Michelle Obama has kept very busy since leaving the White House in 2017. First there was her 2018 book Becoming, then the follow-up The Light We Carry in 2022. More recently, she made the jump into our ears with her podcast, IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson. But the former first lady made the very exciting announcement this week that she’ll soon be back on our bookshelves with a brand-new tome that we absolutely can’t wait to see.
Her next book, titled The Look, is scheduled for release on Nov. 4, she announced via Instagram on Thursday. (You can preorder it right here.) And the many fans of Obama’s immaculate style will be thrilled about its contents: She describes it as “a reflection on my lifelong journey with fashion, hair, and beauty.”
“During our family’s time in the White House, the way I looked was constantly being dissected — what I wore, how my hair was styled. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to reclaim more of that story, to share it in my own way,” Obama said. “I’m thankful to be at a stage in life where I feel comfortable expressing myself freely — wearing what I love and doing what feels true to me. And I’m excited to share some of what I’ve learned along the way.”
In collaboration with her personal stylist, makeup artist, and hairstylists, Obama will unpack the iconic looks that we all remember well, complete with behind-the-scenes details and musings on why she connected to them as much as her admirers did. “You’ll find some of the outfits that have meant the most to me, but more importantly, the moments that I lived through in them — big and small, personal and political, historic and ordinary — that were as memorable as the clothes themselves,” she shared.
PEOPLE got a preview of the book’s foreword, which was written by Farah Jasmine Griffin, who served as the inaugural chair of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. “[Obama] stood before us as a leader, giving us the charge to fight for a better and more just world, assigning us the task of getting to work, reminding us that the price of citizenship in a democracy is that we each ‘do something,'” Griffin writes. “The look, like the woman, was bold, powerful, forward-looking, visionary and empowering for everyone who dares to believe in the possibility of better tomorrows.”
And if that piece of the foreword didn’t quite make it clear, Obama’s messaging in the book’s announcement is strongly oriented around telling a bigger story than one that’s simply about clothes.
“The Look is about more than fashion. It’s about confidence. It’s about identity. It’s about the power of authenticity,” Obama said. “My hope is that this book sparks conversation and reflection about the ways we see ourselves — and the way our society defines beauty.”
