Michelle Inspires Shoppers—All the Way to the Hospital

Michelle Obama’s taste for off-the-rack clothes has been a boon for retailers—but occasionally hairy for shoppers. The $169 sleeveless rose-print Talbots dress Obama donned for her Essence magazine cover shoot has become the struggling retailer's best-selling item, the Boston Herald reports. And so anxious was one Dallas shopper to try the dress on that she dislocated her shoulder doing so.

When the paramedics came to take her to the hospital, she handed the clerk her credit card, and made them strap her into the stretcher with the dress still on. “She would not take it off,” the spokeswoman recalls, who notes that Talbots has sold 3,000 copies of the dress. (More Michelle Obama stories.)