OK, let’s just say it out loud. Michelle Obama is now a style icon because she’s the first lady. If she weren’t, she’d just be a nicely dressed senator’s wife who we might occasionally notice in a photograph and say “nice arms.”

Her clothes are mostly pragmatic and classic with a twist. The twist is usually that she doesn’t look dowdy. I mean, her staple garment is a cardigan. How outrageous can she really be. She wears color well, but so do most women with a mocha complexion. It’s hardly revolutionary.

But she is the first first lady in decades who looks like the type of woman we’d like to chat up at a cocktail party. She looks different than her peers in Washington, but if she weren’t first lady nothing about her would merit much fuss.

But I guess that’s what all the fuss is about. She looks like one of us. And by us, I mean the people who read fashion blogs and know the virtues of patent leather.

Basically, I think a lot of boils down to the fact that Mrs. Obama is tall.

People are going to look twice at a tall woman, if not stare. It’s instinctive, I think.

That kind of attention makes people a little bolder in what they wear. It can also have the reverse affect, but Mrs. Obama doesn’t seem to have a shy streak.

You might question the tall thing, but even I look around when I notice a taller than average woman and think — without judgment — “She’s tall.” Then I realize that she’s around my height and I remember, oh yeah, I’m tall, too, it’s no big deal. The funny thing is that I still do this quite often.

So it’s not surprising that we are fascinated by Mrs. Obama’s height and style. She was added to the list of not just one of People Magazine’s 100 most beautiful people but also one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

That sounds like someone worth starting at.

And kudos to Mrs. Obama for not letting the madness go to her head. She’s prone to dressing in basic silhouettes with an eye on unexpected details, for instance the color might be more vivid than the typical politician’s wife, she might bedazzle it with brooches or she might simply be wearing something that we recognize from the mall.

Stylish, yes, but she’s hardly a maverick (can we use that word again without thinking of … no… too soon?… OK). So she’s hardly, a style iconoclast, despite the nutty obsession with her biceps.

But as my mom used to say, if people are going to stare, you might as well give them something to look at.