VOGUE'S Fashion Editor on Michelle O's Style.

First Lady Michelle O. Covers Better Homes Aug. 2011 Issue

The focus of the magazine story – called “Fresh and healthy” – is Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative and the White House’s “kitchen garden,” where local schoolchildren have helped the first lady plant, weed, and harvest a cornucopia of vegetables. And another first. No presidential wife has ever appeared on the cover of Better Homes & Gardens. Read more about this HERE. 

Michelle O. on the Cover of Conde Nast Traveler...

The first lady is quite the cover girl for May. For its May 2010 issue, Michelle Obama is the first first lady to grace the cover of Conde Nast Traveler (history!). In the story by contributor David Michaelis, Mrs. Obama talks about D.C. date nights, her favorite local spots, and how she gave her daughters a crash course in American history.

On Her Washington Experience:

"That is probably the most awe-inspiring time, because you're in the Presidential motorcade," which even on a date night can choke three city blocks "and you're sort of like, 'Are we in this? Who's here?' And it's us. And you pull up at night to the South Lawn and everything is lit up: That White House with that light shining...and you think, This is my house. This is where we live. Kind of cool. It's beautiful. And while I enjoy the time I spend with my husband -- it's a good way to end the evening."

"I would love, and so would the President, to be able to walk up and down the Mall, not at night but in the middle of the day, when there are millions of people there, and experience it in the way that you're used to experiencing it. I want to get on the Metro." She'd like to go out for a quick bite, but she can't. "It's like, 'Okay, we're going to that restaurant, and everyone's going to get mad, 'cause I'm there eating my hamburger.' People are excited, but" she says somewhat abashedly, "you sort of feel like, 'Ohhhh..."

Read more on the first lady's quest to make the White House more accessible, on her determination to expose her children to American History first-hand, on what she thinks of a few of her predecessors, and on some of the Obama's favorite Washington D.C. hot spots over at The Huffington Post.

Michelle O. Covers the May 2010 Issue of Good Housekeeping...

When I first glanced at the first lady's photo on the cover of Good Housekeeping, I thought to myself her pic looks "manufactured" Michelle O. doesn't need all that photoshop! I'm not the only one to think so either.

Michelle O. Covers Newsweek Magazine...

First lady Michelle Obama continues to promote her program "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity in the March 2010 issue of Newsweek:
For years, we've known about the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. We've heard the statistics—how one third of all kids in this country are either overweight or obese. We've seen the effects on how our kids feel, and how they feel about themselves. And we know the risks to their health and to our economy—the billions of dollars we spend each year treating obesity-related conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Continue reading this article HERE.

The Obama's Cover Essence Magazine's March Issue...

"Malia will tell you, my attitude was, if she came home with a B, that's not good enough because there's no reason why she can't get an A..." --President Barack Obama, ESSENCE

ESSENCE kicks off the first of its three-part education series, "Teaching Our Children," with a White House exclusive--an interview with President Barack Obama. In his first interview of 2010, he talks tough with ESSENCE editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray, Deputy Editor Tatsha Robertson and Washington Correspondent Cynthia Gordy about holding teachers accountable, closing the education gap between Black and White students, how he and First Lady Michelle Obama encourage daughters Malia and Sasha to love learning, and how you can do the same with your own children.

Michelle Obama 2009, FLOTUS' First Year: A Photo Retrospective...

A photo slideshow of First Lady Michelle O's fascinating first year as FLOTUS. Musical selection, "Michelle" a salute to the Beatles by the Revolver Road Band available on iTunes.



Michelle O's 2009 Wardrobe included, but was certainly not limited to:
Alexander McQueen, Anne Klein, Azzedine Alaia, Basso & Brooke, Calvin Klein, Dear Cashmere, DVF, Erdem, Erickson Beamon, Etro, Fenton by Dana Lorenz, Garavelli, Givenchy, Gunex, Hanii Y, Hussein Chalayan, Isaac Mizrahi, Isabel Toledo, J. Crew, Jason Wu, Jimmy Choo, Junya Watanabe, Kai Milla, Lanvin, Liz Claiborne, Loree Rodkin, Maggie Norris Couture, Maison Martin Margiela, Maria Cornejo, Maria Pinto, Michael Kors, Moises de la Renta, Moschino, Naeem Khan, Narciso Rodriguez, Nina Ricci, Peter Soronen, Proenza Schouler, Prova, Puma, Rachel Roy, Rick Owens, Rodarte, Sacai, Sonia Rykiel, Sophie Theallet, St. Erasmus, Suno, Talbots, Target, Thakoon, The GAP, Tom Binns, Tracy Feith, Tracy Reese, White House Black Market.
[photos via AP Photo, Daylife, Getty Images, Reuters and Wire Images]

Michelle O. Covers Glamour Magazine's Annual Women's Issue...

