Michelle Obama knows that American style needn’t be stars and stripes. Sometimes, it’s about championing the designers redefining what American fashion can look like in the first place.
Last night in Paris, the former First Lady joined the crowd for Céline Dion’s emotional return to the concert stage. She was wearing Diotima, the New York-based label founded by Jamaican-born designer Rachel Scott, who is also the creative director of Proenza Schouler.
Obama, styled by Thomas Kikis, chose a slate-gray maxi dress with a low, curved neckline and a sculpted drop-waist bodice, accented with deep navy velvet. She kept the accessories tonal: a suede Liffner push-lock clutch, and matching pumps, and completed the look with theFuture Artifact Gemstone Signet RingandCarved Wave RingfromAwe Inspired. (A set of jewelry she recently wore at the Martha’s Vineyard Author Series.) Her auburn-brunette braids were swept into a loose, low ponytail, while a baby-pink lip and pastel-blue manicure provided softer hits of color.
It was an appropriately considered choice for an evening spent celebrating an icon. Dion’s September 12 show marked her first full concert in more than six years and the opening night of her Paris residency, following years away from touring after her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis. Obama joined a suitably starry audience that included Oprah Winfrey, Shania Twain, Haider Ackermann, among others.
The Diotima look also continued one of the defining threads of Obama’s post-White House wardrobe: an intentional commitment to Black designers, and particularly those with a distinctive point of view. Scott founded Diotima in New York in 2021, grounding the label in Jamaican craft traditions, including hand crochet made by artisans on the island, while setting those techniques against precise tailoring and sensual, modern silhouettes.
Obama has become something of a Rachel Scott devotee, too. At the Essence Festival of Culture in July, she opted for Scott’s other label, Proenza Schouler, in a black dress punctuated with fringe and gleaming grommets.
It’s also been a particularly fashion-filled few days for the former FLOTUS. At the U.S. Open women’s semifinals on Thursday, Obama leaned more literally into Americana in a red, white, and navy striped Chanel midi dress with gold buttons. A day later, the mood was markedly different as she joined her husband and other former First Ladies for events commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11. There, she chose a brown jersey-and-leather Ferragamo dress: restrained enough for the gravity of the occasion, but still recognizably Obama in its strong silhouette and rich textures. Michelle Obama’s recent fashion run is a neat demonstration of what she has always understood particularly well: dressing for the moment doesn’t mean surrendering your point of view.
