Tonight the Obamas are holding their first state dinner, for the prime minister of India. Robin Givhan of the Washington Post has a feature article on how to dress (and how not to dress) for a White House state dinner. This is my favorite part:

At a state dinner in 1996, low decolletage wasn’t merely sexy or daring; it was a political trap for a president known to have a roving eye. Clinton was hosting a state dinner for Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. The voluptuous Italian actress Sophia Loren was a guest and she arrived with her magnificent cleavage framed in an ivory evening gown by Giorgio Armani. As she made her way through the receiving line, media observers paid close attention to Clinton’s gaze, waiting to see whether it would waver — even the slightest — from where it belonged to where it was most emphatically being drawn. Reports indicated that Clinton maintained steely eye contact. But no guest should really put the leader of the free world to such a test of willpower.