Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama in Strasbourg. (AFP)

Strasbourg (France), April 4: The fashion world had been waiting with bated breath for its World Cup final. First Ladies Michelle Obama, 45, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, 41, finally came face-to-face in Strasbourg yesterday.

So, who won?

Michelle was, naturally, the favourite — she had just swept all before her at the G20 in London. But then, Carla had mysteriously stayed away.

“Carla Bruni may have seduced every man she met last year, but this year Michelle Obama charmed us all,” The Guardian of Britain had raved. The Times of London had been nastier. “Carla who?” it asked.

But who cares about a walkover win? The real contest lay ahead at Strasbourg where the Obamas headed from London. Perhaps Carla had skipped Britain because she wanted a home match?

When the American motorcade swept into the Rohan Palace, both Presidents knew all eyes would be trained not on them but on their spouses — one a Vogue cover girl and the other a singer, model and ex-lover of Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

The statuesque Michelle, a Harvard-trained lawyer, brought her A game. She was resplendent in a burgundy Thakoon coat, with a floral pattern of pink poppies, a matching bow and dress, hair coiffed into a bouffant to make Jacqueline Kennedy proud.

Carla exuded glamorous sophistication in a velvet Christian Dior coat with bracelet sleeves in her signature soft grey, and carried a blue framed bag with a ring-shaped handle.

Signature soft grey? To The Guardian, at least, it was a problem: “It feels like we’ve seen it all before.”

But there the First Ladies were, standing toe to toe — Michelle a few inches taller but not towering over Carla as she had over Queen Elizabeth II in London.

There they were, exchanging the first kiss-kiss, on both cheeks, the European way, clasping each other’s hands.

And there they were, striking identical demure poses, wearing identical bow ties on their coat-dresses, to the soundtrack of La Marseillaise and The Star-Spangled Banner – just like an international football final.

So, who won? The Guardian had no doubt.

Michelle achieved “exactly the right balance of cheeriness and glamour”, the newspaper decided. “Compared to Michelle, Carla actually looks a bit washed out and (we can’t believe we’re about to say this) prim and proper.”

The US First Lady later removed her coat to reveal a magenta dress with a metallic sheen of Italian silk. Not to be outdone, Carla also shed her coat to reveal a fitted cat sleeve dress and model figure.

“Carla has finally removed her coat, only to leave it in a crumpled heap. A few questions spring to mind: how is she going to get the wrinkles out of that suede? The Guardian asked rather unkindly.

It gave its verdict with a dash of political correctness: “This year, with the recession in full swing, she’s (Carla’s) been ousted from the top of the leaderboard by Michelle Obama, whose styling is nothing if not achievable.

“Mrs champions young designers like Jason Wu, yet also wears high street brands like J. Crew, the US equivalent of our Marks & Spencer. Carla, on the other hand, wouldn’t be seen dead in an M&S twinset and pearls.”

The Times of London found reason to be a little critical of Michelle, though. “If she was aiming for the quirky English look, it was not an unqualified success. When canvassed, Vivienne Westwood, doyenne of daring British fashion, said: ‘I don’t think either of them dresses very well’.”

The newspaper, however, agreed that the “notably more conventional, presidential even... feminine but not girlie” Michelle was “more than a match” for Carla.

The two First Ladies, it said, were the physical embodiment of the cultural differences between Europe and America.

“Firstly we have Mrs Obama, who exemplifies the American ideal of meritocracy” who told a group of excited girls at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in London on Thursday that “being smart is cooler than anything in the world”.

“Second, we have Carla Bruni, who demonstrates the European model…. Connections, networking, social status, these are the things that oil the machinery of power in Europe.”

At the Elizabeth Garrett school, Michelle had slapped the hand of a young soloist after her rendition of I’m Going All the Way. She had discomfited her Secret Service agents by starting to hug every girl in sight.

During the dinner at 10 Downing Street with J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author, and Olympic gold-medallist Kelly Holmes, she told everyone to call her Michelle.

“Michelle walks in and she is as she seems,” Holmes said. “So warm, engaging, a beautiful lady — and I quickly got my photo in the middle of her and Sarah Brown (wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown).”

Smiling nicely, shaking hands and visiting sick patients -- the traditional job of a First Lady – is not nuclear physics. But Michelle’s easy informality, her ability to show emotion without sentimentality and her constant professionalism are essential qualities in a modern First Lady. It is her intellect that elevates the position to something more than just a model of spousal perfection.

“Frankly,” The Times said, “it would not have mattered what she wore in Strasbourg yesterday: she was always going to make Mrs Sarkozy look just a little bit last season.”

Written with New York Times and Daily Telegraph reports