Michelle Obama found the most personal way possible to bring her late mother along to one of the biggest moments of her post-White House life.

The former first lady, 62, wore a custom skirt featuring a portrait of her mother, Marian Robinson, during events at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago over the weekend. According to People, the moving tribute came during the lead-up to the Presidential Center's grand opening week. Robinson died in May 2024 at age 86.

The skirt featured Robinson's face prominently across the front, putting her mom at the center of the moment rather than relegating her to a memory off camera. The Center has already named one of its major spaces, the "Opening the White House" exhibit, in Robinson's honor. As BET.com previously reported, Obama announced that dedication on Mother's Day 2024, just weeks before her mother passed.

Obama has been open all year about how much her mother shaped her. Speaking to 100 young women at the Center on Sunday with her brother Craig Robinson and "Abbott Elementary" creator Quinta Brunson, per ABC7 Chicago, Obama said, "I have lived an amazing life, but the truth is who matters to me, who shaped me, is Marian Robinson from the South Side of Chicago."

The skirt moment lands during a packed weekend of events for the Obamas in Chicago. On Sunday, Barack Obama and Michelle unveiled their first official joint portrait at the Center, titled "The Obamas: Springing Forth," painted by Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby. The piece weaves more than 500 archival images from the couple's life, including a childhood photo of a young Michelle Robinson posing against her father Fraser Robinson III's 1970 Buick Electra. "It's us and all of the stories within the story," Michelle said as she viewed the work for the first time.

The Obama Presidential Center officially opens to the public Friday, June 19. The Hope and Change Lobby, where the new portrait now hangs, is free for the public to visit.

Marian Robinson lived with the Obamas at the White House for all eight years of Barack's presidency. She helped raise her granddaughters Malia and Sasha Obama, and was widely affectionately called the "first grandma." She was famously private and once said her job at the White House was "the easiest one of all: I just get to be Grandma." When she died in 2024, Michelle wrote on social media, "My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed."

That rock has now been stitched into Obama's wardrobe.