There's been much conversation about the fashion choices of America's first ladies, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama. But a new exhibit unveiled this week showcases the clothing choices of the presidential men of the White House — and what those sartorial statements meant — from a Founding Father to a peanut farmer.
"Suited to Lead," an online exhibit by the White House Historical Association examines how presidents used their dress to make statements about themselves and their governance.
It highlights the styles of George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter.
"The presidents were so much more interested in dress and fashion than we might typically think," said exhibit curator Fiona Hubbard, a New York University student mastering in costume studies who interned at the association.
"They all had a really unique approach to how they dressed and all of them really impacted or left their own mark in dress in a way that you can see through the objects that are in the exhibit."
In the days of the Revolutionary War, George Washington, for example, wanted to set himself apart from the newly deposed British rule over the American colonies.
"For him, that came in the form of homespun fabrics — or fabrics that were made in America with American materials, as well as by color," Hibbard said.
"The British army wore red coats, and to situate themselves as opposed to British rule, George Washington commanded the Continental Army to wear blue coats," she said. "So he was dressed as a visual signal of what it meant to be American, and this did really impact society. It was all about being American, looking American, dressing American at that time."
Nearly two centuries later, Jimmy Carter would use his fashion to make a statement as well.
"I think his fashion can tell us about society's move toward a more comfortable and casual style," Hibbard said.
"When he was elected president, only a few weeks later, he was on television, and he was in the White House wearing a cardigan, and that was a huge topic of conversation," she noted.
The former peanut farmer from Georgia famously showcased his love of the cozy sweaters in a televised address, using a knit cardigan and a fireplace to encourage Americans to turn down their thermostats for energy conservation — a key plank of his White House agenda.
"Even designers commented on it, and they were talking about how men should and can dress in American society, which was becoming more casual at the time," Hibbard said.
From Abraham Lincoln trading in his preferred workwear in favor for what would become his signature stovepipe hat and black frock coat — to Teddy Roosevelt's evolving fashion from his buckskin suit-wearing days on America's frontier, to the Rough Riders uniform he donned as a calvaryman, to the sharply tailored suits he wore in his presidency, Hibbard said presidential fashion has always delivered a message.
"There were a lot of articles written about the way that these presidents dressed, whether neutral, or positive or negative," she said. "I found that really interesting how … people at that time responded to what they were wearing."
Summer Anne Lee, a fashion historian and adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said Hibbard's exhibit shows just how much personality certain presidents tended to impart in their style of dress, and how societal changes may have affected what leaders chose to wear.
"We have to keep in mind that the presidency … has, up until this point, always been occupied by men and in large part by older men, and so a person in that job is expected to dress quite seriously, is expected to dress quite formally and quite traditionally," Lee said.
The exhibit "highlights some moments where that's challenged," she said.
Lee — whose forthcoming book Presidential Fashion: An Illustrated History takes a deep dive on White House fashion takes — notes, for example, John Quincy Adams' shift in the 1820s from wearing traditional knee breeches, to the more modern style of pantaloons, or long trousers.
"And that was actually very controversial because everyday, average Americans had been wearing these pantaloons for quite some time — even a few decades at that point," Lee said.
"But the presidency was meant to be this, almost frozen-in-time kind of George Washington-esque position," she said. "So it was controversial for him to adopt that clothing, but at the same time, it made him more relatable to everyday Americans."
And as visual access to the president became more available with the invention of the camera, the need to make a statement with your clothes became more important to these commanders-in-chief.
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"We get so many more televised appearances ever since that 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, where Nixon was not looking so good on camera, even if he looked OK in person," Lee said.
"No presidential candidate was ever able to forget how important it was how they appeared on television. And today we have social media, so I think it's on the forefront of every candidate's mind to try to appeal to the masses and look more relatable," she said.
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