On Tuesday (Sept. 30), Michelle Obama opened up her home—you know, the White House—for a luncheon celebrating excellence in American design. The event served as a venue for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards—now in its 14th year—which provides a platform to honor our country’s most creative and prescient design minds with categories running the gamut from Fashion Design to Landscape Architecture. Winners are judged on excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life.
Giving a little extra shine to award recipient Narcisco Rodriguez, Michelle made a point to wear a sleeveless, aubergine sheath dress created by the designer. Speaking about the honoree, FLOTUS revealed that Rodriguez’s parents tried to convince him to follow a career in law or medicine but followed it up perfectly, adding, “I’m sure that I speak for all women when I say that I’m grateful that Narciso chose another path.”
The First Lady’s involvement comes from a deep-seated desire to inspire and educate our nation’s young people with big design dreams. On top of this week’s luncheon, Michelle will host the first Fashion Education Workshop at the White House on October 8—a five-hour event that will bring together a wide breadth of attendees including high school and college students, fashion editors, magazine editors and “fashion technologists.” The workshop lands smack dab in the middle of National Design Week (October 4-12), which will culminate with the National Design Awards Gala benefit and awards ceremony held at Pier Sixty in New York City.
Not only are we excited about this because it means the fashion and design fields are becoming even more accessible to the mainstream public at large, but most of all, we’re stoked to see these career paths being highlighted as viable professions for young people. :’) Thank you, FLOTUS.
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