Glamour is honoring First Lady Michelle Obama with a Special Recognition award for her commitment to mentoring young women. (She also appears on our cover--the first time in Glamour’s 70-year history that a First Lady has ever done so.) You simply cannot talk about 2009 without talking about Mrs. Obama: and no, I don’t mean her status as a style icon (richly deserved though it may be). Just nine months into her job, our nation’s first African-American First Lady has thrown open the doors of the White House to local children and families, determined to show young people that, in her words, “there’s no magic to being here”--that with hard work, any one of us can rise to greatness. And at Glamour, we love that she’s particularly set on expanding young women’s horizons: The First Lady is establishing mentor relationships between top women in the administration and girls in need in DC, and is encouraging women leaders around the country to do the same where they live. Love that.

Continue reading this article here.

Michelle Obama Covers Prevention Magazine's November (2009) Issue..

via Yahoo News:
The first lady (wearing Jason Wu on the cover) said there are many facets to good health — physical, internal, emotional, diet — and all are intertwined. "Throughout my life, I've learned to make choices that make me happy and make sense for me. Even my husband is happier when I'm happy," Mrs. Obama said in her first interview with the women's health monthly. "So I have freed myself to put me on the priority list and say, yes, I can make choices that make me happy, and it will ripple and benefit my kids, my husband and my physical health."
"That's hard for women to own. We're not taught to do that," she added. "It's a lesson that I want to teach my girls." Asked for a definition of happiness, Mrs. Obama said it's when daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, "are good and when my family is whole." She expressed relief that early in the year after moving from Chicago the girls came and told her they liked living in the White House. "My happiness is measured against theirs. When they're in a good place, I feel really good," she said.

Mrs. Obama, who is 45 and appears on the magazine's cover, also said she has no fear about getting old. "To me, with age, everything has gotten better," the first lady said.
She strives to be "on the cusp of being in the best shape that I can be" in, but has found she needs to work a little harder at it the older she gets. As a result, she has begun to incorporate more Pilates moves and stretching into her workouts to maintain flexibility.
Mrs. Obama also is working on balancing out her diet, which she said has "no absolute no's."
"Overall, it's good, but there are some great bakers" at the White House, she said, noting that pie is always available. "So for me, it's about setting up new boundaries. I had some challenges with that, but I'm balancing out."
The November issue of Prevention hits newsstands on Oct. 6.

Obama's To Cover Four Upcoming Health Magazines...

PRESIDENT OBAMA is taking his argument for a health care plan to a new place: Rodale magazines, where he or his wife appear on coming covers of Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and the new publication Children’s Health.

The president has been pitching his health care plan without total success in Congress and in town hall meetings nationwide. Now, he makes the argument in the pages of the Rodale publications. Peter Moore, editor of Men’s Health, who wrote a cover article on Mr. Obama in November, approached the White House in the spring with the idea of doing articles focused on health care in four Rodale magazines. Three will run in the October issues, while the Prevention cover is appearing in November.

The Men’s Health and Women’s Health articles publicize the Obama health care plan, with Men’s Health strongly endorsing it. A sidebar to the president’s interview there lists “five reasons you should care” about the health care plan, and each point is positive — your premium may go down, your emergency room care would improve.

Continue reading this article here.

Michelle O. Covers Ebony Magazine's July/August 2009 Issue..

Michelle Obama, along with Halle Berry, Alicia Keys and Tina Turner all cover Ebony Magazine's Summer July/August 2009 Issue. They will be featured in "The It Factor: 25 Women Who Make Us Sit Up and Take Notice".

Michelle O. & Jackie O. A White House Wardrobe Comparison...

Jackie and Michelle: The White House Wardrobes
Comparisons are inevitable: two elegant women, catapulted into the national spotlight by their charismatic, ambitious husbands. The upbringings of Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama hold no resemblance, but their roles as standard-bearers for a renewed American hope certainly do. A pictorial of fashion’s favorite First Ladies, then and now.





See the rest of Jackie and Michelle: The White House Wardrobes over at Vanity Fair.

Michelle Obama Covers TIME Magazine...

via People: The White House has bestowed a surprisingly calming influence on the First Family, according to Michelle Obama – who says the residence has been a particularly positive experience for daughters Malia 10, and Sasha, 7.

When it comes to living in the Executive Mansion, the First Lady tells Time magazine for its latest issue, on sale Friday, "It has been the greatest single benefit of this for us as a family. It means that we see each other every day. And that hasn't happened for most of the kids' lifetime."

As the wife of Illinois's junior senator, Mrs. Obama was once asked if she would consider a move to Washington, D.C. "I was like, no," she remembers. Now, she's enjoying having the man of the house at home.

"It's rare [for most families] to have dad at home for dinner, to see him in the mornings, to have him there when you go to bed at night, just to be able to have the casual conversations that happen about life at dinnertime," says Mrs. Obama. "That's been terrific. It's normal. It's more normal than we've had for a very long time



Still, it is the White House. On maintaining their perspective and keeping the family intact, Mrs. Obama says, "We stay 100 percent in their world all the time. And I don't know if you understand that, but their lives are very disconnected from this [place]. You can do that with kids when they are young, because they just don't care."

