Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- First Lady Michelle Obama made an important statement yesterday without speaking a word as she stood by her husband on the steps of the nation’s Capitol.

The new first lady’s sparkling lemongrass-colored ensemble, created by little-known Cuban American fashion designer Isabel Toledo, was in keeping with her preference for “accessible glamour,” said Mandi Norwood, the former editor-in-chief of Mademoiselle magazine.

“I love that she’s gone for a designer who’s not in the front of everybody’s mind, but someone who is in the background working on these works of art,” said Norwood, who is publishing an April book called “Michelle Style.”

For the series of inaugural balls she attended with President Barack Obama, the first lady wore an ivory chiffon gown with a single strap over her right shoulder. The dress was designed by Jason Wu, 26, who was born in Taiwan and is based in New York, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Obama is quickly emerging as an international icon for high fashion, with her look centering on ladylike florals, fitted dresses, bold colors, flats, pearls and cardigans.

She is marrying her love of fashion with a proclivity for the price conscious by opting for designers who don’t belong to New York’s Seventh Avenue guard and retailers like J. Crew, which she plugged during an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show in October.

As the youngest first lady to occupy the White House since Jacqueline Kennedy, the 45-year-old Obama has often been compared with her. Like Kennedy, she has demonstrated a fondness for A-line skirts, brooches, pearls and even a hair flip.

Economic Climate

Yet Obama enters the White House during some of the most difficult economic conditions since the Great Depression, and her fashion preferences appropriately reflect this, said Marian Salzman, a marketing and trendsetting expert in New York City.

Since her Tonight Show appearance, “Michelle Obama has made bragging about how little you pay for something an important part of your look,” said Salzman.

The dress she wore at her husband’s swearing-in ceremony was “a little more exuberant” than what Toledo is known for, said Norwood. It probably reflects Obama’s development as much as Toledo’s, she said.

“Her style is really evolving very nicely,” said Norwood. “When we first started out scrutinizing her styles it was all this Jackie O. and little pearls, and now she’s showing a much more adventurous side with this retro sheath dress.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 21, 2009 00:03 EST