REVIEW: 'The Look' by Michelle Obama

Barack and Michelle Obama have been criticized for trading their activist roots for a post-presidency focused on celebrity networking and voracious wealth accumulation. In an effort to dismiss her critics, Michelle has published a $50 coffee table book about fashion.

That's how most people would describe The Look, which hit stores earlier this month and became an instant bestseller. The New York Times called it a "historical document" of "self-realization," and a fearless "meditation on the power of clothes." It is the fourth memoir or memoir-adjacent book Michelle has released since 2012. She has now matched her husband Barack's output in the category—no small feat given his notorious proclivity for writing and talking about himself. The former president's most recent work—also a coffee table book—was a fearless meditation on cohosting a podcast with Bruce Springsteen.

The Look is mostly a bunch of photos of Michelle wearing fancy clothes. Some of the outfits, she notes, will one day be displayed at the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago. The concrete monstrosity, which will cost almost $1 billion to complete, remains unfinished after years of delays involving strict DEI requirements and opposition from activists trying to prevent local black residents from being displaced by gentrification.

There's also some text in which Michelle explains why every outfit she wore was a calculated choice involving a team of stylists known as the "Trifecta," a group she would sometimes see more often than her husband on a given day. One of her first moves was to "strategically splurge" on expensive designer brands. Unfortunately, she couldn't wear them as often as she would have liked due to the fact that most Americans were still struggling through the Great Recession. The struggle was real. Almost 10 years (and tens of millions of dollars) later, Michelle is free to be her authentic self. Judging by her more recent outfit choices, Michelle's authentic self is either "90s pop star" or "rich mom who insists on dressing like her kids."

To this day, Michelle still chooses outfits that will change the world by inspiring a social justice revolution. The sleeveless suit she wore to the 2024 Democratic National Convention? It was so much more than that. "The look, like the woman, was bold, powerful, forward-thinking, visionary, and empowering for everyone who dares to believe in the possibility of better tomorrows," Farah Jasmine Griffin, a professor at Columbia University, fawns in the book's introduction. Michelle concurs, explaining that the suit "evoked many projections and metaphors, including 'baring arms' for the fight that lay ahead" to overcome the "brutal barriers" of racism and misogyny—the only things that could possibly stop Kamala Harris from making history.

Some things haven't changed. Michelle, who has a long history of denouncing American voters as dumb bigots, recounts her efforts to curate a style she thought "the American people could tolerate." Their "racism and misogyny" forced her to "conform to a white environment of appropriateness." That's why she only started bracing her authentic self during Barack's second term, when her bold fashion choices were no longer "fodder for the re-election." While other first ladies were also criticized for their fashion choices, Michelle writes that the attacks on her "felt different," for obvious reasons. "I saw some people's fixation on my arms as another way to 'otherize' me," she complains. Another challenge she endured was avoiding the "angry Black woman" trope while also speaking her truth and acknowledging that "Black women should be angry."

Few would argue that racism played no role in the criticism Michelle received while being married to the most powerful man on earth. But most of the clothing-related critiques Michelle cites come from fashion critics at liberal news outlets. Things that no one remembers anymore, such as the time she wore shorts at the Grand Canyon and Washington Post fashion editor Robin Givhan, a black woman, dinged her for "looking common." Months later, the Times trashed the "kooky cardigan" she wore on a trip to London. As if to balance things out, the book includes several quotes from random social media users about the time Michelle "took the pant suit to another level" or that time she wore "Those boots!!!"

There is evidently an audience for this, as Michelle remains a goddess-like figure among many (though not all) Democrats and liberals with graduate degrees. "We'll be talking for generations about what she and Barack Obama did, not only for America but for the world," writes Olivier Rousteing, the gay (and adopted) French designer of Somali-Ethiopian descent whose clothing most observers would likely describe as "hideous" or "I don't get it." This is certainly the message Michelle and her boosters would like readers (or coffee table owners) to take away from The Look. That by simply existing and being brilliant and wearing clothes, Michelle is making the world a better place, even if the American people don't always appreciate that brilliance or the thought that went into picking her outfits.

As Michelle recently explained on her book tour, we really don't deserve her. That's why she'll even run for president. "I'm like, don't even look at me about running because you all are lying. You're not ready for a woman. You are not. So don't waste my time," she said. "We got a lot of growing up to do, and there's still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman."

Republicans can only hope she means it. With an appealing and inclusive message like that, she'd be a shoo-in.

The Look
by Michelle Obama
Crown, 304 pp., $50