How Michelle dazzled Africa in cheap outfits

Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, is fast cutting a niche for herself as a fashion icon who is comfortable mixing high-priced items from well-known designers with more fairly-priced, mass appeal design choices.

Currently on a tour of southern Africa, Michelle arrived in Pretoria earlier this week wearing a printed jacket by Nigerian-born

British designer Duro Olowu. Items from street labels such as J. Crew, ASOS and Gap have also featured prominently in her

wardrobe lately.

In stark contrast, many African First Ladies — from countries with much lower GDPs than the US — are known for their

extravagant fashion taste and monstrous ability to spend money on their looks.

Grace Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Chantal Biya (Cameroon) and the late Stella Obasanjo (Nigeria) are just three examples of First

Ladies known for their extravagance and flamboyance.

During her lifetime, Mrs Obasanjo was described as “a colourful woman, known for her expensive clothes and jewellery.” She died shortly after undergoing a tummy-tuck procedure in a clinic in Spain in 2009.

Extremely expensive

Boston Globe style writer Christopher Muther once described Grace Mugabe as “a saint of style” and a “fashion icon”.

“She is 38, her husband 76, and their spending is legendary,” Muther wrote then. When Zimbabwe’s inflation was at a record

breaking high, Grace Mugabe was not in ther least deterred from sporting extremely expensive designer accessories and clothes.

It is not quite known where Kenya’s First Lady Lucy Kibaki’s favourite stylists and shopping destinations are; however, she has

been spotted shopping at the fairly-priced Our Price beauty shop at the junction of Muindi Mbingu and Tubman roads behind

Nairobi’s Jamia Mosque for some of her beauty products.

Some African First Ladies, such as Graca Machel (Mozambique and South Africa), Janet Museveni ofUganda, the late Sally

Abacha of Nigeria, and Simone Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire have, however, gone the other extreme and identified themselves as

intellectuals rather than fashion mannequins.

In contrast, Michelle walks the middle ground, using her style choices to not only reflect her status as a First Lady, but also

make political statements by reflecting the tough economic times that the country her husband leads is going through.

It is also designed to be comfortable enough to take her from hosting a luncheon for children at the White House, where she

regularly does her bit for the American anti-obesity campaign by encouraging children to eat their vegetables and exercise, to

dining with royalty and dignitaries in the various countries she visits.

And she looks almost effortlessly elegant, wherever and whatever she is doing. For example, during a visit to a community

centre in South Africa this week, she wore a functional top worth Sh5,000, from ASOS. She recently hosted a lunch for

former American First Lady Nancy Reagan, where her total ensemble totalled the equivalent of Sh3,158 — cheap, even by

Kenyan standards.

But on Tuesday morning when Michelle stopped by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, she went skirt suit-to

skirt suit with his wife Graca Machel, wearing a raspberry hued skirt and jacket, a break from her casual and relaxed look

during the previous days.