WASHINGTON — Inaugural week kicks off today and veterans of this event had some wardrobe advise, especially for those who aren’t going to be squired around in VIP motorcades that choke city streets at this time.
“You’re going to have to wear comfortable shoes,” advised Laura Cox, a former Bush administration Securities and Exchange Commission official who’s now head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Washington lobbying office. “I’m going to have to go shopping and pick out some nice flats for all the walking. I don’t think stilettos will fit the bill. Fortunately, Manolo [Blahnik] is making nice flats.”
Meanwhile, National Security Adviser and Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice may be trooping around town in Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, which are said to be her favorites.
This is the first inaugural since the terrorist attacks of 2001 and revelers are being warned they’ll have to walk blocks to reach certain events cordoned off because of extremely tight security. Increased police presence is also dictating fashion choices for President Bush’s swearing-in Thursday in front of the Capitol, where attendees are asked to be seated two hours in advance — an eternity if the frigid temperatures expected that day materialize.
First Lady Laura Bush will be prepared with an Oscar de la Renta embroidered winter white cashmere coat and matching wool bouclé sheath, but no hat. De la Renta also said he will attend the swearing-in, which he expects to be his only inaugural event.
“If it’s really cold for the swearing-in, I’ll wear warm boots,” said Abigail Blunt, the wife of House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R., Mo.). She’ll then put on heels to accompany a still-to-be-determined business suit for the presidential lunch afterward thrown by Congressional leaders for Bush in the Capitol’s august Statuary Hall.
As for the rest of her inaugural wardrobe for various receptions, including the Missouri inaugural ball Thursday night: “It’ll be shopping in my closet. I just picked up a Vera Wang double-face wool cocktail dress at a Saks Fifth Avenue sale, which I might wear one night,” said Blunt, the chief Washington lobbyist for Altria Inc., the parent of Kraft Foods and Philip Morris.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Tricia Lott, the wife of Sen. Trent Lott (R., Miss.), plans to wear one of her Carlisle Collection suits to the swearing in and several receptions she and her husband are attending or throwing, including the post-swearing-in lunch and a Mississippi Sunshine Breakfast earlier that day. “If the weather is really cold, I’ll wear a red wool suit,” said Tricia Lott, a Carlisle sales representative. “If it’s not absolutely freezing, it will be a lighter one that’s aqua.”
Laura Jones, executive director of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, plans to bundle up in a pair of Dana Buchman wool pants and top. If it’s sleeting and bitterly cold like it was during Bush’s 2001 swearing-in, she’ll be sure to wear fur-lined boots to cope with the mud. “Getting all dressed up just doesn’t work,” said Jones, who will attend with Frank Kelly, Liz Claiborne’s vice president for international trade and Customs.
If you’re a Republican, this week is a triumphant time as the GOP continues in power in the White House, as well as in the House and Senate, where the party has increased its representation. If you’re a Democratic lawmaker, protocol requires you be on hand for the swearing-in, but otherwise party members are expected to be scarce.
“I’ve declined all invitations,” said Jennice Fuentes, chief of staff to Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez from Chicago. Fuentes wore a black vintage John Galliano with matching boa and long gloves to President Clinton’s first inaugural balls and a Carolina Herrera white top and black skirt to his second-term galas. But if she were to attend one of President Bush’s nine balls on Thursday, “a black Carolina Herrera would be appropriate with a high neck. It would represent my mourning status.”
Despite having to rough it in the cold, the swearing-in is the ticket to have, followed by bleacher seats for the parade near the President’s viewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue, said Letitia Baldridge, a social secretary and chief of staff to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. As for the nine inaugural balls, Baldridge said “people who haven’t gone to them before are thrilled” and sometimes can be easily identified by elaborate gowns of red, white and blue.
Of course, the First Lady’s inaugural ball wardrobe choice is another matter. At her husband’s first inaugural, Laura Bush wore a red scooped-neck gown with sparkling crystals by a home state favorite, Dallas designer Michael Faircloth. As reported in WWD, this time Bush has picked an alluring silvery blue wrap gown with a V-neck by de la Renta. Judith Giuliani is also going with a de la Renta dress, an oyster brocade strapless gown with a matching bolero with three-quarter sleeves.
