Michelle Obama on Her College Style, First Lady Days, and the Gloves That Shook Up the State Department

When America met Michelle Obama—for most of us, at the start of her husband’s campaign for president—clothing was all about efficiency. On the campaign trail, she opted for Maria Pinto sheath dresses in bright colors like tangerine and teal. “It was practical for campaigning because, while we were there doing that rally that night, I was probably at a farm festival and then at a school,” she says. “It’s never just one event.” Turning to her glam team, she adds, “Could’ve used y’all back then!”

Cut to election night, 2008. Obama didn’t give much thought to her look until a week or so before. She purchased a black and red dress from Narciso Rodriguez’s spring 2009 collection. “I wanted it to feel vibrant, I wanted it to feel alive—but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about what it would mean,” she says.

Her 2008 Inauguration Ball dress marked a watershed moment in first lady fashion. “Big-name designers tended to dress the first lady for Inauguration,” Obama says. “I was pretty clear that I wanted to change that up.” She turned to Jason Wu, a young Canadian-Taiwanese designer, whose career skyrocketed after he designed her ethereal, one-shoulder Greek goddess gown.

By the end of President Obama’s second term in 2016, Obama had transformed first lady fashion and had stepped out of her own comfort zone in the process. For the couple’s last state dinner, they paid homage to their Italian guests with a draped, rose gold Versace chainmail gown. Obama’s longtime stylist, Meredith Koop, didn’t initially think she would go for something so sexy. “I was thinking, ‘This is the last one. We can really go out with a bang,’” Koop says.

Here, watch on as Michelle Obama—with the help of her glam team— revisits her life in looks, from her college LeSportsac to her post-White House experiments. Plus, hear her talk about the Tom Ford gloves that had the State Department in shambles.

Director: Bety Dereje
Director of Photography: Dane Brown
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Assistant Camera: Josh Catubig
Gaffer: Eddie Harold Jr.
Grip/Swing: George Haley
Audio: Andrew Kim, Tony Charles
Production Assistant: Quinton Johnson
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Talent Manager: Phoebe Dishner
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Images Courtesy of: Obama Robinson Family Archive, Annie Leibovitz, Meredith Koop, Carl Ray and Melissa Winter
Sketches Courtesy of: Jason Wu, Versace