Tuesday
Jan202009
Mystery Coat Revealed
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 6:54 PM 
Image used with kind permission from photographer seannaber
Mrs. O's impossibly chic black wool wing coat is the design of an impossibly chic French designer - Sonia Rykiel. The coat, show here in fuschia, is from the designer's Fall 2008 RTW collection. Immense thanks to our own Mrs. L, Michelle Liu, for calling this one in from Hong Kong.
tagged Sonia Rykiel in Inauguration 2008, Outfits
Sonia Rykiel in Inauguration 2008, Outfits
Reader Comments (18)
That is the coolest, chicest bit of information Mrs T.
Mrs O is so not an ordinary American First Lady sartorialist by a long shot - her fashion intellect is thrilling, isn't it ?
Look out Carla Bruni.
That's a flyy coat. Mrs O has the height to pull it off.
loved the dress and love that Jason wu who is Taiwanese American like me. :)
RJT, it is thrilling! I mean, this is a First Lady that's as chic as chic comes. This coat has put me over the top in awe of Mrs. O's style.
Thanks so much for tracking it down and posting it. I LOVED this coat! So sophisticated and perfect for the stauesque Mrs. O!
The coat is great and probably one of the nicer pieces she has been seen in, but it is not good on Mrs. O. She has a terrible sense of fashion in relation to her own body. One should never choose his/her clothes based on the designer, or the hipness, or what everyone else is wearing, but on one's own body type and the appropriateness of the occasion. Take a look at Mrs. O in the picture again. Although she may be a wonderful person, she is incredibly bow-legged and her choice of coat should have been one that comes to her knees so that the bowleggedness is not so obvious. Because she is tall, she can pull off a longer coat without being overwhelmed by it.
I too thought the coat was very fashion foward...looking good Mrs. O
I thought the coat looked great on Our First Lady. Great sense of style, refreshing!
You go girl in your lemongrass outfit !! Rock it girlfriend !!!
Hoping someone could clarify...
An article by Washington Post writer, Robin Givhan, (found on msnbc.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28768077/page/2/ )identifies a different designer for the swing coat:
"For the train trip, she wore a black swing coat -- one that she'd been photographed wearing in Chicago this winter -- with a purple three-quarter kimono sleeve jacket by Zero Maria Cornejo. Who? Cornejo is another New York-based designer with a dedicated following and virtually no profile outside the fashion industry."
that coat is zero maria cornejo. zero is sold at ikram in chicago and there are two shops in nyc.
Just want to clarify ... Mrs. O wore a Zero + Maria Cornejo jacket underneath the black wool Sonia Rykiel coat.
We posted about it here: http://www.mrs-o.org/?p=2808
Photo here: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/17/us/20090117-TRAIN_9.html
If you read Robin Givhan's article carefully, she was referring to the purple jacket as Zero + Maria Cornejo as well. Understand the confusion though. Jackets, coats, it gets tricky.
I looooooooove this coat!! It is absolutely gorgeous and she pulls it off fabulous! It's fierce on her b/c she has the right build for the flare. Just beautiful.
I agree. Mrs. O is bow-legged, and that is emphasized in this coat. She has style, but she needs to cover up the knees. Jackie Kennedy was also bow-legged. She needs to see the clothes at all angles and how they photograph before buying them.
Look at all the haters!!!
BB.....I am not a hater. I am also a fashion designer. I see things from a different perspective. I am also a very tall black woman. I do believe that she has a stylist. I like and admire Michelle Obama. It is so refreshing to see a beautiful black family represented. God bless them.
Michelle looks fab. The coat is fierce!! I just want to know who the coat is by. I can't find it anywhere online. So, who is the coat by? Is it Sonya or Zero?
in my culture, bow legs are considered sexy and even if she had prosthetic legs, she'll still look fabulous in that coat.