Malia Obama Is Still a Menswear Icon

Former first daughter Malia Obama has led a relatively quiet life since leaving the White House in 2016. After graduating from Harvard in 2021, the eldest Obama daughter has been quietly building up her Hollywood bona fides, working with the likes of Donald Glover and Lena Dunham before debuting her first short film, The Heart, at Sundance this past February.

The rarity of her public appearances is partially what made it so surprising—and delightful—when she appeared, back in 2023, wearing a menswear-adjacent ensemble that stopped us here at GQ in our tracks. Her novelty cardigan, pleated trousers, and insouciant cigarette comprised one of our favorite looks of the year.

Thankfully, Malia Obama’s knack for casual tailoring still prevails. Spotted in Los Angeles over the weekend, she wore Gen Z’s favorite accessory (headphones; specifically, the Bose QuietComforts) and a pair of baggy, sandwashed blue jeans with lug-soled black shoes—a combination that, as my colleague Gerald Ortiz once shrewdly pointed out, always manages to look cool. She layered a white dress shirt under an oversized, beefy-shouldered blazer that easily could’ve been a hand-me-down from her dad, Barack.

Slung over her shoulder was a roomy, green plaid Cocoon tote by the New York label SC103, which so happens to be a practical piece that my GQ Recommends brethren predicted would become trendy in 2025.

Malia Obama has built up her wardrobe of menswear-tinged staples over the years: zip-up hoodies, double-knee carpenter pants, pleated trousers, beefy outerwear. But I’m into this youthful, Richard-Gere-meets-Goodwill silhouette. Hell, while we’re at it, I’d love to see how Malia would style that infamous tan suit.