First Lady Michelle Obama will be featured on the cover of the March Vogue, photographed by (sigh) Annie Leibovitz. Because she's a new fashion icon, of sorts.

So says the fashion book's editress, Anna Wintour:

Change was the clarion call of Barack Obama's election campaign, though I don't think any of us at Vogue initially realized that would include the difference that was going to be made by First Lady Michelle Obama's wardrobe.

It's true, though. Michelle wears fun spider-dresses and loud colors and garments by lesser-known designers like Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu. She's a new American hero! In terms of fashion. Which is why she's the first presidential wife to grace the magazine's cover since Hillary Clinton. And, heh, all that means is that poor old Laura Bush got skipped. Probably because she never thought outside the boxy suit. Anna agrees:

It wasn't just that [Obama's] choices projected a simpler, streamlined, more modern attitude, rejecting the ridiculous idea that the only way for a First Lady to dress is in the dreaded White House standard-issue uniform — the boxy, anonymous suit that always managed to look as appealing, and as comfortable, as armor.

The only problem now, though, is that Michelle has to keep this up for four or possibly eight years. A daunting task. How long before she's inevitably downgraded to Redbook covers?