RON EDMONDS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By GUY TREBAY


To the laundry list of global woes the Obama administration is expected to set right, one can probably add the quagmire of American fashion. True, it will have to wait in line behind the hemorrhaging economy and the conflicts in Gaza, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. True, too, it will scarcely be a top-of-mind concern for the president himself.

But the scope of responsibility in politics extends to family members.

That includes the first lady, who throughout the campaign demonstrated not just that she understood the power of clothes to transmit a message, but a readiness to adjust that message as the need arose.

Michelle Obama was not alone in that; Cindy McCain tweaked her image during the campaign, softening her appearance to seem more populist.

Yet Mrs.Obama did something bolder on the campaign trail and, in a sense, less expected. With clarity, she signaled an interest both in looking stylish and also in advancing the cause of American fashion and those who design and make it. She wore clothing from J.Crew and, at times controversially, designs by fashion darlings like Isabel Toledo, Thakoon Panichgul and Narciso Rodriguez. She brought to the campaign a sophisticated approach to mixing expensive with affordable clothing, a determination to adapt designers’work to suit herself - adding jewelry or sweaters or wearing flat shoes with sheaths or even altering dressmaking details - as well as a forthright conviction that it is the woman who should wear the clothes and not the other way around.

Insignificant as this may seem in the larger scheme of things, it is less so when one considers the distressing state in which American fashion has found itself lately, with both chain and department stores shutting their doors, consumer confidence at its lowest level in decades and manufacturers struggling to remain afloat.

Hamish Bowles, the Vogue editor who was curator of“Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years,”a 2001 show of Kennedy’s style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, said of Mrs.Obama,“My perception is that she’s already had an extremely potent effect”on the business.

“Just looking at the designers she’s been drawn to, you can see she’s shown astute sartorial judgment,”Mr.Bowles said. What she has also made clear in her choices, he added, is“that thoughtful and intelligent American designers are perfectly capable of creating clothes that have an impact on the world stage.”

The key word in that statement is“American,”a fact not lost on the retailers burdened in recent years by the weakened purchasing power of the dollar in Europe, where most designer fashion originates, and by the decision American consumers seem to have made to shop in their closets as they wait out the recession.

“There is something timely about celebrating American fashion and American designers,”said Stephanie Solomon, the fashion director of Bloomingdale’s, although that“something”may be largely a function of the $5,000 price tag on a typical imported dress from Lanvin.

“Mrs.Obama is, first of all, very elegant and has wonderful taste,”Ms.Solomon said.“But she also recognizes the value of beautiful dresses and not big prices. She dresses like taste doesn’t necessarily have to do with brand or status, but with what looks well on your body and makes you look glamorous, bottom line.”And that, she added, is“very refreshing and appropriate for this period.”

American fashion, said Steven Kolb, the executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, like the American automobile and banking industries, is“at a crossroads”in dire need of some kind of boost. Whether or not she likes it, the first lady has traditionally been expected to use her position to help promote American goods.

“She’s like 25 years younger than the last few first ladies, and her age opens her up to a more youthful approach,”the designer Anna Sui said.“I loved her choice of Narciso,”she added, referring to the designer Narciso Rodriguez, whose dress Mrs.Obama wore, in a version she adapted from the runway original and customized with a cardigan sweater, on election night.

“She could potentially do what Jackie Kennedy did, bring about a new awareness and a fresh outlook, just by not being so intentionally‘first lady,’by mixing designer things with off the rack,”Ms.Sui said.“She can give a big boost to the American fashion industry - and we need all the help we can get.”


On the campaign trail, Michelle Obama signaled an interest in both looking stylish and advancing the cause of American fashion.