Those keen to pinpoint exactly how an essential relationship differs from a special one will be tracking Michelle Obama's wardrobe choices closely. The US president's wife has proved herself to have a talent for projecting a style which underscores and illustrates the Obama political message, while also showcasing her own personality.
From the colour and glamour she brought to the campaign trail to the casual style she brings to appearances at her vegetable garden or with her daughters, she has proved herself adept at matching the look to the message.
The keynote of the outfit worn for the palace visit on Tuesday was a cheerful informality. The unspoken palace dress code, as worn by the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall yesterday, usually revolves around a matching suit – whether dress and coat, as worn by the Queen, or jacket and skirt as seen on Camilla.
Michelle Obama wore a pale blue silk dress, by the American designer Barbara Tfank, which with a matching coat would have been almost suitable for the queen herself. But by wearing it with a pink bolero Michelle Obama set herself apart; a visual demonstration of a difference in mindset. Both pieces, by themselves, could have come from a royal wardrobe.
It is as if Mrs O rifled through the Queen and Camilla's clothes rails and put an outfit together by taking apart two formal suits.
Michelle Obama uses the unexpected – a vibrant colour combination, a punchy belt, a flat shoe where you would expect a formal court – to add a flash of personality which helps to humanise very formal situations. Without her colourful outfit, the photocall from Tuesday's gun salute at the palace would have blended unnoticed into any gallery of similar state occasions.
She used a similar trick at the inauguration, when instead of choosing any of the obvious, symbolic colours – power red, or Democrat blue – she chose a colour which had reporters scrambling for the word to describe it. "Lemongrass" came out on top; so, too, did Michelle's impressive ability to introduce a new word into the conversation.
Kate Betts, an American fashion editor who has written a book about Michelle Obama's look, wrote in the op-ed pages of the New York Times earlier this year that "her message of optimism and appearance is often transmitted through her appearance.. she is sometimes an ambassador for American designers, but more important, she is an ambassador for the self-possession that defines American style".
After channelling Jackie Kennedy on the campaign trail and in her early appearances, she has in the past year moved toward a more casual look. Shift dresses and pearls have been dropped in favour of full-skirted, prom-style skirts, simple knitwear, bright stripes.
Yesterday's outfit for the palace visit will perhaps play better at home than it will in Britain: the full-skirted shape and curved collar referenced a gracious, homemade-lemonade vision of American womanhood which is perhaps what the US public want the first lady to represent at Buckingham Palace. But to modern British eyes – post McQueen wedding dress, post Pippa madness – it looked somewhat stiff and upholstered.
Indeed, the contrast with the new Duchess of Cambridge was marked and surprising. Michelle was in girlish, almost princessly sheeny florals; the new Princess, by contrast, looked a vision of modern, transatlantic glamour. The dress, the blow-dry, the deep tan: this could be Victoria Beckham at a Los Angeles luncheon. What's more, Kate's dress is currently available on the British high street, for £175, from Reiss.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2011
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