omg, is she serious? black is not the ONLY race. and since michelle wasn't wearing just white designers there is absolutely NOTHING to complain about. i can't even believe that this is being made into an issue!

Ridiculous. There is too much focus on the First Lady's fashion tastes rather than her qualifications and duties as First Lady. These protesters need to get a grip and get on board on what really matters and quit using ethnicity as a soapbox.

Haha I love how it's 100% No so far.

C'mon... : i r k :

ridiculous. she can wear whatever she likes.

You know what they're right, she should have worn House of Dereon

Wow. Just wow. That's all I can really say.

Oh my God, as if she wasn't under enough pressure with her clothing choices. This is silly, I can understand her wanting to support AMERICAN based designers over European ones in the current economic climate, but telling her she has to wear African American designers is taking it too far. Miss Eele is very wrong to use this historic occasion to push her own agenda.

Michelle now has her pick of America's best designers and it's so wonderful to see a First Lady who takes chances with her wardrobe and promotes the work of lesser known designers. She is choosing talent before race, and rightly so!

sundaygreen!

I believe it's up to her. Her body, her choices.

Really as an African American this is annnnnnnnoying! Seriously the "black" thing is really going to work my last nerver. She is the first lady of the Unites States of American therefore she can pick any designer she wasnts. The fact that she picked American Designers is a bonus!

Get a life, honey.

wow, this must be the DUMBEST thing ive ever read/heard. Where do they get off gettin mad at her? its all about her preference as far as what dress she things looks good, it should never be about the color of who ever designed it. ugh!!

lol @ house of dereon

I have to agree with bastylefilegirl on this...As an African American I am getting very tired of people thinking because of someone's skin color they are only supposed to support people who look like them. At the end of the day, America is a melting pot and as First Lady, Michelle has to represent America the "melting pot".

What? She should wear whatever the hell she wants.

Really? That's all I am saying.

Wow, is this for real? While everyone is admiring that she's a patron of lesser-known, aspiring designers... Madame Eele and the BAA are choosing to bring race into this. President Obama does not represent just the African Americans of the country - he represents every single person living on American soil, regardless of their race. Unless we put this immaturity aside and learn to see beyond skin color, we will never fully heal as a nation. Besides, as with any other job or position, Michelle should choose her designers based on their qualifications and talent rather than their race.

Frankly I think they defeated their own point by calling them "black designers". They are designers. Differentiating them from other designers based on their race deters from the point. It's essentially saying that she should only wear their clothes because the designer is black. Totally ridiculous.

That being said, she would look fabulous in Tracy Reese. She's one of my favorite designers.

Seriously, it is thinking like this that keeps racism alive today.

The woman can wear what she wants.

i agree with everyone above who thinks this is ridiculous! i think she did a great job by wearing American designers as well as lesser known designers. she is supporting the American economy and fashion industry and that is great. but after that, let the woman wear what she wants and what she thinks she looks good in!

If we are all equal (which I believe we are) then the race of a designer shouldn't be an issue. She should wear whatever she wants.

by mixing bowl i meant salad mixing bowl, where all the ingredients may be mixed together to make a salad but they still hold the intergrity of their individual shapes.

I agree this is ridic.

As a side note, did you know they only serve American wine in the White House? Pretty cool.

seriously? that's like this girl i know who was a life-long democrat, but got mad at me for voting for obama because she thought all women should vote for another woman. STUPID.

"i know who and what i am and i don't want to assimilate to the mainstream white culture of this country, and there are many minorties who feel the same. " - sloane220

if you know that you don't want to assimilate, which is your right as an american, why do you expect her to assimilate to your tastes and preferences for black designers?

Thats ridiculous! Positive discrimination is still discrimination. She should wear what she likes!

No - very unecessary. She should do exactly what she is doing now which is supporting designers that are unknown or lesser known and finding designs that she feels confident and beautiful in! She has done so from what I have seen so far and I am very impressed. She is getting it DONE with STYLE.

No. She chose designers she likes that looks good on her (opinions may vary), which is how most people shop for and buy clothes. Why should she focus on black designers just because she's black?

She should be able to wear whatever she wants and we obviously haven't gotten very far as a society if people are focusing on the race of the designers.

that's ridiculous

you have to be freakin kidding me!!! There are more things to be concerned with than this!!!

She JUST became First Lady. I know that it is a conscious effort of hers to wear clothing from designers who immigrated but does anyone really think she chose people for their color? I think not. It's an unfair request that is asking for racial preference, something not very twenty-first century!