The Chief Executive agrees. "Among the many wonderful things about being President," Barack Obama tells Time, "the best is that I get to live above the office and see Michelle and the kids every day. I see them in the morning. We have dinner every night. It is the thing that sustains me."

He also takes work breaks for what he terms "Michelle time," when retreats from his office to the residence. Every now and then, his wife shows up in the West Wing with family dog Bo or the kids for what the magazine calls "a brief but lively interruption."

"And if the kids really, really need to see him, they can," she says. "They're free to walk in. They're welcome wherever they want to go around here."

To read the full and fascinating TIME Magazine interview with Michelle Obama, click here.

Michelle Obama Listed #93 on MAXIM'S 2009 "Hot 100" List

First lady Michelle Obama is still gracing magazine's "Top Lists" as she came in at #93 on MAXIM Magazine's 2009 Hot 100 List:

He may be dealing with two wars, an economic meltdown, and a rapidly graying dome, but at least our Commander in Chief gets to come home to the hottest First Lady in the history of these United States. (Sorry, Martha Washington!)

Click here to see the full "Table of Hotness" (their term, not mine..)

Michelle Obama Makes TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2009...

Michelle Obama
By Oprah Winfrey

Michelle Obama (in Rodarte, left) doesn't just inspire us. She affirms us with her intelligence, authenticity, depth and compassion. We see the best of ourselves in her and marvel that no matter what she's doing, she brings 100% of herself to the experience.

I first met Michelle almost five years ago, shortly after Senator Barack Obama's riveting 2004 DNC speech. Long before there was serious talk of a campaign for the presidency, I remember going to the Obamas' house for dinner. I figured there would be takeout since I knew that, like me, Michelle had worked all day. But no, there she was in the kitchen, calm and organized, preparing linguine with shrimp and vegetables.

The woman I witnessed five years ago, with her graciousness, care and attention to detail, is the same woman I visited in the White House in February. Her very presence makes you feel welcome. Her political power is secondary to her heart power, and I salute her for that. I trust her. I know that whatever she gives her attention to, the truth will always be present. She doesn't make false moves.

The joy Michelle, 45, brings to her roles as First Mother and First Lady is what makes her so intoxicating. We want that joy in the roles we inhabit as mothers, wives, workers, daughters and friends. And while we admire those arms and applaud her fashion choices (from J. Crew to top designers), her greatest influence is that she makes us want to be our own best selves — and maybe lift a few weights too.

Watching her on the global stage greeting the Queen and chatting with dignitaries and representing us the way we imagine presenting ourselves on our best day, I was reminded of lines from Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman": "It's the fire in my eyes,/ And the flash of my teeth,/ The swing in my waist,/ And the joy in my feet./ I'm a woman/ Phenomenally."

How sweet it is that America has a First Lady who embodies the vibrancy and confidence of a seriously prepared 21st century woman. A phenomenal woman indeed.

Winfrey is a global media leader and international philanthropist

Fast Fact: Michelle Obama's undergraduate thesis for Princeton examined the sometimes isolating experience of being black in the Ivy League

Click to see a complete list of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2009. And YES, the President made TIME's list too...

Michelle Obama Makes People Magazine's 2009 "Most Beautiful" List

Which is a huge honor. But the picture they chose of the First Lady? WRONG IMHO.


See who else made the list here.
Also VOTE on Michelle Obama's 100 Days of Style here.

Michelle Obama & Her Mom to Cover Essence Magazine's May Mother's Day Issue..

via Politico
Add another to Michelle Obama’s growing stack of magazine spreads. In the May issue of Essence, first grandmother Marian Robinson gets into the act, too, joining her daughter for a joint interview and cover shoot for the mother’s day issue.

Interviewed in the Frst Lady’s East Wing Office at about a month after the inauguration, the mother-daughter team discuss family, life in the White House and the importance of good role models. Robinson, 71, says her role model is her daughter:

“Michelle has always been Michelle. And she has always accomplished whatever it was she set out to accomplish,” Robinson says in the interview, which is not yet posted online. I have always looked up to Michelle because she has been able to do things that I couldn’t do emotionally, psychologically or physically. I think she is amazing.”

Obama said of her mother that “she made me who I am.”

In the interview, Obama also discusses her growing platform, giving it a global spin.

“We have to talk about flex hours and exercise and nutrition and health and what that means. And we have to talk about values, and our relationship with men,” she says. “All of those are part of the conversation that I think we need to have, not just in this country, but around the world.”

Obama and Robinson also discuss parenting and whether Robinson might follow the path of her son, Craig, and also become an author. When Robinson was asked if she thought of writing a parenting book, her daughter jumped in with a laugh.

“We are working on it,” she said.