Belles of the ball gown

WASHINGTON - Inauguration Day will belong to President Barack Obama, but tonight will be his wife's turn in the spotlight, as all eyes will be on Michelle and her choice of ball gown.

The statuesque first lady has excited fashion designers, who are eager to dress her, but observers say that the recession makes it likely that she will wear a subdued gown in keeping with the country's economic downturn.

"I'm sure she won't have an over-the-top gown studded with diamonds and rubies," said etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige, former social secretary to first lady Jackie Kennedy. "It will be something suitably quiet for the times."

Inauguration fever as we now know it, with fevered speculation about the first lady's dress, is a relatively new phenomenon. The tradition of the inaugural ball began in 1809 with first lady Dolley Madison, a skillful hostess who knew that social events could support her husband's presidency.

Throughout the 19th century, there was usually a single ball after each inauguration, paid for by the winner's political party. Some of the balls were in hotels or temporary quarters, according to Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian and first-lady scholar. Then the Pension Building, which is now the National Building Museum, became the preferred site for the inaugural ball.

Sometimes the personality of the president and wartime intervened. There were, in fact, no official inaugural balls from 1913 to 1949.

President Woodrow Wilson decided that there'd be no balls in 1913 and again in 1917 because of World War I. Warren G. Harding started to plan for one in 1921 and encountered so much criticism that there was instead a private inaugural ball paid for by a wealthy benefactor of his wife's.

Evocative of the flapper era it was designed in, Florence Harding's iridescent gown is made of tulle and adorned with pearlized sequins and gold beads. It's in the Smithsonian Museum of American History's popular first ladies' gown collection, which reopened Dec. 19 after museum renovations.

"Mrs. Rutherford Hayes' gown had steel-cut beads, which spoke to the Industrial Age," Anthony said.

Nellie Taft, wife of the 27th president, who was inaugurated in 1909, was the first to donate her gown to the Smithsonian.

In the post-World War II era, Jacqueline Kennedy glamorized the inauguration festivities - as well as the presidency - with her style. Her ivory gown and cape, which she helped design, caused a sensation.

Rosalynn Carter provoked criticism for wearing a dress at the 1977 inauguration that she'd worn for Jimmy Carter's gubernatorial inauguration.

Nancy Reagan wore a glittery one-shouldered off-white gown that was considered very Hollywood but also insensitive during the 1981 recession. Hillary Clinton's 1993 purple gown by a young designer was criticized as less than chic.

Laura Bush's 2001 red-beaded Chantilly lace gown by a Dallas designer met with an underwhelming response in fashion circles. Her 2005 Oscar de la Renta silver-and-blue tulle gown, however, was a hit. Only the first inaugural gown typically goes to the Smithsonian.

"It's an interaction of the glamour of the first lady and the outfit," Bruce Buchanan, a presidential scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, said of the intense interest in inaugural gowns. "Jackie Kennedy set that standard. Jackie began the fascination that extends to Michelle."

Baldrige is impatient with comparisons to Kennedy. "That comparison is unfortunate," she said. "She [Obama] is herself. It is a different time in history."

Some things are timeless, however.

"We can predict everyone will be fascinated about the dress," Baldrige said. "We all want the first lady to look fabulous." *