Michelle Obama is still asserting that she was treated differently in her official capacity as first lady of the United States, claiming that she survived under a “particularly white hot glare” as she served as the first black FLOTUS.

Obama has been promoting her newest book, The Look, which is set to release Tuesday, November 4. It is described as a “stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time.”

The description reads in part:

Obama’s intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life—from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between.

In The Look, Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how—when wielded with grace and care—they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you’re wearing something that’s intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.

In the book, Obama – who has appeared on the cover of Vogue three times – complained that she was under more scrutiny than others due to her status as a black woman.

“We were all too aware that as a first black couple, we couldn’t afford any missteps. And that as a black woman, I was under a particularly white hot glare,” she wrote, asserting that she and her husband “didn’t get the grace that I think some other families have gotten.”

She also explained that appearance through style and fashion is “an important way that we send a message” and speaks to an individual’s culture.

“We live in a culture, sadly, where, you know, if somebody wants to go after a woman, the first thing they do is go after our looks, our size, our physical being, as a way to, you know, make us feel small, to keep us in place,” she said, according to the New York Post.

Apparently lost on the former first lady is the fact that first lady Melania Trump – a former model entrenched in the fashion world – has been snubbed by the establishment media and leftist magazines, despite her status as a high fashion figure throughout her life.

This is hardly the first time Michelle Obama has pointed to race after departing the White House. In 2019, for example, Obama was quick to criticize the United States abroad, stating that the country is “still not where we need to be” on the issue of racism.

“We’re still not where we need to be in the United States of America when it comes to race,” she said at the Obama Foundation’s leadership conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

WATCH: Michelle Obama speaks about racism at an Obama Foundation event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: “We’re still not where we need to be in the United States of America when it comes to race.” pic.twitter.com/7Bj8dTfniv

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 13, 2019

“People thought electing Barack Obama would end racism. That’s 400 years of stuff that was going to be eliminated because of eight years of this kid from Hawaii? Are you kidding me?” she asked.

Right before the historic 2024 presidential election, Michelle Obama continued in her narrative, heavily implying that people who did not support former Vice President Kamala Harris for president were sexist and racist.

“Kamala Harris is an extraordinary human being, she is an extraordinary candidate, and she will be an extraordinary president of the United States of America. Mark my words. So, Michigan, with all that being said, I gotta ask myself, well why on earth is this race even close?” Obama asked at the time.

🚨Michele Obama suggests Americans who don’t vote to elect Kamala Harris are sexist and racist:

“I lay awake at night wondering what in the world is going on. The qustion for me isn’t whether Kamala is ready for this moment…the real question is, as a country, are we ready for… pic.twitter.com/4Muun9vhZ2

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) October 26, 2024

Michelle Obama talks fashion as first lady, the diversity that ‘makes America great’

Obama spoke with “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts about her new book, “The Look.”

Nearly a decade after leaving the White House, Michelle Obama is ready to talk about her fashion choices and the attention placed on her appearance during her eight years as first lady.

The former first lady sat down with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts to discuss her new book, “The Look,” an in-depth and personal look at her White House style.

In the book, Obama explains for the first time the level of intention she placed on her fashion choices as first lady, and the messages she wanted to send with those choices.

“I really thought about what I wanted to say with my fashion. I wanted to, you know, talk about inclusion, diversity, opening up opportunities, and fashion was one of those tools that allowed me to do that,” she said. “The designers that I chose — there were young designers; there were women designers; there were also immigrant American designers.”

The former first lady said that when she chose the styles she wore, she wanted to showcase the best designers and the diversity that “makes America great.”

“I was able to show the world the outstanding qualities of people who come from different places, with different backgrounds, with different skin colors, from different genders and sexual orientations,” Obama said.

“Excellence is not measured that way, and it is true in fashion and in law and in journalism and in research. Let us not forget that,” she continued. “And that was the point — to find the best designers, to give them a stage to show the world how great they were. That’s what makes America great.”

For her first Inaugural Ball in 2009, the former first lady chose a gown by Jason Wu, a Taiwan-born, New York-based designer who, at the time, was in his early 20s and just starting his career.

“I thought about who was gonna do my inaugural gown, and someone like Jason Wu,” she said, adding, “He had just gotten started [and] is a fabulous designer with a beautiful story, an immigrant American.”

The former first lady said Wu’s story shows the importance of immigrant Americans to not only fashion but society as a whole.

Reflecting on current times, she said, “When folks are facing tough economic times, when jobs are scarce, when opportunities seem to be less, [when] it’s harder to get ahead in this economy, it’s easy to have somebody make you think it’s somebody else’s fault, you know? So let’s blame the other.”

 

“I think that’s one of the things we struggle with, but when we look around at truly who has built this country, who keeps it moving, you know, it’s all of us, and all of us is Black, brown, Puerto Rican, Mexican American, Italian, Irish, Haitian,” she said. “That’s the story of America, right? And it is the most true in fashion.”

