Michelle Obama Wears Barbara Tfank for State of the Union

While President Barack Obama was taking care of business at last night’s State of the Union Address, First Lady Michelle Obama sat in the audience looking poised and radiant in a cap-sleeve twill dress from Barbara Tfank’s Resort 2012 collection, embellished by a broach from Alexis Bittar.

Tfank is a Los Angeles-based costume designer-turned-fashion designer who is known for incorporating jewel tones, bright colors and ladylike prints in her 1950s silhouette dresses. This is the fourth time Lady O’s worn a Barbara Tfank frock for a White House affair. Former looks include a floral sheath the first lady paired with pink pumps for a U.S. Air Force awards ceremony (September 20, 2010) and the mint-green dress she layered with a pink jacket when she and the president went to meet the Duchess Catherine of Cambridge (May 24, 2011). 

“I love the way Mrs. Obama wears my designs,” Tfank once told Forbes. “I know she loves flowers and colors. We both share that passion. She also loves full-skirted dresses, which look magnificent on her. Her style is very personal which I love…I love that she represents the reality of how women dress rather than an overly studied look.”

The designer will show a Spring 2012 collection inspired by Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic screen styles on February 13 during New York Fashion Week.

What do you think of the dress FLOTUS wore last night?


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(Photos from left: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg/ Getty Images,REUTERS/Jason Reed)