December 1961. JFK visits Bermuda, and as on his visit to Texas, he refuses to put on a hat.
Photo by UK National Archives via Flickr.
Source: Flickr / nationalarchives
Just in case you still haven’t decided on a proper chapeau for the Kentucky Derby…
We now present to you a Flickr collection from the Truman Library all about hats.
The Library has many photos of First Lady Bess Truman wearing hats, and the archivists culled their holdings for images of men and women in history wearing hats.
According to Bess’s best friend, Mary Paxton, “Bess had more stylish hats than the rest of us did, or she wore them with more style…” Here’s a photo of the BFFs, Bess and Mary in 1901. Bess is on the left, wearing a hat with a large ruffle and feather.
What the bride wore - Jacqueline Bouvier’s ivory silk wedding gown required 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta and took more than two months to make.
It was the creation of Ann Lowe, an African-American dress-maker born in Grayton, Alabama, who had designed gowns for the matrons of high society families. Ms. Lowe was 54 when she designed the Bouvier wedding dress, which featured a portrait neckline and bouffant skirt decorated with interwoven bands of tucking and tiny wax flowers. She also designed the pink faille silk gowns and matching Tudor caps worn by the bridal attendants.
Jacqueline wore her grandmother’s heirloom rosepoint lace veil, attached to her hair with a small tiara of lace and traditional orange blossoms. She also wore a single strand of family pearls, a diamond leaf pin, which was a wedding present from Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, and a diamond bracelet the groom had presented to her the evening before the wedding. She carried a bouquet of white and pink spray orchids and gardenias. Jacqueline Kennedy’s oral history interviews from 1964 will be published this week after being sealed from the public by her request.
Happy birthday Oscar de la Renta! The American fashion designer’s gowns have graced a long list of First Ladies including Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Laura Bush.
To celebrate de la Renta’s impact on First Ladies fashion, here’s an image of Hillary Rodham Clinton wearing an Oscar de la Renta gown while dancing with President Clinton. The occasion? Why, nothing less than a 1997 inaugural ball.
-from The Clinton Presidential Library
Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding counts the Johnson Presidential Library as one of her favorite spots in Austin. When ELLE Magazine photographed Ms. Spalding for its August issue, she chose the LBJ Library for the shoot location. Here’s a snapshot taken by the Library staff in the Great Hall of the Johnson Library.
Psst, if you are interested in seeing the final fashion glossy photo, Ms. Spalding and the LBJ Library make their appearance on page 161.
-via the Johnson Library on Facebook