When Obama’s husband Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term as president in 2013, the then-first lady chose Wu again to design her second inaugural gown.

While she used fashion to send a message during her time in the White House, Michelle Obama said she hesitated to talk about fashion as first lady for fear her choices would “become a distraction.”

“During my eight years in the White House, although there was a lot of attention given to my fashion, my physical appearance, all of that, I made it a point to shy away from that conversation, because I was worried that it would become a distraction,” Obama told Roberts of why she chose now, nearly one decade later, to open up about her fashion in “The Look.”

With each very intentional fashion choice she made, the former first lady said she thought of the people whom she wanted to “make proud.”

“In the back of my mind were all the mothers and the grandmothers who I wanted to make proud,” she said. “I didn’t want to show up just any kinda way. I wanted to show up with thought, and consideration, and energy, and light.”

After leaving the White House in 2017, Michelle Obama told Roberts she felt more freedom in her fashion choices.

During her tour for her post-White House bestselling memoir “Becoming,” the former first lady’s fashion continued to make headlines as she defined her personal style further. A pair of thigh-high Balenciaga boots she wore at a tour stop at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn quickly went viral.

“So that was another aspect of me,” she said. “Would I have worn gold thigh-high boots as first lady? No. No. I would not have done that.”

When the former first lady returned to the White House in September 2022 for her portrait unveiling, she said she intentionally wore braids, another sign of the freedom she now feels.

“That was intentional. I could’ve easily gotten braids out and done my hair,” Obama told Roberts. “But it was, like, having me, the former first lady, a Black woman, show up in the world in her natural hair, even if I didn’t do it for those eight years, I understood the importance of doing it at some point and signaling a message to young girls and to professionals out there. ”

“The Look,” on which Michelle Obama collaborated with her stylist, Meredith Koop, is a project that took two years to complete.

The book, available Nov. 4, features more than 200 photographs, including some never-before-seen images, according to its publisher, The Crown Publishing Group, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

When she firstannounced the book in June, the former first lady said she hoped to “reclaim” the narrative around her appearance by sharing her story in her own words.

In addition to “Becoming” and “The Look,” Michelle Obama is also the author of “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.”

 

 

Michelle Obama Reveals the 1 Thing She’s Doing to Turn Back Time at 61: ‘Fortunately, Black Don’t Crack’ (Exclusive)

The former first lady opens up about aging and what she’s doing to look and feel her best in her ‘wonderful’ sixties

NEED TO KNOW

• Michelle Obama has a refreshing outlook on aging
• The former first lady opens up to PEOPLE about what she does to look and feel her best at 61
• “I’m as vibrant as I’ve ever been,” she says of this season of her life

Michelle Obama is loving her sixties. So much so, she’s become a bit of a spokesperson for the era she’s in.

“I tell people, ‘The sixties? Oh, a wonderful time. It’s a wonderful time,'” she shares in an exclusive cover interview with PEOPLE ahead of the Nov. 4 release of her new style book The Look. “I feel like this is the first time in my life that when I say and do something, here in this interview, writing this book, rolling it out in this way, these are my choices.”

And there’s one clear choice she’s made when it comes to dealing with the aging process. “I’m coloring that gray hair,” she says matter-of-factly. “I’m not wincing [when I see one] but I’m not leaving it there long.”

It’s a beauty practice that was passed down. “My mother was the same way,” she says of her late mother Marian Robinson. “My mother dyed her hair until the day she died. She had a beautiful sandy color blonde that mixed in well with the gray. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be doing that too.'”

 

That said, she’s happy to let other things progress naturally. “That’s just the thing, I really don’t do much else. I think, fortunately, Black don’t crack, so I’m doing all right. But yeah, I will be dying my hair until there is no dye in the land.”

When it comes to her health, the avid tennis player doesn’t take any chances. “My health has always been paramount. What I eat, working out, I go to regular doctor’s visits. I do not miss a mammogram. I do all the things that I’m supposed to do, because I value my health and that also allows me to enjoy this time, because I’m not achy, I’m not sore, I’m not sick. I’m as vibrant as I’ve ever been.”

She’s also freer than ever.

“This is the first time in my life when every decision I make is for me,” she explains. “As mothers, as women, as wives, a lot of times we spend our lives making decisions, [like] ‘Well, I’m doing this because of my kids, and I changed my job to accommodate my this,’ or ‘I’m supporting my husband in that.’ And, ‘No, I’m not going to take this job,’ or, ‘I’m not going to try this thing.'”

She continues, “Now my kids [Sasha, 24 and Malia, 27] are grown, they are launched. They are healthy and happy. My husband [Barack Obama, 64] is doing just fine. We are the former president and first lady. It’ll be 10 years, almost, that we have not been in that job. Okay? We are formers.” All of that, she says, “is freeing.”

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