Behind Hillary Rodham Clinton's Historic Met Gala Dress | Vogue

Secretary Clinton is obviously such an important figure in American history, and because so many people are interested in what she wears and how she does her hair and sort of her appearance is kind of analyzed and scrutinized, maybe unwittingly she's had a huge impact on American fashion and on what women wear because of it. This is the final dress. Oh my gosh, wow. This is so fabulous, look at it. So this is my handwriting which they then transferred onto the fabric and hand embroidered. You have beautiful handwriting I must say. And then it's all along the bottom as well. Oh wow. It really tells the story of all American women and it also pays homage to homemakers and quilters and seamstresses which I think is very much part of American fashion. I ended up writing these just so the embroiderer could do some trials and I loved that it was handwritten. I do too. Also really reminded me of the handwriting on the friendship quilts. Exactly. So these are all of the names that I handwrote that we tried on the silk. A lot of these names are going to be well known to people but some of them are women who inspired me that maybe others don't know that much about. The dress really speaks to the theme which is American fashion and I had seen this quilt at the Outsider Art Fair which I kind of fell in love with. So this was actually the quilt that I saw. It was a way for women who were at home to sort of connect with their neighbors and their families and their friends. Objects that would sort of become heirlooms. I with my daughter had written the book of Gutsy Women. Women primarily from American history who had inspired both of us. Sojourner Truth and Sacagawea and Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt and Margaret Chase Smith. I mean women that really made an impression. You immediately got that and connected it to these friendship quilts and you just transformed this dress into this like historic living thing. Oh I love it. I love it. It looks amazing. I love it. It's so pretty. You know I think what's really special about making something for someone is that you're really able to think about how this dress is going to reflect who they are and what their personality is. So when was the last time that you went to the Met? 20 years ago. Wow and you've been involved with both for a long time. Starting when I was first lady and they began to cover some of my activities particularly my trips and then I was so surprised and delighted when they asked me when Anna asked me if I would be on the cover and they'd never had a first lady on the cover before and the dress was about this color. Yeah I remember it was velvet. It was velvet yeah so we have a now gosh nearly 30 year relationship. Having it be part of the Met Gala you want it to be a formal dress but with this extraordinary homage being paid to these women.