20100311 Michelle Obama heaps praise on Taiwan’s Jason Wu

Michelle Obama heaps praise on Taiwan’s Jason Wu

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER, WASHINGTON
Thursday, Mar 11, 2010, Page 1
　

US first lady Michelle Obama donates her 2009 Inaugural Ball gown to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington on Tuesday. Designer Jason Wu is on Obama’s left.
PHOTO: REUTERS

US first lady Michelle Obama has heaped praise on Taiwanese-born designer Jason Wu (吳季剛), who created her inaugural gown.

Obama was speaking at a special ceremony on Tuesday at which the gown was unveiled as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History display of US first ladies’ gowns.

“When we look at the gown that Jackie Kennedy wore 50 years ago, or the one that Mary Todd Lincoln wore more than a 100 years before that, it really takes us beyond the history books and the photographs, and it helps us understand that history is really made by real live people,” Obama said.

She said that each gown brought museum visitors back to the inauguration it was worn at and made them wonder about the intimate details of that particular evening.

“Like, how did she feel in the dress? Did her feet hurt in those shoes? How many times did her husband step on that train? But, more importantly, these gowns and this exhibit uniquely define a moment in our American history,” she said.

Obama has worn a number of Wu’s dresses in the past year.

However, she said that she had not seen her inaugural gown since the day she took it off.

“I’ll never forget the moment that I slipped on this beautiful gown. I remember just how luscious I felt,” she said.

“When Jason was just five years old, growing up in Taiwan, his parents would take him to the bridal shops so that he could sketch the gowns in the windows. He started making clothes for dolls when he was 16 and after studying under some of the best designers in the world, he opened his own shop four years ago with the money he had saved,” Obama said.

“And Jason’s dress, as you can see — this gown is a masterpiece. It is simple, it’s elegant, and it comes from this brilliant young mind, someone who is living the American Dream,” she said.

“Thank you, Jason. Thank you for your vision and for your hard work, because, in the end of the day, today is about much more than this gown. It’s also about how, with enough focus and with enough determination, someone in this room could be the next Jason Wu,” Obama said.

Wu said that Tuesday was the first time he really realized “that the dress will outlive me.”