First Ladies’ Inaugural Ball Gown Collection
Posted by Jess Dayuno on February 18th, 2009
Most people would be excited in witnessing the presidential inauguration most especially if the person they voted won the election but there is also another thing that the women and those who are into fashion are pretty fascinated about. It is when the First Lady of the land will come out on her chosen inaugural ball gown.
The Smithsonian Institute acknowledges this fascination and organized a collection to preserve them. They gave the collection a title of, “First Ladies at the Smithsonian”. It is indeed one of the most popular collections from the Institute. It always draw a huge crowd whenever it is included on an exhibit.
Last December 19, it was on display again. Some of the gowns are nearly a century old. Not all the gowns will be included. The Smithsonian just chooses enough for the exhibit. There are several reasons why they do not showcase the whole collection because some of them are too badly damaged to be put on display and some were too overexposed to different elements by being on display all the time. They decided to just rotate the collection.
While it is not required for a first lady to donate her gown to the Smithsonian, each year the Institute put on a request to the First Lady to donate something of hers to the collection and the usual item they give is the inaugural gown. The oldest gown they have is from Martha Washington but the oldest inaugural gown was of Andrew Jackson’s niece who served as his official hostess during his term. The newest is from Laura Bush unless the current First Lady Michelle Obama already donated her Jason Wu off shoulder white gown.

In a society where there is so much scrutiny on the fashion sense of the First Lady, this is one major event for her. People would analyze why she would have chosen a certain style, the color, the kind of fabric and the designer. She is a symbol of the whole country so everything she does represents the whole nation and so the fascination continues.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian
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