Obama debuts on Vanity Fair Best-Dressed List

Vanity Fair’s Amy Fine Collins told Meredith Vieira the first ladies of the U.S. and France share some common characteristics: “They are both young, in their 40s; tall, good-looking, and the world is watching,” she said. But while Bruni-Sarkozy was a supermodel before rising to political prominence, it’s Michelle Obama who would win any popularity contest.

In the best-dressed voting, which takes in ballots from some 2,000 fashion movers and shakers, Michelle “got more votes than any other person this year or any year — she’s that popular,” Collins told Vieira.

“She has brought back the dress, she has turned the planet into her runway without even meaning to,” Collins said. “She loves showing her arms and her legs, which is a bit refreshing.”

Michelle Obama often finds her wardrobe as much talked about as her husband’s domestic and foreign policies in mixing off-the-rack J. Crew fashion with prestigious designer labels. And that, Collins says, is her secret: “She goes high, she goes low. She’s very interested in American designers, but she’s not provincial. She has a good sense of color and pattern. It’s a strong, consistent and distinctive look.”

But while Michelle may be a no-brainer, her husband’s being named to a best-dressed list might be considered an upset of sorts. Just last month, Obama was chided for wearing well-worn, high-waisted jeans in throwing out the first pitch at the major league baseball All-Star Game, to which he nonchalantly replied, “I’m a bit frumpy.”

But it was that devil-may-care fashion attitude that placed him on the list, says Collins.

“He has such a natural ease and elegance,” Collins told Vieira. “He’s completely comfortable in his own skin. He is very much in the tradition of American classic dressers, but relaxed. You just watch the way he rolls up his sleeves and you can see how much he cares about the way he looks, but not too much.”

Here is the Full List:

INTERNATIONAL BEST-DRESSED LIST: MEN
TIKI BARBER, NBC correspondent, founder of Tiki Ventures
ARPAD BUSSON, financier
DANIEL CRAIG, actor
MATTEO MARZOTTO, entrepreneur, chairman to ENIT (the Italian state tourist board)
BARACK OBAMA, president of the United States
OGDEN PHIPPS II, private-equity investor
BRAD PITT, actor
ROO ROGERS, environmental entrepreneur, co-founder of OZOlab
ALEJANDRO SANTO DOMINGO, investor
CY TWOMBLY, artist

INTERNATIONAL BEST-DRESSED LIST: WOMEN
CHIARA CLEMENTE, filmmaker
PENÉLOPE CRUZ, actress
KATHY FRESTON, writer
AGNES GUND, president emerita of MoMA
ANNE HATHAWAY, actress
ALICIA KEYS, singer, songwriter, actress
H.R.H. PRINCESS LETIZIA OF ASTURIAS
KELLY RIPA, co-host of Live! with Regis and Kelly
H.H. SHEIKHA MOZAH OF QATAR, wife of H.H. the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, UNESCO special envoy for basic and higher education
LIZZIE TISCH, private banker

via: MSNBC