Why Michelle Obama Rarely Wore White as First Lady (Exclusive) Janine RubensteinOctober 31, 2025 at 1:11 AM 0 Erik Carter Michelle Obama Michelle Obama shares the meticulous planning that went into dressing for the job of first lady She recalls opting not to where white for an important and practica...
- - Why Michelle Obama Rarely Wore White as First Lady (Exclusive)
Janine RubensteinOctober 31, 2025 at 1:11 AM
0
Erik Carter
Michelle Obama -
Michelle Obama shares the meticulous planning that went into dressing for the job of first lady
She recalls opting not to where white for an important and practical reason
Her stylist Meredith Koop opens up about a time they didn't agree on a look, and how that panned out
Michelle Obama was one busy first lady.
In her new coffee table style book The Look, out Nov. 4, she opens up about her time in the White House and how her team, namely stylist Meredith Koop, who coauthored the new release, meticulously dressed her for the job.
"I was a famous person, but I wasn't a starlet," she tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story of how she understood her role. "And so that meant that the clothes could never speak louder than anything I had to say." Or, anything she had to do.
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Michelle Obama at the White House in 2012.
"I was a working, active first lady. On any given day, I could be gardening in the South Lawn, or doing jumping jacks with kids, or sitting on the floor having lunch with some preschoolers, or giving a speech to military moms," she says. "That could all happen in one day, so my clothes had to be ready for the moment."
And there was one hue that just couldn't meet the task. "I rarely wore white," she says, explaining, "I didn't want my clothes to stop me from engaging people. So my clothes had to be welcoming. They had to invite people in. I had to be able to give a hug. I couldn't worry about whether somebody got makeup on something."
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Michelle Obama at the White House in 2015.
On the rare occasions she did wear white, it was usually for formal events, like her ethereal silk, chiffon Jason Wu gown for then-President Obama's first inauguration in 2009.
Working with diverse talent like Wu was another part of her master plan. "I wanted to lift up all the designers who otherwise wouldn't have the chance to dress a First Lady. I wanted to break some norms. I wanted to bring some other people into the fold. So all that was part of the strategy, and with the help of my trifecta [Koop and her glam team], we were able to pull it off.
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Michelle Obama at the White House in 2016.
Koop tells PEOPLE of a time when she and her only client disagreed on a look, and how she got her to come around to it.
"I think of the 2016 Democratic National Convention speech. I had two custom looks made, each with its own layered meaning and aesthetic presence — one silver and white with diagonal panels, and one a cobalt blue Christian Siriano dress," she says. "Michelle fell in love with the silver and white, and we did everything we could to make it work but getting the fit on point required more time than we had."
Elena Mudd Meredith Koop
She recalls the decision came down to the wire, but she went with her gut, and chose the dress that had the most meaning.
"The blue dress felt right for the message — clean, confident, blue for the moment. Christian's story was significant. He was an American designer dressing women on the red carpet who weren't sample size, expanding the idea of who gets to be seen and wear beautiful clothes."
Erik Carter
Michelle Obama for PEOPLE
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Also, she adds, "I liked the tie-in — his Project Runway win through hard work and talent as a parallel to winning an election."
When it was time to settle on which dress backstage, "I had to say, 'look, this isn't going to work; we need to shift," she shares of the moment. "It took a moment to pivot, but she knows my intentions are good. She put on the blue and did what she does on stage — killed it."
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