Can clothes express feelings? To paraphrase Barack Obama himself: yes, they can. Inauguration day, like a wedding day or graduation ceremony, is an occasion when the intense emotion of the protagonists and the crowd is constrained by the formality of the occasion. Official portraits often end up a little stiff. The clothes Michelle Obama and her daughters are wearing ensure that joy, warmth and modernity, as well as solemnity and history, radiate from every photograph.

Michelle Obama in her Thom Browne coat-dress. Photograph: Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images

Michelle Obama's coat-dress is by Thom Browne. In the fashion world, Browne's name is most closely associated with the trend for men to wear their trousers cropped or rolled slightly short, with an exposed ankle, a look he pioneered in the middle of last decade and which quickly became ubiquitous among the hipster populations of New York, London and Berlin. Since expanding into womenswear, Browne has retained his maverick approach: a New York fashion week show last year began with suited models climbing out of pinstripe-lined coffins. In other words: Browne isn't a safe, easy choice for a first lady. Oscar de la Renta, he is not.

Few observers will know or care about Browne's edgy credentials, but the use of a man's necktie motif on the fabric sends a clear, snappy message about a no-nonsense and businesslike attitude. For this second-term inauguration, the first lady is dressed less as a newly-crowned homecoming queen and more as a woman who has her feet firmly under the White House desk. There have been reports that she wants to pull focus away from her wardrobe in the second term. Wearing a dress that references the tie – a totem not of fashion but of mens' business attire – is a neat way to silence any snippiness about the first lady playing the fashion plate.

Michelle Obama (right) with daughters, Sasha (second left) and Malia, and her mother, Marian Robinson. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Malia and Sasha prove once again their impeccable grasp of colour coordination. Delphinium blue and violet are complimentary shades without being matchy-matchy. These are a pleasing combination of colours, with visual links with their mother and grandma – Michelle's gloves match Malia's scarf, while Michelle's mother Marian wears an apricot scarf tucked into her camel coat, echoing Sasha's outfit. The overall effect is to create an image of harmony and togetherness without stifling the individuality of any member of the White House family.