The meaning of Michelle Obama’s upper arms is a topic to which we will clearly need to return at length before this presidency is out, but for now let’s talk about the dress. The colour was the prime talking point of the State of the Union address, before designer Narciso Rodriguez confirmed that it is officially “marigold”. (The exact same colour was mustard when J Lo wore it to the Golden Globes two days earlier, but go figure) The sunniness of the tone was a deliberately upbeat note, chosen as the Obamas begin the final, legacy-minded stretch of their White House tenure. Compare and contrast with last year’s serious, dark-toned skirt suit, which chimed with her husband’s 2015 speech focussing on income inequality.
The dress evoked elements of the first lady’s greatest fashion hits. The inauguration of 2009 is a key reference here. First, the intriguing colour recalled the dress and coat she wore that day, a a paler yellow which sparked a similar naming frenzy. (For the record, some called it citrine, but here at the Guardian we backed lemongrass.) For Obama’s arrival last night, her marigold dress was teamed with a purple coat, a daring colour combination which also harked back to that inauguration, when the first lady wore olive green gloves with her pale yellow coat, and Malia and Sasha wore bright, jewel-toned scarves in contrasting colours. Bright colours for optimism, and surprising combinations for daring: these are central to the Michelle Obama fashion message.
The dress’ designer was Narciso Rodriguez. Rodriguez also designed both the black and red dress Michelle Obama wore on election night is 2008, and the sleeveless shift in aubergine (or rather, “eggplant”) which she wore for the first State of the Union address, in 2009. Here, again, Michelle Obama is deliberately reminding us of the excitement and glamour of those first chapters of her time as Flotus. In a conclusion, you need to remind your audience where you started. Naturally, this Flotus is all over that.