Giuliani in addition has turned to the designer for a black silk faille tank gown with a tiered, flounced skirt with ostrich trim for the Texas State Society’s Black Tie and Boots Ball. Her husband, Rudy, is certain to wear one thing — “his lucky Yankee boots,” the black snakeskin boots he wears to every Yankees game he attends.
Libby Pataki, wife of New York Gov. George Pataki, will wear an emerald green taffeta Tosca Couture gown with a boned bodice and a plunging ruffled neckline. A friend has lent her a pair of matching earrings for the occasion. “This is really a case where less is more,” she said. “The gown is formal, but not in a ‘Gone With the Wind’ sort of way — in a stately way.”
But if you’re a Washington political hand mingling with the masses at the balls, you know better than to wear anything special, Baldridge said, suggesting the reliable black cocktail dress remains a good choice.
“It can’t be something like beige satin because people will be spilling on it,” said Baldridge, who admits to being like other Washington politicos past and present regarding inaugural week. “You can become jaded. It’s such a difficult time for Washington. The traffic doesn’t move. You can’t get anything delivered.”
For the Mississippi inaugural ball, Tricia Lott said she’ll probably wear the same dress she wore to the 2001 inaugural, a burgundy beaded gown whose label she couldn’t recall. “Those balls are all so crowded, it probably doesn’t matter” that she’s repeating, Lott said.
At three candlelit dinners Wednesday for inauguration financial donors, the First Lady plans to wear a hand-beaded crystal rose Peggy Jennings lace gown with a scalloped V-neckline and slightly flared skirt. Jennings and her husband and business partner, Herb Kosterlitz, will be attending one of the dinners to see her confection come to life.
Another dinner guest, Cox, will probably wear one of her Lanvin outfits, like a black silk pencil skirt that can be paired with a beaded Giorgio Armani top, both of which she said fit the classic requirement for Washington wardrobes. “It’s always nice when you can pull something out of the closet,” Cox said.
Laurie Coleman, the wife of Republican Minnesota Sen. Norman Coleman, hasn’t decided on an inaugural ballgown, but she will wear a brown Prada knee-length dress she bought in Paris to the Black Tie and Boots Ball. A former model who has appeared as a character actor on TV, Laurie Coleman will skip the boots requisite for strappy Prada heels.
Washington hostess Buffy Cafritz plans to wear Joanna Mastroianni pale green silk evening pajamas to her preinaugural party Wednesday night at the Mandarin Hotel. She and her fellow Republican husband, Bill, have thrown an inaugural night bash since President Reagan’s first term and it is always a bipartisan affair. This year’s co-hosts are Democrats Vernon and Ann Jordan and Phyllis George, and Bush GOP pals Robert and Kelly Day.
“I find it’s a happy night to have hands across the aisle,” Cafritz said, a reference to how the parties in the House and Senate chambers are physically divided. “These [presidential] campaigns are full of venom many times, and this one was particularly vitriolic. At the party, everyone comes together and has a good time.”
Ken Duberstein, chief of staff for Reagan, said Cafritz’s party is the only inaugural event he’ll attend, but he may swing by NBC and ABC parties, where “those who have been through several inaugurals and several administrations will be.”
As for Cafritz’s festive bipartisanship, “it is friends greeting friends,” said Duberstein, who hasn’t attended an inaugural ball since 1973, celebrating Richard Nixon’s second term. “The most memorable part of the 1973 inaugural ball was eating hamburgers for dinner at a Roy Rogers after the ball. At the balls, you mill around, wait at the cash bar for the President to come for five minutes. There’s no dancing. You mix and mingle, but you’re essentially standing around.” He described first-term inaugurals as being “about beginning the campaign for reelection. Second-term inaugurals are about beginning the campaign for the history books.”