obama standing ovations at both the start and end of her appearance, with frequent rounds of applause throughout.
As the crowd dispersed, evening ticketholders were already arriving by bus to get in line for seats, more than an hour and a half before the 7:30 p.m. start time.
Jethrine and her brother Jethro Robinson.
Pretty sure that there aren’t many women in Martha’s Vineyard interested in Michelle Obama’s fashion ideas.
😂
Must be much to do there
Good thing the ‘Vinyard’ kicked out all those illegal aliens. The only ones allowed there clean the toilets and mow the lawns.
People actually paid to hear Michael talk about fashion? And especially white people, whom the Obamas hate. There’s a retarded sucker born every minute.
Michelle Obama as an authority on fashion is like Joe Biden as an authority on anything.
You made a better statement than I did, lol!
Her utility belt?
Fits....
Michelle is happiest when she plays the victim.
I couldn’t get a 21 year old boner for that.
they probably had other incentives (gift for attending, food, drink) then actually going to listen to MO. Dems always make a way for seats to be filled.
Taking control of the fashion issue was a total success for Ms. Obama - it was an impressive change. Credit where credit is due...
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Why? Men know very little about women’s fashion!
So is Michael going to share the latest fall fashion for jockstraps?
Big Mike talking men’s fashion.
She does like to clop around in her size 13 Brogans.
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