WASHINGTON, 8 December 2006 — It’s always one of the biggest nights in Washington for stars and for glamorous fashion, with guests in the spotlight at an exclusive White House holiday reception. The designer gowns are always scrutinized, and on this year’s bash, there was plenty to talk about.
Three women donned the exact same $8,500 red Oscar de la Renta dress, a fashion faux pas in itself, reported CBS News. But that’s just the beginning of this debacle of ladies in red.
It just so happened that first lady Laura Bush was wearing the very same dress too.
Letitia Baldridge, Jacqueline Kennedy’s chief of staff and White House social secretary says the gown was beautiful, but triple the trouble was quite the mess.
“They all should have congratulated one another on their good taste and the fact that they could afford the dress,” Baldridge says. “Jacqueline Kennedy, when she was first lady made sure, and her couturiers made sure that nobody else wore that dress that season.”
The debacle led Mrs. Bush to make an executive decision.
“She went upstairs and changed, very easy for her to do. It was the right thing to do, take the heat off the other women,” Baldridge says.