LONDON — The last time a first lady made such a hit in Britain was last year with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife, the former fashion model and songwriter Carla Bruni.
But on Thursday, London’s Times newspaper had moved on, writing “Carla who?”
The BBC described Michelle Obama as her husband’s co-star rather than supporting act — appropriate for a Harvard-educated lawyer.
Michelle Obama visited an all-girls school in north London on Thursday afternoon. She told the 240 girls about growing up on Chicago’s South Side and urged them to think of education as “cool.”
“I never cut class. I liked being smart. I liked getting A’s,” she said. “You have everything you need. Everything you need to succeed you already have right here.”
At the end of the visit, she doled out hugs to the students and was swarmed by them — to the extent that some Secret Service agents stepped nervously forward.
One indication of the attention lavished on the first lady was that the Daily Mirror tabloid ran no fewer than 14 pictures of her and called her a “fashion belle.”
The Evening Standard declared “a razzle dazzling performance from the mighty Michelle.”
Telegraph style editor Phong Luu said one of the many outfits she had worn in London, a green pencil shirt and cream-colored sweater by J. Crew, showed “her great success in wearing ‘difficult colors.’ ”
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
