SANDBOX: The Politics of Fashion

As President George W. Bush is sworn into office today, many Americans will dutifully listen to the words of the man whom they fought to elect. Many more, however, will wait eagerly for his doubtless mis-steps and verbal blunders, but we at recess will focus on one thing: what is he wearing?

As with most important events, our minds are completely foggy and our thoughts misplaced, but we have sobered up just long enough to recount some of the key fashion elements to look for in the ceremonies and galas that will clutter CNN over the next 24 hours.

Today marks the 164th anniversary of the now infamous day on which the Whig party president-elect William Henry Harrison bucked the presidential trend and refused to wear a hat in spite of the stormy chill in Washington on the morning of his inauguration. This may not have posed such a threat had it not been for Daniel Webster, who crafted Tippecanoe's two-hour speech, by the end of which the newly inaugurated president had caught a case of pneumonia that would take his life within a month.

But far more interesting than the president’s attire is that of the women in his life. Who can forget the long wedding-dress-like train that followed Lucretia Rudolph Garfield to her husband's inauguration in 1881 or the demure and always elegant Jackie Kennedy with the traditionally stovepipe hat capped JFK in a little floor length cloak? Of course, all of these were upstaged when Hillary Rodham Clinton covered a bad-hair day with a pointy witch's hat in 1993.

At the bashes tonight First Lady Laura Bush is rumored to be following in Clinton's 1996 footsteps by sporting a classy Oscar de la Renta number. Daughters Barbara and Jenna are apparently shunning their beer-chugging college days and going adult-sexy with designer Badgley Mischka, who has also been seen on J. Lo and Winona. As for me, I'll be wearing my standard black-tie garb: a pair of blue and white polk-a-dot pajama pants, hopefully with an accent of Cheeto crumbs and a hint of Busch Light cologne, because the only inauguration balls that I’ll be attending will be my own.

— Yoav Lurie