Melissa gave us our first peek at Michelle’s beautiful gown that she wore to the balls last night and I am still loving it and wanting to talk about it more and more. Didn’t it look like the Obamas got married to America last night?? Michelle looked breathtaking in her one-shouldered, winter-white, flower-appliqued gown designed by…Jason Wu. Everyone’s abuzz about Michelle’s choice of designer, since she had the pick of all the majors and went with this relative unknown. So who is Jason Wu?

First of all, as Melissa mentioned, he’s only 26. He’s also relatively new to the fashion scene. In fact, the first thing I found out about Jason is that, at age 17, he began his fashion design journey…designing fashion for dolls. There is a whole line of high end collectible dolls that he designed fashion for and his designs were the main reason for the dolls’ success. After reading this, it made me look at his designs (for humans) in a different light. When I was looking at his Ready-to-Wear Spring ‘09 collection, I was struck by how feminine and airy his pieces are. Michelle’s dress looks like it was made for a princess, giving her an air of royalty and feminine strength. Jason’s doll collection? It’s called Fashion Royalty. Ironic since a majority of fashion followers have already deemed our First Lady as Fashion Royalty. Or maybe it’s not ironic…maybe it was an intentional choice? Probably not. Is it too idealistic of me to think that she chose Jason’s design because it was her favorite and not because of any fashion politics?

Style.com has Jason Wu’s six fashion shows that all happened within the last two years, starting in 2007. They are definitely worth checking out, since now that Wu has been thrust upon the national fashion stage, you’re going to want to be attuned to his particular style. Another interesting note: Jason was trained by Narcisco Rodriguez, the designer of the controversial dress Michelle wore on the night of Barack’s presidential victory. Ironic, again, is that NYMag.com describes Rodriguez’s designs as “Sexy, bold women’s wear with a touch of Jackie O-whimsy.” And since Michelle is being likened as the next Jackie-O, maybe her effortless style is more crafted than we realize. Either way, I’m looking forward to keeping an eye on our new First Lady of Fashion and excited to see how she shapes the world of style.

UPDATE (via The Cut): Jason Wu and Isabel Toledo were interviewed by Meredith Vieira on The Today Show this morning and both had submitted pieces to Michelle but had no idea what she would be wearing until they saw her on tv in them, just like the rest of us. And I love Jason’s explanation as to why he chose white for Michelle’s gown: “I wanted to design a gown that would highlight her best features. I wanted to say something about who she is,” Wu said. “I see her as a powerful, energetic, incredible woman. I wanted the gown to have a dreamlike quality because it’s pretty surreal.”