Jason Wu dress and Dolley Madison’s china- seperated at birth?

Written by Julie Hoylen on February 17, 2009 · 6 Comments

Yesterday over on Eddie Ross’s blog he wrote a fun post about a few fabulous china patterns that have graced the tables of past presidential dinners and pondered on what tableware might be fitting for our newly elected first family.

Though they were all lovely, I was immediately drawn to one in particular whose design and colors looked so ‘fresh and modern’ to me… was I ever surprised to find out that it had belong to no other than Dolley Madison….circa 1808, no doubt.

Well I had always known of Dolley as being a real fashionista back in her day and I thought how fun it is to have another first lady who also knows her stuff when it comes to fashion and decor. I’m sure if she were alive today, Dolley too would grace the cover of Vogue ( and if I knew photoshop any better I would have attempted to mock it up for you…oh, well-one day ).

And so I can’t but help share with you how taken aback I was this morning… as I was researching a piece I’m working on about New York fashion week…I found this image… it seems as if perhaps there is a chromatic and design synchronicity being channeled between the ghost of a first lady past and current first lady’s favorite designer du jour.