Normally, First Ladies go out of their way to avoid scandals at all costs. The reason for this is simple: while these women oversee some very important activities, their primary job is to help their husbands look good. Having a friendly wife that everyone loves (like Jackie Kennedy) can help make just about any president look more palatable to the people. Conversely, FLOTUS scandals reflect poorly on the president and often generate the worst headlines at the worst possible time.
Accordingly, most FLOTUS scandals happen by accident, and the accident usually involves their wardrobe. These powerful women must thread a tight needle, dressing to impress while taking care not to offend anyone. Unfortunately, nobody’s perfect, and pretty much every FLOTUS in American history has worn at least one outfit that resulted in crazy scandals.
Don’t believe it? Or maybe you just want to see if we brought the receipts? Either way, you’re in luck. Keep reading to discover the most scandalous outfits ever worn by First Ladies!
Michelle Obama shocks with her official portrait outfit
One of the things you’ll learn quickly from this list is that scandal is in the eye of the beholder. In each case, these First Ladies wore an outfit that they thought the public would find perfectly acceptable. Only after they go viral for the worst reasons, though, do these women realize they should have worn something different. Case in point? Michelle Obama wore a sleeveless dress when taking the picture for her official portrait in the White House.
On paper, it didn’t seem like this would be a problem. By this point, the public was quite accustomed to seeing Michelle Obama’s bare, well-toned arms in the bevy of sleeveless outfits she preferred to wear. But once she wore this outfit for her official portrait, the First Lady was slammed by criticisms that she had dressed too “informally” for such an important occasion. However, this is a purely vibes-based accusation: considering that there are no formal requirements for a White House portrait, it seems clear that Michelle Obama’s haters were just looking for excuses to complain about her.
RELATED: How Michelle Obama Became An American Icon
Melania Trump comes across as heartless
As noted before, most of the scandals on this list happened by accident. That is, the FLOTUS in question tries to wear something cute or quirky, and it ends up rubbing people the wrong way. However, Melania Trump once caused a huge scandal by wearing clothing with a controversial phrase written on it. She was being deliberately provocative, but she later admitted that her outfit ended up making the wrong group of people angry.
In June 2018, Melania Trump visited the Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter in McAllen, Texas. The shelter was home to dozens of children, including some who had been separated from their parents by Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Inexplicably, she wore a green jacket with the following phrase written on it: “I don’t really care, do u?” This generated a major scandal because many assumed that Melania’s message was a commentary on the fate of these children. Later, she clarified that the intent was to send a message to the “left-wing media” who had criticized her. How anyone was supposed to figure that out without her telling us, however, is very unclear.
Hillary Clinton goes…goth?
Scandal is always in the eye of the beholder. You never know what people are going to find scandalous in your own country, and things get even weirder in other places. For example, Hillary Clinton once caused a sartorial scandal by dressing like a low-key goth during several days of an international trip. Most Americans would simply find this slightly weird, given Hillary’s penchant for more colorful clothing. The people of Japan, however, couldn’t stop asking what the heck was wrong with her!
In April 1996, Hillary Clinton made a trip to Japan to meet with various officials. Despite her trip only lasting two days, the FLOTUS packed three different outfits with the same surprising feature: they were all black. Was Hillary going goth, or maybe just trying on a new look overseas? Possibly. But the Japanese officials she met were constantly perplexed by her outfit because they thought she was getting ready to go to a funeral!
RELATED: The Secret Controversy That Still Haunts Bill and Hillary Clinton
Jackie Kennedy makes an impression
As we’ve been talking about, scandals are always dependent on context. What’s perfectly normal one moment may be completely controversial the next moment. And nobody knew that more than Jackie Kennedy. To this day, she is famous for a double-breasted pink suit that she wore on the day that her husband was assassinated. That’s no surprise, really: that dress is iconic, and she looks absolutely fabulous in it.
How did this become her most scandalous outfit, then? After John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Jackie refused to take this dress off. That meant she exited the vehicle and ultimately stood next to Lyndon B. Johnson in an outfit covered with his boss’s blood! Some thought that made Jackie a controversial figure. To us, she will always be nothing less than an American legend!