George Washington, who as a general led America to independence from Britain and who went on to serve as the first U.S. president, also nurtured a lifelong interest in men’s fashion.
Washington recognized his attire sent a signal about America’s standing in the world, according to Suited to Lead: The Lives of Six Presidents Through Fashion , an online exhibit of the White House Historical Association. (The exhibit also explores the fashions of presidents John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Jimmy Carter.)
Washington “thought deeply about what his choices conveyed to the public,” says Fiona Hibbard, a graduate student in New York University’s Costume Studies program. Hibbard curated the exhibit while an intern at the society in 2025.
“Washington was interested in projecting an image of authority, unity and American identity,” she says.
The exhibit highlights how Washington’s sartorial choices conveyed leadership and created an early-American aesthetic that endured for generations.
Washington chose blue for the uniforms of the Continental Army to present colonial militias as unified and to clearly differentiate the fighters from British soldiers, known as “redcoats.”
Federal Gazette, January 7, 1789
As a military commander and later as president, Washington appeared in portraits wearing a blue coat trimmed in yellow, with matching waistcoat and breeches.
Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Blue and yellow remained the colors of the United States Army until the Civil War in the 1860s.
Washington also adapted military uniforms to better suit soldiers to their environment by replacing breeches, which only came to the knee, with full-length trousers that better protected the soldiers’ legs as they climbed or scrambled on difficult terrain.
Washington supported American manufacturers, Hibbard says, “something most Americans can relate to and take pride in.”
Before being sworn in as the country’s first president, he ordered high-quality American wool from a Connecticut manufacturer for his brown inaugural suit . He had deliberately avoided using British-imported fabric, according to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which runs Washington’s Virginia estate. Though commonly known as “London Brown,” Washington’s fabric became known as “Congress Brown,” a nod to the new country’s representative form of government.
“George Washington’s inaugural suit was more than attire — it was a statement of national identity,” the association says.
For the Silo, Lauren Monsen/ Share America.
