Michelle wore a $1250 dress by designer Thakoon Panichgul, a “reverse kimono” style printed with a pattern derived from red cabbage leaves, and accented with Erickson Beamon brooches. The look (and her support of the up-and-coming designer) boosted her reputation for having a forward-thinking fashion sense. Headlines read, “Michelle Obama: First Lady of Fashion” furthering her reputation as a bourgeoning style icon. 

The branding wasn't the most important element of the work, and using Chanel wasn't with intention. I usually wear a glossy, orange-y color, or matte pink, on-stage, and I was getting tired of giving up all my make-up to artpieces. I already glues down my hair-straightener, which I was very fond of. Karl Lagerfeld has rituals, too, doesn't he—the powered wigs, like Victorian courts. Ephemeral powder seems to ooze off of him.

Completed in the weeks prior to the presidential election, the painting was hung in the New Museum as part of Peyton’s retrospective “Elizabeth Peyton: Live Forever.” A press release issued on November 5th, the day following President Barack Obama’s win, announced the addition of Peyton’s portrait to the exhibition. Given the New Museum’s status as a “non-partisan” institution, curator Laura Hoptman decided that the painting would only be hung if Obama won the election.

Commissioned by W magazine, British artist Elizabeth Peyton’s portrait depicts Michelle and Sasha Obama as they watch Barack Obama accept the Presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention on 28 August 2008 in Denver, Colorado.

Michelle and Sasha Obama join Napoleon Bonaparte, Frida Kahlo, Kurt Cobain, and Marc Jacobs, among others, as historical and pop cultural celebrities whose lives have captured the imagination of Peyton, who had her first solo show in New York at Althea Viafora Gallery, in SoHo, in 1987.