If it was a pale grey kurti-style dress with buttons in pearl grey that US First Lady Michelle Obama chose to step out in soon after landing in Mumbai on Saturday, it was a brighter hue of aquamarine blue in New Delhi Sunday afternoon as she arrived with husband Barack Obama on Air Force One.
The statuesque Ms Obama, for whom adjectives like chic and stylish are used ever so often, wore the same blue dress while visiting Humayun’s Tomb later in the afternoon. Not only perhaps as there was no time to change, with the two heading there after a brief halt at US ambassador Timothy J. Roemer’s Roosevelt House residence, but also because Ms Obama knows how to not let fashion overwhelm the occasion.
Take the very casual and comfortable skirt with a floral print and blouse she wore at her interaction with differently-abled children in Mumbai on Saturday along with the flat pumps she was quick to remove and go barefoot to play hopscotch but also dance with the kids. It’s noteworthy too that the First Lady is credited with giving a fillip to kitten heels given her marked partiality for them. Kitten heels, incidentally, are also said to have been favoured by yet another stylish US First Lady, the late Jacqueline Kennedy.
It was finally at the private dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Sunday night that Michelle chose to step out in attire that had a distinct Indian touch. She sported a black kurti with gold and silver zardozi work along with black trousers, prompting one guest at the dinner to remark: “She looked lovely.” But then Ms Obama has been known to wear creations by Indian-origin designers many times in the past.
Earlier Sunday, Ms Obama was attired in a black-and-white dress during the presidential couple’s visit to Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College.
But despite her fashion sense, Ms Obama is careful to often hark back to her roots and her ordinary upbringing in Chicago. In a brief speech at St. Xavier’s, before her husband took over, Ms Obama said: “We are thrilled to be here. This is my first trip to India, but not my first exposure to this country. I grew up in Chicago, which has one of the largest Indian-American communities in the US. I have really been looking forward to the trip for a very long time.”
In her disarming manner, she went on: “My family did not have a lot of money. My parents did not go to college. My parents worked hard to pay the bills, to keep a roof over our head. But they gave my brother and me strong values. They taught us to treat others with dignity and respect and be grateful for everything we have. They also taught us to take pride in our work, so that our circumstances do not define us. We could build our own destinies. And I tried every single day to put those lessons to heart. You are here today because like my husband and me, you believe in your dreams and how you will fulfil them.”
Michelle’s sartorial style is said to be so influential that the Harvard Business Review noted recently that whatever she chooses to wear helps generate almost $14 million in revenue for the clothesmaker. The study found that the stock prices of 29 brands she wears most often go up when she sports these labels.