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Why Barack Obama Loved Michelle Obama’s 2012 Dress So Much

“I don’t know much about fashion, but I know what looks good.”

Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

PublishedJul 10, 2026, 10:29 AM EDT

UpdatedJul 10, 2026, 10:29 AM EDT

Updated Jul 10, 2026, 10:29 AM EDTPublished Jul 10, 2026, 10:29 AM EDT

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Former President Barack Obama, 64, shared his favorite look in his style icon wife’s enviable wardrobe.

On July 8, Barack and Michelle Obama spoke with InStyle about the fashion display inside the newly opened Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago.

While reflecting on the exhibit, which showcases some of the most memorable outfits worn by the 62-year-old former first lady, Barack noted he was “pleased” to spot one of his all-time favorites.

“I don’t know that much about fashion, but I know what looks good,” Barack said.

“One of my favorites turned out to be in there, and that was the dress that you wore at the 2012 Democratic Convention,” he told Michelle.

The red, white, and blue Tracy Reese design was memorable because his wife looked “very cute” in it, Barack said.

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“It showed off her legs a little bit,” he said. Winking to the camera, he added, “I liked it, yeah.”

“I didn’t know that,” Michelle said, laughing. “You like that dress?”

“I told you at the time, you just don’t remember,” Barack assured her, noting to InStyle that his wife has “trouble taking compliments.”

“If I go, ‘Oh girl, you look cute,’ she goes ‘Thanks,’ and she kind of brushes it off,” he said.

The former president commented on another of his beloved wife’s outfits.

​At a June 16 ​stakeholders’ event ahead of the Obama Presidential Center’s opening, Barack was reduced to tears when Michelle appeared on stage beside him in a skirt with her late mother’s portrait printed on it.

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​​After arriving on stage, Michelle warned the audience, “He’s really messed up. I’m giving him some time because this beautiful skirt that my stylist, Meredith Koop, picked out—that is my favorite portrait of my mom.”

She continued, “He didn’t know it existed until a few minutes ago.”

Michelle’s late mother, ​Marian Robinson, died from undisclosed causes at 86 in 2024. The Chicago-born matriarch was a pivotal part of the Obama family.

She moved into the White House with Michelle, Barack, and their two daughters, Malia Ann, 28, and Natasha “Sasha” Marian, 25, after Barack won the election in 2008.

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Cailey PetschHealth and Beauty Intern

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