Michelle Obama has given Americans a face to love, glorify, follow and one that seldom fails since stepping into the shoes of the US First Lady nearly two years ago.
A style icon whose clothes are resuscitating American fashion, a woman who is first and foremost a mother, a wife who is never shy of being publicly intimate with her husband even if he is the president of the United States. She is, as they love to call her, "Mrs. O".
The first African American in her position, she has, gesture by gesture, dress by dress, widened her appeal -- even as husband President Barack Obama's popularity ratings fall -- winning over critics, some of whom had called her "angry black woman" at one time.
On the incredibly fit shoulders of this 46-year-old has fallen the mantle of "change" - a word her husband used powerfully to become the 44th president of the US.
Michelle has famously said, "Barack didn't pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he's delivered". And few will contest, she has too.
Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has taken First Lady Michelle Obama to task because of the gown she wore to the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Mrs. Obama wore an elegant red-to-black gown designed by Sarah Burton from the late Alexander McQueen’s design house. McQueen was British as is Burton, and de la Renta thought Mrs. Obama should have only worn a gown that was made in the U.S. of A.
Even though Mrs. O is the first First Lady in 30 years not to have de la Renta design for her, he insisted his criticism wasn't based on that.
