The people who decide this sort of thing have decided: It's up to Michelle Obama to save the American fashion industry from slumping sales and, presumably, those high-waisted pants they've been trying to foist upon us.

But can one woman rise to that challenge? Absolutely, says designer Thakoon Panichgul, because Michelle Obama is a style maverick who's not afraid to go rogue in the closet…

"She'll wear a sheath with flats and not pumps. That's not, quote unquote, appropriate, and people perceive that first ladies should be appropriate. She has the chutzpah to put it out there regardless of what anybody says."

A sheath with flats? Punk as f*ck! Of course, I'm sitting here in a hoop skirt and Uggs, so what do I know.

"Actually, her taste is very conservative, kind of jock-preppy, a version of a safe American WASP way of dressing," said Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "But what is truly compelling about her is her body. She has this athletic, commanding and confident presence that is very American." She may look great in a shift dress, he said, "but her body is so strong that I end up forgetting what she's wearing much of the time."

That's funny, I end up forgetting what Michelle Obama is wearing much of the time because she's a smart, witty, articulate woman with a law degree who served as vice president of a major university hospital while raising two kids and then hit the trail to work on the most high-profile political campaign in recent memory.

But yeah, it's probably just her glutes.