Some first ladies have said they have generally had to pay for the clothes they wear themselves.
Laura Bush, wife of George W. Bush, wrote in her 2010 memoir that she was “astonished at the sheer volume of designer clothes I had to buy to live up to the fashion expectations of being the first lady.”
Mrs. Bush wrote, “After my first year in the White House, our accountant said to George, ‘It costs a lot to be president,’ and he was referring mainly to my clothes.”
“She pays for her own clothes,” Michelle Obama’s press secretary, Joanna Rosholm, told CNBC in 2014.
The First Lady of the United States often receives clothing gifts on behalf of the government.
Some designers welcome the publicity that wearing clothes worn by the First Lady gives them.
With designer dresses easily carrying price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars, donations are often the only way less-affluent residents of the White House can afford to wear star designers.
“For official occasions of public or historical significance, such as state visits, the First Lady’s clothing may be gifted by the designer and accepted on behalf of the United States government,” said Ms. Rosholm.
