Fashion Campaign

Michelle Obama's Chicago designer
makes a bid for national recognition

By SHELLY BRANCH
June 21, 2008; Page W1

CHICAGO -- Election-year pundits have analyzed everything about Michelle Obama, from the size of her pearls to her newly hired chief of staff. But few have taken much note of the person responsible for one of her most formidable campaign tools: her wardrobe.


The designer behind much of Mrs. Obama's public attire is an effusive 51-year-old Chicago native, Maria Pinto. A clothing resource to prominent local women including Oprah Winfrey, she was relatively unknown outside Chicago until 16 months ago, when Mrs. Obama began appearing on the campaign trail in Ms. Pinto's streamlined pieces.



Maria Pinto (left) and Mrs. Obama, at an opening party for Sepia Restaurant in Chicago on June 21, 2007.


Pictured: Sen. and Mrs. Obama chatting with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
This encounter later appeared in Vogue magazine's coverage of the gala.


At a Feb. 3 rally at UCLA, Mrs. Obama sported Ms. Pinto's khakis and crisp white top.


Newsweek's Feb. 25 issue put Mrs. Obama -- and Ms. Pinto's silk faille dress -- on the cover.

Should the Obamas win the White House, Ms. Pinto stands to gain international recognition overnight. Designer Oleg Cassini vaulted to prominence soon after his famous client, Jacqueline Kennedy, moved to the White House in 1961. Like the much-copied Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Obama has already shown an ability to influence fashion sales. The $148 black-and-white dress she wore Wednesday morning on "The View" had sold out at stores by Thursday, according to White House/Black Market, the Chico's FAS-owned clothing chain that created it.
http://update2.wsj.com/article/SB121400121...

Michelle Obama: Fashion's New Darling?

Appearance on 'The View' has women clamoring for her dress.

By CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN
June 19, 2008

The fashion world appears to have a new darling. Immediately after Michelle Obama mentioned on "The View" yesterday that she bought her striking sundress at White House/Black Market, women started pouring into the retail chain's stores, clamoring for the $148 dress.
http://update2.wsj.com/article/SB121389326...

Fashion experts: Michelle has winning style

06/22/2008 01:00 AM EDT
By GUY TREBAY
The New York Times
When Obama and his wife triumphantly took the stage in St. Paul , Minn., to claim the Democratic presidential nomination, the candidate, dressed in one of the crisp, neutral suits that have made him a GQ darling, was momentarily upstaged by his wife, and not just because she knuckle-bumped him in front of the world.
What grabbed the eye was the sleeveless purple silk crepe sheath made for Michelle Obama by Maria Pinto, the former Geoffrey Beene assistant who has long been a Michelle Obama favorite. Simple in silhouette and, at about $900 retail, not the kind of garment most working-class voters can reasonably aspire to, the dress was immediately subject to water cooler dissection.

http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/content/lb_m...

The New York Times Fashion and Style section 1. weighed in recently on the clothes that make the woman, favorably comparing the bouffant pageboy and sleek, '60s-inspired shifts to that fabled paragon of all that is good and stylish and thin about America, Jackie Kennedy herself. But Jackie Kennedy with soul, explains Vogue guru André Leon Talley, in the delightfully frank and reductive language of high fashion: "A black Camelot moment is the right moment for the Obamas. And so the faux pearls, the A-line dresses, and the Jackie Kennedy flip are obviously all part of how her image strategy has evolved."
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/0... /

When It Comes to Style, Michelle Obama Holds Her Own

Rumor has it André Leon Talley is just dying to get his hands on Michelle Obama. The New York Post reports he wants to style her...
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But our initial research on Mrs. Obama's fashion tastes reveals she's not the type to be led astray from her own preferences. At the Nordstrom and Vogue cocktail party for New Yorkers for Children last night Thakoon Panichgul said Obama bought a beige silk suit with black embroidery from his store in Chicago. He had also just come from the party Vogue threw for her with Calvin Klein where he scoped out her party duds in person. "She showed up wearing a Tom Binns necklace tonight that she bought herself," he told us. "She's always wearing something unexpected and completely appropriate." And unlike Hillary Clinton, the Bush ladies, and Cindy McCain, Obama isn't on a first-name basis with Oscar de la Renta — yet. "I have never met her personally," he told us. Way to stay off the bandwagon, Michelle. — Alisa Gould-Simon
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/06/whe...

Everyone Wants to Dress Michelle Obama

You probably knew that deep down inside somewhere, but today we have proof those gut feelings are correct. As it turns out, André Leon Talley isn't the only one hoping to wrap his styling talons around Michelle Obama — all the famous designers in New York are, too! Okay, so they don't come right out and say it, but it's so obvious.

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/06/eve...

June 20, 2008, 4:08PM

FASHION | POLITICS
Michelle Obama's dress has buyers lining up
By MAGGIE GALEHOUSE

Should we call her Michelle O?

Just two days after Michelle Obama wore a smart black-and-white sundress on The View, women across the country are scurrying to White House/Black Market to get one for themselves.
Houston women are no exception.
''In the last few days we've sold probably about 12 — which is a lot,'' said Kathy Wajeeh, a sales associate for White House/Black Market in the Galleria. As of Friday morning, the Galleria store had only two of the $148 dresses left.
http://www.chron.com/disp/commnts.mpl/head...