Recently in Fashion Category

Michelle Obama and her mom, Marian Robinson, are Essence cover girls for the May 2009 issue.  Mrs. Obama's floral print dress is from Talbots. If you likey, you can get it (on sale!) here.

Sarah Brown, left, wearing a fabulous (and presumably rented) Graeme Black jacket with her husband and the Obamas.  Photo credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

What does British First Lady Sarah Brown have in common with Carrie Bradshaw's assistant Louise?  She rents her fashion, girlfriend!

When Mrs. Brown wore a $13,000 blouse to an event during the G-20 summit, tongues wagged about how she could afford such a piece.  Well, she couldn't.  Mrs. Brown has no income and is not allowed to accept gifts or loans of clothing as First Lady, so she simply rented a few fabulous outfits. 

So now the secret is out of the closet - just not hers.  And we're not mad at her either.  She's just doing what any fashionista in a bind (and a bad economy) would do.

Oscar de la Renta said all this bitchy stuff about Michelle Obama's style, like, "You don't...go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater."  Not nice, Oscar the Grouch!  

Some famous designers are ticked that Mrs. Obama chooses girl-next-door brands like J.Crew and lesser known designers like Jason Wu, rather than allowing the big wig fashion designers to dress her.

Martha Washington's "after" portrait. Forensic anthropologists used a1796 portrait of Martha to generate an image of what she would have looked like in her 20s. Inspired by that image, artist Michael Deas painted this portrait of her.

"This just in: Martha Washington was hot.  Or at least hotter than we thought," says Brigid Schulte, staffwriter at The Washington Post.

For over 200 years, America's first first lady Martha Washington has been portrayed in history books as a dumpy, frumpy and plump old bore. Turns out, though, that Martha was actually more bombshell than bore, more First Fashionista than First Frump, and more Carrie Bradshaw than Edith Bunker.  Simply put, she was hot to trot.

Here's a thing or two that most folks don't know about Martha:

• When it came to dating, George wasn't Martha's only game.  She had another suiter, who wrote of her beauty and his hope to "arouse a flame in her breast."  (Steamy!)  
• Martha was a successful businesswoman.  She managed the five plantations that she inherited from her first husband and negotiated to get the highest prices for her tobacco.
• Martha read chick lit (known as gothic romance novels in her day).
• Martha wore shoes that were considered highly fashionable in her day.  Her purple sequined heels (below) would bring Jimmy Choo to his knees.

For more on Martha and her hotness, check out Shulte's Post article here and her online discussion with readers over here.

How does Miss America rate Obama's suits, Daschle's glasses and Blago's hair?  Politico's Patrick Gavin checked in with her (Katie Stamm) at The Washington Press Foundation's Annual Dinner to find out.

Barack Obama looks as good in a tie as Jennifer Anniston.  Almost.

Tall and slender with an athletic build, Obama has the frame that fashion designers love to dress. So naturally, the top designers have thought about - fantasized about - dressing the debonaire democrat for his inauguration.

Women's Wear Daily asked said designers to share these fantasies with the rest of us.  And so they did.

See the designers' sketches of inaugural attire for Barack Obama here.

Vote for your favorite sketch here.

Read the full story in WWD here.

BTW, Obama had already selected his inaugural threads prior to the publication of these sketches.   He will wear a Hart Schaffner single button, notch lapel tuxedo. 

Michelle Obama is fast becoming one of the fashion icons of our day.  When Michelle wore a  Maria Pinto purple sheath dress  with a black Azzedine Alaia belt to her husband's "I am the likely nominee" speech, everybody and their momma wanted one the next day.  When she sported a black and white print dress by Donna Riccio on The View, the dress immediately sold out and Riccio had to make 3,000 more to meet demand.  And now, Vanity Fair has named Michelle to its International Best Dressed List. 

Will Michelle officially become America's First Fashionista?  We'll find out on Novermber 4th.

Photo: Michelle Obama in Donna Riccio with co-hosts of The View.

John McCain is a shoe slut, and he'll pay big money to get some.  The Senator has been spotted big pimpin' Ferragamo Pregiato Moccasins, which retail at Neiman Marcus for $520.

Some other media outlets have poked fun at McCain for his high fashion expenditure, but we won't go there.  We understand that like food, water, air and sex (uh... not the premarital kind, of course), fabulous shoes are a basic human need.  As Carrie Bradshaw, esteemed lobbyist for the right to Choos, once said, "Sometimes you need really special shoes!"

So to John McCain, we say, "Go 'head, sole brother!"

Shoe ho in Ferragamo.  Photo credit: The Huffington Post.

When it comes to telling you about cool stuff we got to do, well, let's just say that sometimes we're fashionably late.  A couple weeks ago, polichick and handbag designer Margo Schlossberg of Kura Design invited us to preview her new line at a fashion show in Washington, D.C.  She promised a good show, and said that her bags would stop traffick.

Indeed they did. 

Margo was participating in the Stop Traffick with Fashion show to help raise money for Charity Network, Inc., a humanitarian initiative that works to stop child trafficking.  Child trafficking forces children into sexual, domestic, sweatshop and field labor. Margo wants to help stop this horrible crime.

You should check out Margo's Kura Design handbags over here.  Why? Because handbags that fight dirt bags are alway in.

Here's Meghan McCain, dressed to impress at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner back in April.  Will she wear a similar style to the Inaugural Balls in January or will the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner be the closest she ever comes to Inaugural Ball like festivities?  Stay tuned to find out on November 4th.