Fashion’s Big Day at the White House

“I mean, come on. You’re in the White House. There are some of the most impressive people in fashion here to teach you all and to reach out and to mentor you. And there’s food. What more could you ask for?” joked Michelle Obama, kicking off her remarks yesterday as she welcomed a host of American designers to the White House’s Fashion Education Workshop. She wore, appropriately enough, a blue dress by FIT grad Natalya Koval, the winner of a design competition associated with the workshop. The hush-hush event drew Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, Jenna Lyons, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Thom Browne, and Maria Cornejo, among many others, to mentor students from Parsons, FIT, and the Pratt Institute. Click through the slideshow to get an insider’s view of the fashion takeover of D.C. (luckily, they left plenty of Instagram breadcrumbs for us to follow).