As you may recall from your high school history class, Presidents were not always subject to term limits. Eleanor’s husband Franklin Roosevelt was elected as Commander-in-Chief four times during the 1930s and 1940s, which means Eleanor had to outfit herself for more inaugural balls than any other woman in American history. “To anyone fonder of clothes, her unprecedented chore might be a welcome one,” LIFE Magazine wrote upon the third inauguration in 1941. “But Mrs. Roosevelt cares scarcely more for sartorial nuances than Queen Mother Mary of England.” For her first ball, Mrs. FDR wore a slate blue gown with detachable sleeves—an outfit Graddy calls “a very slinky sort of film star dress.”
Belles of the Ball: An Insider’s Look at Inaugural Gowns
As the fashion industry speculates about what Michelle Obama will wear this Monday, we look back at other memorable inauguration gowns through history
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1933: The Inauguration Veteran
Full List
Inaugural Gowns
- Inaugural Gowns Through History: The Way They Wore
- Edith Roosevelt, 1905: A Practical Matter
- Helen Taft, 1909: The Dress That Started It All
- Eleanor Roosevelt, 1933: The Inauguration Veteran
- Mamie Eisenhower, 1953: Pretty in Pink
- Lady Bird Johnson, 1965: Thinking Long Term
- Pat Nixon, 1969: A Bolero for the Ball
- Nancy Reagan, 1981: California Glam
- Rosalynn Carter, 1977: Something Old, Something New
- Barbara Bush, 1989: A Close Call
- Hillary Clinton, 1993: Picking Purple
- Laura Bush, 2001: Scouting Out the Competition
- Michelle Obama, 2009: An Obsession Begins