Did you know that one of the most famous and widely circulated photos of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was taken at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?
Back in 1999, months before their tragic deaths, JFK Jr. and CBK, as they’re known by the zillennials who consider them their style oracles, attended the yearly dinner. Carolyn wore a Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture frock from that very same year’s spring collection—its been endlessly mood-boarded and reshared as fashion inspiration. The dinner is not quite as much of a sartorial touchpoint as the Met Gala, which follows it by days, but it has, over the years, delivered its fair share of fashion catnip.
As the fashion world anticipates the arrival of the first Monday in May, politicos in Washington, DC, are expecting Donald Trump and Melania to appear at the dinner for the first time since the former became president. This year’s Met Gala is being sponsored, in part, by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. We’re in for a tale of two red carpets—each potentially contentious. It should be a fun two weeks.
Held on the last Saturday in April—though less branded than the Met Gala’s big day in May—the dinner has undergone a few style revolutions since its inception in 1921. For starters, the dinner was only open to men until 1962, despite the fact that White House Correspondents’ Association membership was already open to women. This changed under John F. Kennedy’s presidency, as he refused to attend unless the ban was dropped. Then, in the 1980s, the tone of the dinner shifted once more: The featured speaker was, more often than not, a comedian, and the event turned into the sort of comedy roast of the current administration to which we’ve become accustomed.
The dinner nowadays takes on the shape, and style, of the president in office.
