The fashion industry hopes Michelle Obama will be a one-woman recession buster.

It’s a large task, for sure, but American fashion designers say the soon-to-be First Lady has looked so fine in her J. Crew outfits and other stylish garb, that she may be able to throw their industry a lifeline.

The New York Times says this about Mrs. Obama:

With flashcard clarity, she signaled an interest both in looking stylish and also in advancing the cause of American fashion and those who design and make it. She wore off-the-rack stuff from J. Crew and, at times controversially, designs by fashion darlings like Isabel Toledo, Thakoon Panichgul and Narciso Rodriguez. She brought to the campaign a sophisticated approach to high-low dressing, a determination to adapt designers’ work to suit herself — adding jewelry or sweaters or wearing flat shoes with sheaths or even altering dressmaking details — as well as a forthright conviction that it is the woman who should wear the clothes and not the other way around.

Designers and manufacturers hope that Obama’s fashion sense will not only rub off on other Americans, but that it will convince consumers that American-made clothes, which are typically less expensive, can compete on the world stage. 

Michelle Obama "recognizes the value of beautiful dresses and not big prices. She dresses like taste doesn’t necessarily have to do with brand or status, but with what looks well on your body and makes you look glamorous, bottom line," said Stephanie Solomon, the fashion director of Bloomingdale’s.

Mrs. Obama’s Inaugural gown will be her first post-election fashion test, say sartorial insiders. "The First Lady is a balancing act between being a queen and a commoner. The Inaugural gown is a metaphor for the First Lady role," Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian who’s written extensively about First Ladies, told The Boston Herald.

Many think Obama will spurn doodads in favor of a refined approach à la Jackie Kennedy. Will she do emerald hues, or some version of pink? The lawyer-wife-activist-mom has already shown that no matter what she wears, she’s beautiful. The color of the gown will just be icing on the cake.