With all the "bigger fish" to fry in this country, get off the color issue and focus on whats really important for the country. This is just another wedge issue. The first lady should wear whatever she wants when she wants. Give her a break. I'm so tired of just because your a woman, a certain color or whatever, your entitled. Get over it.

and again i reiterate that being socially aware means not attributing value judgements or stereotypes to someone based on the color of their skin, and it also means acknowledging the realities of the society you're living in. we know that nobody is more or less equal, but we ARE treated diffrently. we live in a country where the last time a black man was lynched was 11 years ago, black people were attacked the day after obama was elected, and a black man in oakland was shot in the back and killed in by a police officer a couple of weeks ago, in essence we live in a racist society. saying that we're a melting ignores that reality, and an easy bullsh*t excuse people turn to as to why everyone should COMPLETELY blow off amnau eele's arguement that it's hard for black designers to get recognition and that it would have been nice for the first black first lady to wear at least ONE african american designers dress on inaguration day. and nobody says it would have to be someone solely because they are black. there are PLENTY of great black designers out there and if she wanted to find one she wanted to wear, then she would've worn one.

Again bringing race into the forefront. Seems like an ironic step backwards to me.

I think that she should wear (and support) whichever designers she chooses, regardless of race.

does she realize that those high skirts and belts make her look like a potato?

i meant we know that nobody is no more equal or less equatl then anyone else, but despite that fact, we are still treated differently.

so i'm jewish. let's say a marry a jewish guy and he becomes president. first jewish president. i have to wear a tommy hilfiger or michael kors dress to the inauguration? what if i want to wear a lovely alexander wang gown?

(yes, i know this is quite the stretch since there are plenty of jewish designers, but the argument is ridiculous no matter how you phrase it)

Sloane, you COULD be making a good point, but the personal attacks don't help.

I highly doubt she went through the pieces submitted to her with a checklist of the races she wanted to represent in her clothing choice. And she shouldn't. She should do like everyone else and choose what she likes and what suits her.

“It’s one thing to look at the world without color but she had seven slots to wear designer clothes. Why wasn’t she wearing the clothes of a black designer? That was our moment,”

First off, she did look at the world without color. She chose from the clothes based on the clothes, with an eye to the new and upcoming designer.

And "our moment"? No, it was HER moment. She is not just the First Lady of black people. She is EVERYBODY'S First Lady, whether you're black, white, or tie dyed.

Wow. Of course there's really not much else to say about the matter, except that I wholeheartedly agree with the other 600 people who voted No. I think it's great that Michelle has chosen to wear outfits by lesser-known and American designers, along with chain stores like J. Crew and Gap. But in my opinion, if the woman felt like wearing Chanel, YSL, Valentino, and the like... go for it! Who cares where the clothes were made or who designed them. The fact that Michelle is black is completely irrelevant. Be happy that so far she's worn a great deal of non-traditional First Lady outfits.

One of the things I liked about the inauguration hoopla was her choice of designers! She has 4yrs (or more) to explore other designers. It has only been two days lol

just as barack didn't get into office just because he's black, michelle shouldn't be obligated to wear clothes from black designers.

and michelle looked sooo beautiful at the inaugural ball. i'm really glad she's our first lady.

Haven't got time to read all these (pron. wonderful) comments, but I just have to say -- if she only wore designs from African American designers, she'd probably get crap for that too. We can't focus too much on race for the Obamas because the President should not be elected for his race, but for his abilities and potential (which I definitely think Obama has). Anyways, diversity is awesome. Did people forget that Jason Wu himself is asian? and I'm assuming Maria Pinto (I hope that's her name -- I'm referring to the designer Michelle wore a lot of on the campaign trail) has a hispanic/latino background.

In conclusion, Michelle is rockin'.

never mind, I did read them now. And like many of you said, Michelle has FOUR YEARS to work with here. at minimum. also, lol at using wikipedia as a source.
The Obamas are already doing a lot for African Americans...I don't think we can accuse them of not being "socially aware" enough (that was grammatically horrible. or at least sounds like it.) Michelle is working with military families, Barack has started a new service organization...they're socially aware on many levels.

She should be able to wear anything she wants

Seriously, let the woman wear whatever/whoever she wants! Fashion isn't about race.

I was gonna say exactly what shayela said--she wears an African-American brand, she risks getting accused of "playing up the blackness" (to quote this random guy in class). She doesn't, and this lady happens.

Seriously, she can wear whatever the hell she wants. Until today I've never associated wearing name brands directly to supporting a particular race; you wear them just 'cause they're fab. o_O And Michelle's ensembles definitely were.

It's this kind of emphasis on race that keeps the issue alive when it shouldn't be anymore.