The former FLOTUS is ready to discuss her personal style and does so at length in her new book, “The Look.”

Michelle Obama reveals why she didn’t talk about fashion as First Lady — even though ‘you all did’

The former FLOTUS is ready to discuss her personal style and does so at length in her new book, "The Look."

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in *TV Guide Magazine*, E! News/E! Online, *The Hollywood Reporter*, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, *The Daily Northwestern*, and more.

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November 5, 2025 8:12 p.m. ET

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Michelle Obama on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show'. Credit:

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty

Michelle Obama is finally ready to talk about fashion after avoiding the topic during her time as First Lady and beyond.

The best-selling author and former corporate lawyer opened up about why it's taken her until now to discuss her personal style during an exclusive People Inc. event in conversation with her friend La La Anthony about her new book *The Look* (out now).

"I don't know if you all noticed, but over the eight years I was in the White House, I did not talk at all about fashion," Mrs. Obama said Wednesday at People Inc. headquarters in New York. She added, "You all did."

The former FLOTUS revealed that she was "afraid that it would become a distraction" if she spoke about topics like clothes and beauty while her husband, Barack Obama, served as President of the United States from 2009 to 2017.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in 2009.

Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty

"I wanted the country to get to know me from a substantive level," she explained. "I wanted to be able to tell my full story before I talked about the shoes and the gowns, and I wanted my initiatives to speak for me and who I was. But I was very aware, and aware of the role that fashion has played in my life, in my role as First Lady, and beyond, so I always knew I was going to talk about it when the time was right. And I feel like after two books, a podcast, and being away from that defined role for a while, I think that the world knows me from a substantive perspective."

Mrs. Obama feels confident that she has now "made that point," and it's "time to talk about fashion and the role that it played," which she covers at length in *The Look*.

"This book, in addition to being more than just about fashion and style, it is about the journey, the behind-the-scenes experience of what it was like getting dressed to represent the nation and the world every day," Mrs. Obama added. "It's also an homage to the designers who worked tirelessly on my behalf without any fanfare, and to my team, a team of people who I couldn't show up every day and do the work I did without them, and they're like family to me."

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That team includes stylist Meredith Koop; makeup artist Carl Ray; hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway; and many of the designers who dressed Mrs. Obama for notable events. *The Look* includes stories from each of them as they helped with her style evolution, and the former First Lady praised them for how young they all were at the beginning of their journey together.

"I wanted people to know when they came into the White House, most of them were babies themselves, in their early 20s, just starting out," Mrs. Obama said. "And they performed without any kind of recognition because we weren't talking about fashion. So they had to do that work not looking to be recognized, and that was really important. If I wasn't talking about it, they couldn't talk about it, but I want them to get their shine."

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Giving them that shine, Mrs. Obama shouted out her style team for how "strategic and smart and clever they were."

"Because we were the administration that talked about and provided opportunities for young people," she said. "We let young people shine and cook as the young folks. So I thought this was the perfect time to begin this conversation."

*—With reporting from Emlyn Travis.*

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