Red faced over an expensive red dress

by Anne Metz (Subscribe to Anne Metz's posts)
Posted Dec 8th 2006 at 2:19PM

Nothing is worse than showing up to a holiday party wearing the same outfit as someone else. So you can only imagine how Laura Bush must have felt when she found out that three guests had on the very same red $8,500 Oscar De La Renta dress she was wearing. The first lady kept the gown on for the official holiday photographs, but as soon as the shoot was over, she went upstairs to change into another lacy frock.

Hearing about the First Lady's narrowly averted fashion faux pas got me thinking about my own high school prom. Because I grew up in a small town, most girls bought dresses from the very same boutique that kept a secret registry of who bought which dress, so that duplication-humiliations could be kept to a minimum.

At the time, I thought this practice was ridiculous -- who cared if someone had the same dress you did? But after seeing the way that Mrs. Bush reacted, I'm sure she and her guests are all wishing that the folks at Oscar De La Renta kept better tabs on who bought what, and when.

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Filed under: CELEBRITY STYLE, Fashion, Celebrity, Best of the Season, Stylish Living
Tags: celebrity style, CelebrityStyle, designers, dresses, Laura Bush, LauraBush, Oscar de La Renta, OscarDeLaRenta

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READER COMMENTS

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Ang, 12-08-2006, 2:50PM

How many books would $8500 buy for a School Library? Tsk, tsk, to the First Lady who preaches so much about reading and books!

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Judi, 12-08-2006, 2:44PM

Most every "beter prom and finer dress shop in this area not only keeps a list but when dresses are custom ordered and a 8500 dress is not On the rack, the design house has a llist of the person ordering and for what occassion, someone is either stupid or thought they were funny at St Laurent.

Any dress over $1000 usually can and must be ordered by size and color in advance. a few samples of a line are kept in the store. each dress is ordered with the size or in the case of dresses over the prices of $2500 (my last check in NYC) by the custumer's measurements.

This wasn't an OFF THE RACK dress in every size at MAcy's. This dress was ordered either directly or through a dress shop to St. Laurent. FOr $8500, Mrs. BUsh should have had no toher dress in the same cut and color made until after she wore this gown. I would send the dress back and shop elsewhere.

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Laura Haven, 12-08-2006, 3:59PM

I'm sorry, I just don't understand what the big fuss is. If somebody shows up in the same outfit as you, it shows that you are in good company! You have good taste!

LH

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Cindy, 12-08-2006, 6:04PM

It is just silly.

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linda parks, 12-08-2006, 5:11PM

What a waste of money. I know people who don't even make $ 8,000 a year. " The ruling class" is living like royalty, and have no idea how real people live.

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Mike, 12-08-2006, 5:32PM

Who gives a flying flip whether there is anyone else wearing the same dress you are? In Laura Bush's case, she has bigger fish to fry than to worry about that, namely her dumb-assed husband.

If she's attending a White House gala, she should be more worried about the Julia Sugarbaker Syndrome (the back of her dress tucked into her pantyhose) and not who is wearing which dress. Besides, if that dress cost $8000,

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Susan, 12-08-2006, 8:02PM

Shame on her for setting an example of an $8,500 dress while AMERICANS do not have medical care, prescription drugs, health insurance, decent schools, etc. There are people like me who work more than full time and are still worried about heating the house this winter. There are not shopping sprees for me. She has totally lost my respect.

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