Racked Bookshelf: Dressing Michelle Obama In Mrs. O

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

When Barack Obama made his acceptance speech in the middle of Chicago's Grant Park after winning the presidency, his wife Michelle Obama stepped out to join him, wearing a fashion-forward red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress that made those in the world of style sit up and pay attention, if they weren't already.

From the campaign trail to the White House, Michelle's looks have been slowly more and more documented, and although a few books on her fashion have popped up already, the recently-released Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy is the best by far. After flipping through the first few pages, we already have a newfound appreciation for the First Lady's style; whoever knew she wore so much Moschino?

In the spirit of full disclosure, we admit that we received Mrs. O from the publisher, but all opinions expressed here are our own, and we can't stress enough how impressed we are with the tome.

At $25 and with 235 full-color pages, it is almost a coffee-table book. But we must give credit where it's due, and note that it is the result of a year of obsessive and detailed blogging at Mrs-O.org, an independent site started by Mary Tomer, employed in advertising here in Manhattan. Taking the most recent images of the First Lady and matching up the labels to the clothing pieces and commenting on Michelle's style influences, Mary's blog quickly became the mecca for fans of the First Lady, designers seeking an in, and fashion PR people checking to see if their labels have any exposure.

Although we enjoyed the interviews with Obama-favorite designers like Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu, they've been interviewed enough already. Instead we loved the look at Ikram Goldman, known as Michelle' unofficial stylist and owner of the influential Ikram shop in Chicago; it's her that puts Michelle in labels like Junya Watanabe and Rodarte (yes, the First Lady has worn Rodarte). And let's not forget the pure pleasure of spotting Michelle in H&M and J.Crew and having those outfits profiled alongside tailor-made Thakoon dresses.

Since the book just hit the shelves at the end of October, we're going to guess that it'll end up in holiday wrapping paper later this season; it's already in the top 20 fashion photography books right now on Amazon. It'd be on our Christmas list if we hadn't already read it all the way through.
· Mrs. O: The Face Of Fashion Democracy [Amazon]
· Mrs. O [Official Blog]
· All Racked Bookshelf posts [Racked]