Video: First Lady Fashion Designers on Today Show

While Inauguration excitement is focused in D.C., there's plenty of smiling in New York—especially for fashion designers Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu. Toledo designed Michelle Obama's first First Lady ensemble, a "lemongrass yellow" coat and dress in Swiss wool lace worn during the swearing-in and parade, while Wu's ivory silk chiffon and organza gown was selected as the First Lady's Inaugural gown. The two designers appeared on the Today show this morning and they still seemed stunned and emotional about their creations being part of the historic day.

Wu, who has never met Michelle Obama, explained his design, "I wanted to design a gown that would highlight her best features...I see her as a powerful, energetic, incredible woman. I wanted the gown to have a dreamlike quality because it's pretty surreal." Toledo said her dress was yellow to signal "optimism."

The Cut's Amy Odell wrote that she was "shocked and delighted she chose the 26-year-old New York-based designer" for the Inaugural gown. The NY Times' Cathy Horyn said the First Lady made "striking fashion choices" (though she seemed to think the Toledo ensemble was more sophisticated, plus "it seemed designed to stand out against the traditional red and somber black coats on the Capitol steps"). And the Washington Post's Robin Givhan assessed, "[The Toledo outfit] spoke of womanliness, grandeur and elegance, and it declared Obama's ease with being a woman of modest background thrust into extraordinary circumstances" and the inaugural "dress speaks to Wu's signature style: grown-up clothes with a youthful flourish."

Either way, it seems the road to White House Fashion runs partly through Chicago—both designers were sought via Chicago boutique Ikram.