Both of the Obama daughters have excellent senses of style, as we’ve long since documented many many times, but Malia Obama has particularly come into her own with her own particularly excellent outfits. One of the key tenets of good taste: does someone look cool even on a grocery run? In Malia’s case, that’s a big ol’ affirmative.
Specifically, Malia Obama was seen towards the end of September smoking a cigarette with a friend, dressed so sans effort chic that you’d have thought she was an off-duty model. You know, if she wasn’t the daughter of a president and all that. Well, I guess first daughters can be models, too.
Wearing a cropped cardigan, loose pleated pants, and a pair of hefty black shoes, Malia epitomized the kind of unbothered elegance that the kids are calling quiet luxury.
That kind of stealthily wealthy affectation is frequently achieved through casual tailoring — see the slacks that Malia wears here in a the utmost casual context — though her chunky cardigan and heavyweight shoes grant her outfit a grunge edge, amplified by the je ne sais quoi cool afforded to most anyone who smokes in this sort of offhanded, disinterested way.
Look, genres of fashion are as fluid as genres of music, call it whatever you want but you gotta admit one thing. Malia Obama looks cool as hell.
And yes, smoking is bad for you. Who cares. Don’t do it. I don’t! But I can acknowledge that the sole upside of smoking cigarettes is that it, well, looks cool. Vapes can never compare. Less harmful, sure, but also infinitely less cool. You’d never see characters in noir films or Cowboy Bebop vape.
You could make the argument that there’s nothing cooler than healthy lungs, sure — when Malia’s dad quit cigs over a decade ago, it was headline news — but we’re talking pure visual aesthetics here so bear with me.
To that end, Malia Obama’s look achieves the same kind of put-together tossed-on grace usually only tapped by high-style icons like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (another set of well-dressed sisters) or perpetually dapper Jennifer Lawrence.
No mean feat, especially for a kid just out of college. Hey, some things needn’t be taught.