Jill Biden's $5,690 Oscar de la Renta dress she wore on husband's victory speech night sold out within hours
Although future first lady Jill Biden is yet to start living at the White House following her husband's highly contested victory in the 2020 election, she is already making headlines through her relatable yet personalized fashion sense. The $5,690 dress by New York-based brand Oscar de la Renta that Jill donned on the night of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' victory speeches on Saturday, November 7, in Wilmington, Delaware, sold out hours later, the Daily Telegraph reported. At the same time that she stepped out wearing the midnight blue dress, featuring floral vine embroidery, the outfit was up for grabs on designer outlet website The Outnet. The price was reduced to $1,707, to help shoppers get their hands on the dress without burning a hole in their pockets. Hours later, it turned out, a large number of women wanted to dress up like the soon-to-be FLOTUS as the outfit had sold out.
The news came as Oscar de la Renta shared a picture of putting the finishing touches on the dress on their Instagram page. The wool-blend crepe midi dress sat in all its glory in a workshop as two staffers made sure that the fitting was perfect for the 69-year-old. The embroidered flowers represented a sign of hope, the fashion house said. The designers who came up with the idea of the dress also held political significance as "it was designed by Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, both immigrants to the United States who trained under Oscar de la Renta (himself an immigrant from the Dominican Republic)," Vogue noted.
Jill's entrance into the White House will also be a gateway into introducing the fashion of the "everyday" woman into the residence after four years of first lady Melania Trump often wearing unbelievably expensive outfits. This is very clear from the outfit Jil chose for her virtual address at the Democratic National Convention, broadcast from a public high school where she used to teach. It was a simple green shirt dress by Texan designer Brandon Maxwell.
Oscar de la Renta has a long-running history with the first ladies, as iconic women of the White House like Jackie Kennedy, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Hillary Clinton have all favored the brand in the past. Prior to his death in October 2014, the designer personally dressed every First Lady from Jackie O to Michelle, and for some, like Hillary and Nancy, he also became a close friend and confidante. It is all believed to have started in the 1960s when Jackie Kennedy Onassis wore a peach dress designed by de la Renta during an official visit to India with her husband, President John F. Kennedy.
The dress was an instant hit and kicked off a long style tradition among future wives of presidents on both sides of the political aisle. The former Secretary of the State first wore Oscar de la Renta to the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. during Bill's first term as President. After the designer and she became friends, she turned to de la Renta to design a gown for her husband's second inaugural ball in 1997, and she has continued to wear the label regularly in the 23 years following the event.