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Michelle Obama's best fashion moments: How to dress like a former First Lady

When you’re the First Lady of the United States, White House protocol requires that you dress diplomatically for public engagements.

This may entail showcasing a homegrown label while on tour (as demonstrated by the Duchess of Sussex) or choosing a colour scheme to fly the flag for international guests.

So how did Michelle Obama celebrate freeing herself from sartorial tyranny after leaving office? She wore a £3,082 pair of Balenciaga disco boots of course.

Overnight, the former First Lady went viral courtesy of her final fashion-forward book tour outfit with social media users across the globe praising her glitzy footwear.

“Now, I’m free to do whatever,” Obama defiantly told Sarah Jessica Parker at the Barclay Centre in New York.

But it’s not the first time the 54-year-old has demonstrated her stylish know-how, as the mother-of-two has long reigned as one of our go-to style muses.

Over the course of her nine-year White House residency, Obama and longterm stylist Meredith Koop helped to thrust under-the-radar talent into the spotlight. Most famously, the former First Lady chose Jason Wu for her inaugural gown – a simple move which catapulted him to global acclaim.

But for Obama, clothes are not merely plucked from her wardrobe, as she told Parker during their meeting: “There are a lot of people out here trying to make it [in the fashion industry]; young people, women, black folks and immigrants.”

“I didn’t want to wear the clothes of someone who didn’t have a good spirit and you could hear these things, you could hear how they treated my staff or how they treated their workers so everyone I wore as far as I knew had a good spirit as well.”

From dressing for the presidential campaign back in 2009 to her most covetable tourdrobe moments, these are Michelle Obama’s best looks to date.