10 best inauguration ball gowns: From Michelle Obama to Mamie Eisenhower Naomi May
When Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth President, James Madison, hosted the first Inauguration Ball in 1809, she sported a scoop-necked, hand-embroidered cream velvet gown with a long and winding train. According to one attendee, Madison’s ensemble “answered all my ideas of royalty.”
In the years since First Ladies have followed in Madison’s footsteps, embracing the grandeur of the Ball while also setting the tone of their agenda by painting a visual narrative of the incoming administration.
In some cases, the cost of the gown worn to the Ball has made the biggest splash. To make an economical statement amid a recession in 1977, Rosalynn Carter recycled an off-the-rack Mary Matise for Jimmae frock which she’d worn twice before; while in 1981 and 1985, financial boom years in America, Nancy Reagan opted for gowns by American couturier, Jamas Galanos, who once famously
In a candyfloss-coloured dress with matching opera gloves and a clutch bag, Mrs Eisenhower âis an example of the homemaker in chiefâ, says DuBois Shaw. âShe is all about wearing the Dior new look, with cinched waists and full skirts, and putting pink doilies all over the White House. She is kind of a regressive antidote to the liberated work-empowered women that had come out of the war years; itâs a way to get women back in the kitchen. She models that for working-class and middle-class white women. A shade called Mamie pink became really popular in fashion in the 1950s.â