Obama Inaugural Gown Update, Preps Party at CFDA

Well, here we are again!

The volume of inquiries surrounding plans for the Michelle Obama inauguration gown is increasing; thus today’s additional post.  At last night’s CFDA gala Diane von Furstenberg shared an interesting tidbit, according to a story in today’s online New York magazine: she has submitted sketches for an inugural gown.  And why did she send sketches?

“Well, they asked me to. Of course, everybody has,” she said. “I’m so proud to be an American.”

In the story by Alisa Gould-Simon, the question of a dress for all those Inaugural Balls was put to one of Mrs. Obama’s favorite designers:

Thakoon Panichgul, one of Michelle’s favorite designers, tried to remain elusive when we asked if he’d submitted sketches. “Um … we’ll see what happens,” he said with a devilish smirk.

And the Observer has a headline that will grab the attention of most fashionistas: “Narciso Rodriguez Hoping for a Second Chance to Dress Michelle Obama,”with insight from designer Narciso Rodriguez on one of his designs being worn by Ms. Obama election night:

“She saw that dress and she liked it,” said Narciso Rodriguez, who designed Michelle Obama‘s Election Night dress. “She saw it on the runway, she chose it, I guess from the runway…” He nodded slowly and mouthed “yes” when asked if he’d known in advance that she would wear it.”

Should one be interested in more information about some of the Thakoon designs worn by Ms. Obama, here is a post as well as here. The Observer story includes speculation from those in attendance at the dinner about an inaugural gown:

The young designers of Proenza Schouler approached Mr. Rodriguez. “Did you see Michelle Obama in his dress?” cried Lazaro Hernandez. “Really major!”

“They have a fabulous new bag line,” deflected Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Hernandez asked if Mr. Rodriguez was designing the inaugural gown. “It would be nice to think so,” he said modestly.

Also in attendance at the CFDA/Vogue gala were Gossip Girl stars Blake Lively (in a dress that didn’t really wow us) …

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

…and Penn Badgley….

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

…along with Tory Burch…

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

and über-preppy couple David Lauren and Lauren Bush…

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

We apologize for being tedious, but we may need to be back one more time again today with our update on Black Friday sales for Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, J. Crew and more.  We’re typing as fast as we can!

Michelle Obama Inaugural Dress Update

Hello again everybody … we thought we should share this promptly as the rumors surrounding possible designers for Michelle Obama’s Inaugural gown are such a hot topic.

In brief, it is *not* designer Cassandra Bromfield as many have reported. To help clear up any confusion, Ms. Bromfield addressed the issue in her blog today, in a post titled Separating Fact from Fiction:

“On Wednesday, I got a call “Congratulations, are in order, I understand you will be making Michelle Obama’s Inaugural gown.” What in the world is she talking about. I just shrugged it off as a wishful thinking. Then I check my emails and there are a few more congrats, what in the world is going on. So I did a bit of research and found that it is listed on a few blogs (as of Wednesday). “Cassandra Bromfield is tapped to create Michelle Obama’s Inaugural Gown.” As the week goes on there are a few more phone calls and emails. Now, some media is calling and I feel I must separate fact from fiction.”

Fiction: Mrs.O has contacted Cassandra Bromfield

Fact: I would love to hear from Mrs. Obama, but I have not spoken to her directly

Fiction: I am sworn to any secrecy

Fact: There is no secret

One need only stop at Ms. Bromfield’s website to know she would design a stunning gown for the Future First Lady.

Courtesy Cassandra Bromfield

We want to publicly thank our tipster for the email alerting us to Ms. Bromfield’s update; we very much appreciate the assistance. Regular readers know we were concerned about the lack of a firm confirmation, with us tiptoeing around the issue as best we could. Below, a snippet from our post on Nov.6th discussing the Sasha and Malia Obama election night dresses:

“Ms. Bromfield also writes a popular wedding blog.  We will await confirmation of the news on the gown’s designer and share it with you as soon as we know the information.”

And in this Tuesday’s post on the Maria Pinto dress Ms. Obama wore for her visit to the White House:

“We still have no confirmation on the Cassandra Bromfield rumor…”

This is not intended to pat ourselves on the back, merely to demonstrate our efforts to maintain accuracy here at the Princess Blog. This may be one of the few areas where it is helpful to have spent all those years in journalism, as it has made TP just a tad neurotic. (A tad?!)

We shall continue to keep an eye on the Inaugural gown story and alert you as soon as we learn anything that merits reporting.