Florence Harding's Inauguration Attire

March is Women’s History Month. NY1920s always centers women’s history; this month we’ll do so a bit more emphatically.

One hundred years ago today … It was Inauguration Day for the US Presidency, the ceremony held in Washington, D.C., of course. The Evening World was covering the sartorial choices of First Lady, Florence Harding (née Kling).

Authorized by Harding, the feature explains her approach to the events of the day and weekend.

Mrs. Harding has lines that are subtle and that lend themselves to beautiful dress construction. They are plastic, rather than rigid; soft, rather than "straight-up-and-down." Thus she appears to advantage in straight one-piece dresses as well as in frocks with girdles below the waist line.

Since she recognizes the supreme importance of line in dress, her wardrobe is designed to interpret her lines, rather than the standardized so called "chic" of the mannequin. In tabooing imported models, she did so without prejudice and in conformity to her belief that American influences, not arbitrary period styles or bizarre Continental fashions, should characterize her costumes.

This is good news for women of eminently simple tastes who hesitate to devote a disproportionate amount of time and thought to what the fashion oracles dictate,

A close-up of the “coat of canton crepe, held at waist-line in front by a belt”:

Harding upon her arrival in D.C., perhaps wearing the hat of the illustration above.

– Jonathan Goldman, March 4, 1921

TAGS: Women, clothing, fashion, politics, patriotism, election