Project Runway Contestants CHALLENGE.... To DESIGN 'Inauguration' Gown For Michelle Obama!!!!!!!

by **J The Kidd** Sat Nov 08, 2008 11:53 pm

What should America's new Jackie O. wear to the Inaugural Ball? We asked our favorite Project Runway designers to dream up the answer.

Project Runway contestants from past seasons are being challenged to design a dress for the First Lady in waiting - using some bizarre materials.

With the race finally decided, and the Obamas packing for Washington, there’s just one pressing question left on the national agenda: What should Michelle wear to the Inaugural Ball (?)

To help dream up the answer for America’s new fashion-forward first lady, we enlisted some of our favorite Project Runway designers to create Inaugural Ball gowns at once stylish, patriotic.... and appropriately thrifty for a recession. But in keeping with the show’s premise.... where only low cost materials are provided.... they didn’t get to skip off to Mood to buy their fabric.

For this challenge, they were only allowed to use Laura Bush’s 2005 Inaugural Ball dress, to be chopped up and repurposed, à la Pretty in Pink, an United States flag, burlap sacks, and $10 worth of trims of their choosing. When the designers were given their challenge, no First Lady had been determined yet so the dresses were designed with both Michelle and Cindy in mind.