MUGI – My Unique Gift Idea

This week the First Family released their official family portrait on their Flickr page. First Lady Michelle Obama appeared in the family’s latest portrait in a black dress with sleeves; contrasting the sleeveless dress which she wore in a controversial photo released last February.

The latest photos were taken by Vanity Fair photographer, Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz is noted for her work capturing the images of rock stars and Hollywood elites as well as for her multimillion-dollar fortune’s recent collapse. The portrait was snapped in the Green Room of the White House on September 1st.

The list of top fashion designers who have custom made the First Lady’s apparel is impressive: Isabel Toledo did her Inaugural dress and Jason Wu designed the dress which she wore to the Inaugural Ball. Cuban-born Toledo, who has been designing for 25 years and worked for a time at Anne Klein, is known in fashion circles as a “designer’s designer.” Toledo works out of her Manhattan studio on Broadway and 28th Street, along with her husband, fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. The Obamas discovered Toledo’s work through retailer Ikram Goldman, who owns a Chicago specialty store, which the First Lady frequents.

The fashionable Mrs. Obama has been in the news quite a bit this week. On Wednesday she hosted a “healthy kids fair” for about 100 Washington D.C. school children on the White House’s Southern Lawn. It was part of her ongoing campaign to educate children about the importance of proper diet and exercise; there the first lady impressed the crowd by swiveling a Hula-Hoop 142 times, successfully before letting it hit the ground.

Also a brand new USA Today Gallup poll shows that Michelle is more popular among the American people than her husband Barack or VP Joe Biden.

The president’s approval numbers have been sliding slightly over the last month. Obama is favored by 55% of respondents, which is down from the 68%, polled right after the election.