Donna Karan On Dressing Hillary Clinton In A Shoulder-Less Dress

by Verena von Pfetten | 4:39 pm, January 13th, 2012

Before Rick Santorum’s sweater vests or Michelle Obama’s bare arms, there were Hillary Clinton’s “cold shoulders”, and they came courtesy of Donna Karan.

Almost 19 years ago, Clinton wore a $1,300 black Donna Karan sheath dress to the Governor’s Ball soiree at the White House. An innocuous choice, if not for the fact that it left her shoulders wide open to both fresh air and scrutiny. It even led to a New York Times trend piece! At the time, Karan said of the dress:

“It’s the one place that is perfect on every woman’s body. No one ever says, ‘I have fat shoulders.’ ”

“What I love about it goes back to my original concept,” Ms. Karan said. “Wear it under a suit and it looks like a turtleneck. Wear it at night without the suit and it’s totally different.”

And let it be known that Karan is nothing if not consistent. At last night’s Q&A with Fern Mallis at the 92 St Y, Karan offered up a similar opinion.

On a less fortunate note, she remembered the criticism she got for Hillary’s cut-out “cold shoulder” dress. She had good intentions, though: “The only place you never gain weight is your shoulder,” she explained.

And for those of you who aren’t familiar with the dress, the only photo we could find of it (thus far) is here. Don’t worry, we’re still looking.

[via The Cut.]

Donna Karan hillary clinton