Our current First Lady has spent her time under the national microscope alternately hailed as a style icon and derided for enabling excessive attention on her clothing choices. The “populist” dresser stirs up conversation with every public appearance, from debate about the appropriateness of wearing shorts or sleeveless shirts and her recycling of outfits, to her wide Rolodex of preferred designers. Her Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy-esque 2009 inauguration gown put young American designer Jason Wu on the map, and her J.Crew pieces caused sales to skyrocket. In the past four years, she has appeared on multiple best-dressed lists and posed for various magazine covers (Vogue and Better Homes and Gardens among them), but her time outside the fashion realm has also been well-spent. The Princeton and Harvard-educated former lawyer adopted childhood obesity as her pet cause, naming the campaign “Let’s Move!”
Our Fair Ladies: The 14 Most Fashionable First Ladies
In honor of Presidents' Day, we look at some of the most stylish First Ladies, from Jackie O to Michelle Obama
Michelle Robinson Obama
First Lady: 2009-present
Full List
First Ladies
- First Lady Fashions
- Martha Dandrige Custis Washington
- Dolley Payne Todd Madison
- Julia Gardiner Tyler
- Harriet Lane
- Mary Todd Lincoln
- Frances Folsom Cleveland
- Grace Goodhue Coolidge
- Mamie Doud Eisenhower
- Jacqueline “Jackie” Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
- Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer Warren Ford
- Rosalynn Smith Carter
- Nancy Davis Reagan
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Michelle Robinson Obama