Givhan Me More

Guys! Someone's going to have to change Robin Givhan's Wikipedia entry (are you really surprised that this exists?) - a little bird tells us that her Almighty Smartness is moving back to DC to cover the Obamas as only a Givhan can.


(Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images.)

Robin! No one does nerdy cool quite like you.

Michelle is so magical.



Not because she wore a white Jason Wu dress to the balls last night, using the bridal connotations of the color to signify her commitment to her husband and to the nation.





Not because she did the signature Michelle - Malia - Sasha hat trick, using paler shades of the red - yellow - blue triumvirate to cohere their outfits.







Not because her choice of fashion designers for the crucial events of Obama's campaign and presidency have been consistently innovative, beautiful, and, most importantly, designed by American immigrants: Thailand-born Thakoon Panichgul, Taiwanese Jason Wu, and Cuban expat Isabel Toledo. See a pattern? A dress pattern, if you will? Michelle seems to be emphasizing that most ancient point of American pride: immigrants are literally the fabric of our nation! Barack's dad was an immigrant! My great-grandfather was an immigrant! William Penn! The pilgrims! Neil Young! (He's Canadian!) Michelle is giving a shout-out to this fact through her outfits, guys. We should all strive to be so meta.

But no: I really think she is magical because was sporting this rock:



And because her husband is really cool.

What More Can I Say?

It's Narciso Rodriguez.



Well played!

I'd just like to take a moment to congratulate Michelle on her consistently dope familial ensembles.





I know our city gets a bad fashion rap, but that's only because it's much more challenging to dress well in DC than in "anything goes" cities like New York or L. A. (Don't even get me started on Baltimore. Shine on, you crazy diamonds!) With such a stringent and relatively conservative template for dressing, we gypsies have to be much more innovative and even subversive with our little sartorial weirdnesses - a feat which Michelle consistently accomplishes. She favors clean, simple silhouettes but really goes for the gold when it comes to pattern and color, never shying away from bold hues or kooky prints.

The way she dresses is really similar to the way her husband has campaigned for (and won!) the presidency. His promises of overhaul and change are always posed against the backdrop of our country's time-tested founding principles. There's even a parallel in the way Michelle dresses her daughters: their outfits are never matchy-matchy, simply coordinated - in agreement, even. Kind of the like the way her husband professes to foster individuality united by a sense of American identity.