A Shop in D.C. Is Having a Sale to Unload Inauguration Dresses That Nobody Bought

On Jan. 9, 2017, Donald Trump bragged to the New York Times about the “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout” he fully expected at his upcoming presidential inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20. He even anticipated a dress shortage, informing the publication, “All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”

It turns out that not only was there no dress shortage in D.C. before the inauguration, according to an investigation done by Racked, but there’s also a surplus of dresses that shop owners are now trying to unload.

Gilda Mizrahi, who owns the D.C.-based boutique Signature Dresses, is one of those shop owners. She told the Washington Post that she ordered 200 extra gowns in anticipation of high demand. And she didn’t rely on Trump’s outlandish prediction when she placed her orders; she based her decision on past inauguration turnouts, says the publication.

Though press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that Trump’s “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” dress sales are not reflecting that bold claim (which was born of “alternative facts,” according to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway). They simply haven’t sold out the way they have for past inaugurations. “More than half are still here,” Mizrahi told the Washington Post.

Now the shop owner is stuck with a huge inventory of dresses that she desperately needs to get rid of. This weekend, she will mark the dresses down 30 percent. She hopes that “Washington social types will stock up for the coming season of galas and weddings,” says the publication.

And if anyone knows poor turnout, it’s Mizrahi. She’s owned and operated her business since 1990 and has sold dresses for high-end events all over the D.C. area, says the publication. When asked what was different about this year, she told the publication, “Some of her clients opted not to attend at all and others went to fewer formal do’s than usual.”

After Trump’s brazen claim to the New York Times that dress shops were running low on inventory for the inauguration, fact-checkers leapt into action to prove the (then) president-elect wrong. In addition to the investigation by Racked, the Washington Post itself made a few phone calls to test Trump’s declaration.

They called Martha Slagle, vice president and general manager of Neiman Marcus in Friendship Heights, D.C., who, like Mizrahi, stocks up on extra dresses in anticipation of inaugural balls. Slagle confirmed, “You have more than a thousand evening gowns to choose from” at her department store — and laughed when informed of Trump’s shortage claim.

The Washington Post also called a smaller consignment boutique, Ella Rue, where shop owner Krista Johnson confirmed they, too, have plenty of designer frocks in stock. “Unless a thousand people came in today, we’d still have choices,” she told the publication.

Lena Farouki, the owner and buyer at Georgetown boutique Curio Concept, told the Post that her shop, too, was chock full of formal, high-end dresses. When asked for her professional opinion on Trump’s broad-stroke, unsubstantiated claim that shops throughout D.C. were experiencing a dress drought, Farouki said, “It would be really difficult to achieve. We’re a bigger city than people think.”

For her part, Mizrahi doesn’t care to take an official stance on her overstock situation or guess at why it happened; she just wants to sell her abundance of dresses. “I don’t want to get political,” she told the Washington Post. “I have many customers. But I just didn’t see the level of excitement that I have [in the past].”

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