First Lady Inaugural Style

This article has been updated.

President-elect Joe Biden took the presidential oath of office on 20 January 2021 and then took his place as the 46th president of the United States. He has sworn in at the presidential inaugural ceremony, after months of planning a countless number of details. A key moment from the inaugural ceremony is the oath of office, and another important ceremonial event is the inaugural ball in honour of the new president and first lady. The new president’s wife, the new first lady’s first appearance in her official title at the inaugural ceremonies puts her in the spotlight, all eyes fixing on her, and makes everyone start talking about what she is wearing, who is the designer of her inaugural outfits, and what sort of message she is sending to the public with her choices of Inauguration Day outfit and ball gown. So here is a brief summary of four first ladies’ fashion choices.

Jackie Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy was a style icon even long before her husband became president. At any official event she attended, far more attention was given to her fashion choices and appearance than to the event itself. Like her husband, she was generally popular; her appearance always received intense media scrutiny, and the country idolised her. John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States on 8 November 1960. Jackie Kennedy gave birth to their second child, John Jr., less than two weeks after the elections. The second-time mother was not idle even in the days following caesarean birth and began to choose the perfect outfits for the inaugural ceremonies.

She had worn fashion designer Oleg Cassini’s designs, who had previously worked at Paramount Pictures and was known at the time for dressing Hollywood stars. It was therefore hardly surprising that Jackie Kennedy’s assistant asked Cassini to come to the hospital and present his drawings of potential dresses for the incoming first lady. Cassini was pretty confident because he had long known and his amazing designs had won over the whole Kennedy family, but when he entered her hospital room, he was astonished to see that Mrs. Kennedy was holding numerous sketches made by famous couturiers in her hand and she would obviously choose a designer and gown from among them.

But while the other fashion designers presented dresses from their actual collections, Cassini prepared a new line consisting of twenty first lady looks for Mrs. Kennedy. The incoming first lady loved Cassini’s designs, especially his design for a pale blue suit with simple, clean lines to wear to the inaugural ceremony, so he was selected as the official White House couturier. Colour specialists and style experts say that Jackie Kennedy’s pale blue ensemble conveyed the message that she was and would always be a supportive, good wife to her husband.

Mrs. Kennedy donned a ravishing pale yellow evening gown designed by Cassini at the ball following the swearing-in ceremony. The subsequent collaboration between the designer and the first lady was legendary and extraordinary: Cassini designed over 300 outfits for Jackie Kennedy during the 1000 days of the Kennedy administration, and the first lady mostly wore Cassini’s American-made couture on official occasions.

Source: Smithonian Museum — Source: **Smithonian Museum**

Michelle Obama

Barack Obama took the oath of office twice; his first inauguration took place in 2009 and he took the oath of office for his second term in 2013. Michelle Obama chose to wear two quite different outfits to the ceremonies: she selected a sparkling yellow dress as her first inaugural gown and was dressed in a modest coat-dress for the second-term inauguration.

She picked designer Thom Browne for her Inauguration Day outfit and donned a navy coat and dress by the designer for the second-term inauguration on 20 January 2013. Thom Browne’s name may be unfamiliar to many, although he was already a fashion favourite at the time. Certainly, the men’s wear has made his reputation and it was only many years later that he expanded into women’s wear, but he has widely been recognized for blurring the lines between men’s and women’s wear. According to his description, Michelle Obama’s outfit that she wore for the inaugural parade was also in a men’s wear fabric with masculine pattern, but, nevertheless, as can be seen from the pictures, the feminine coat-dress in masculine fabric emphasised its wearer’s charismatic and determined character.

Michelle Obama opted to wear a gown designed by Jason Wu, a Taiwanese-born designer, for the inaugural ball. Compared to the gowns selected by her predecessors, it was a bold fashion choice to wear such a strong colour for the event, but, without a doubt, the first lady looked great in the red gown and, not to mention, further strengthened her charismatic public image.

Melania Trump

Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony was held on 20 January 2017. Trump has been a highly polarising figure, the incoming first lady thus had to deal with a challenge, that generated wide press coverage, related to her designer choice, as, after Trump’s victory, many well-known designers came out to say that they would refuse to dress Melania Trump for the inauguration. Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and several other designers delivered an incisive critique of Trump’s policies and made it clear that they did not share his views, they thus absolutely refused to associate with a Trump first lady.

In contrast, several other designers stated that they would be happy to dress her for the occasion. Finally, she went with a Ralph Lauren ensemble for Inauguration Day. Ralph Lauren was a great choice, as he is an American couturier and designed a dress very similar in style to that made famous by former First Lady Jackie Kennedy: a powder blue jacket with three-quarter-length sleeves, and her inaugural look was also finished off with matching leather gloves.

French-American fashion designer Hervé Pierre designed Melania Trump’s inaugural gown, who can count three former first ladies as his clients: Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. The new first lady sported a cream-coloured off-the-shoulder gown; the design of the simple and elegant gown had no fuss but its sharp lines and the red silk ribbon at the waist completed the sleek look. After the ceremony, the gown was donated to the Smithsonian First Ladies Collection that contains all former first ladies’ inaugural ball gowns and dresses.

Jill Biden

Jill Biden has chosen a dress from a New York-based designer for the inauguration ceremony. The designer of the brand Markarian, Alexandra O’Neil has concepted a blue coat and a matching dress with Swarovski pearls and crystals on the neck with a matching mask. According to her, the blue shade represents “trust, confidence and stability.” Previously we have seen other first ladies wearing blue at the inauguration ceremony, such as Jackie Kennedy or Melania Trump.

The official inaugural ball has been canceled due to COVID-19. Instead, a virtual concert dubbed “Celebrating America” had been televised and hosted by Tom hanks.
Jill Biden has chosen an ivory double breasted jacket and a dress, which outfit was designed by Gabriela Hearst. She stated that the embroidery of the dress was supposed to reflect the federal flowers (van ilyen, hogy "tagállami virág”, vagyis tagállamra jellemző virág?) from every state of the United States of America.

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