US FIRST lady Michelle Obama is to appear on the March cover of Vogue, the first first lady to be on the famed cover since Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the cover photo, taken by Annie Leibovitz, Obama is leaning on a soft beige sofa at the Hay Adams Hotel, where the first family stayed days before the historic inauguration. She is wearing a magenta dress by designer Jason Wu, who designed her inaugural ball gown. Her hand rests under her chin and her left hand is folded beneath her. She wears a diamond she is not often seen with. Behind her, light streams in between curtains. It is the pose of the odalisque.
Inside the magazine, a photograph shows her in a black dress by designer Narciso Rodriguez. She is standing in front of open French doors.
Outside is Lafayette Park and in the distance you can barely see the White House, the seat of power. Behind her are the props of her profession: a laptop; a cup of coffee or more likely tea; a notepad, a pen, a folded newspaper.
She is tethered to work by an old-fashioned telephone, the spiral cord stretched, the receiver at her right ear. She is not talking. She is either listening or on hold.
Starting with Lou Hoover, Herbert Hoover's wife, first ladies have been photographed for Vogue, but those photos often appeared inside where they are well placed, not quite hidden, but not quite having the oomph of the cover.
In the article, Obama tells Vogueeditor-at-large Andre Leon Talley that she is settling in, trying to find a church to join and help her daughters get adjusted.
"I'm going to try to take them to school every morning – as much as I can," she says, "but there's also a measure of independence. And obviously there will be times I won't be able to drop them off at all. I like to be a presence in my kids' school. I want to know the teacher; I want to know the other parents." – ( Los Angeles Times- Washington Postservice)