In 1858 an observer of the social scene in the Buchanan White House commented in her journal about the new fashion introduced in D.C. by Lady Gore Ouseley.  (Lady Ouseley, nee Marcia VanNess, was a graduate of the Troy Female Seminary, and her husband was a British diplomat, credited with establishing British influence in Argentina, when he served as the first British consul to that country [think Falklands].  Her husband’s father, Sir William Ouseley, was also a diplomat and served as his brother’s secretary when that gentleman, Sir Gore Ouseley, was the ambassador to Persia and negotiated the Treaty of Gulistan which gave Russia Azerbaijan, part of Georgia and the Republic of Daghestan–all of which probably contributed to some of the issues in the Middle East today, but that’s another story.) At any rate, Sir Gore and his lady, the Vermont-born, Troy-educated Marcia, were part of the “in crowd” in D.C. in 1858.  So, people took notice when Lady Ouseley “introduced the English novelty of the red petticoat,” which was “all the rage in London.”  To be specific, said petticoats were made of wool, “with black stripes woven in and are said to have a most coquettish and bewitching effect although that will depend upon the person who wears, and the manner of handling them.”  For another view of the impact of the red petticoat, we have a poem by Charles Mackay, a Scottish contemporary of the Ouseleys:  “Oh, the red, the flaunting petticoat!/That courts the eye of day;/That loves to flare, and be admired/And blinks from far away./It may delight the roving sight,/and charm the fancy free,/But if its wearer’s half as bold,/I’ll pass and let her be./With her red, her flaunting petticoat/She’s not the girl for me.”