The 1968 Campaign Season
After designing her Cherokee Alphabet scarf and Discover America scarf, both given as gifts by Lady Bird Johnson, a Democrat, Frankie Welch received a request from her friend Betty Ford: equal time for the Republicans. So she designed a documentary fabric used for dresses at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Florida.
Ford asked Welch to design “something fresh, a new approach,” and Welch settled on the theme of “fresh as a daisy.” She created a printed floral fabric, subtly incorporating the text “Republican National Convention,” “Miami, Florida,” and “August 7, 1968.” Fifty hostesses wore dresses of the fabric to the opening luncheon for the convention, and Welch also retailed the fabric by the yard so that Republican women could make their own garments.
Welch provided custom “H-Line” hostess dresses for Hubert H. Humphrey’s luncheon on April 27, 1968, where he announced his candidacy for president. The design remained popular throughout the election season. Welch selected emerald green and sapphire blue with large Hs outlined in white. The Hs created a clever play on, and a slightly straighter skirt than, the popular A-line dress silhouette.
Welch designed a Humphrey scarf as well, and many designers and individuals used the large scarves and yardage of the design to create shirts, minidresses, and other garments. She also recounted how once, long after the campaign, she was on an airplane with Humphrey and he told her, “You know, Frankie, if we’d had [that scarf] one more week, I would have won!”
At the end of the election season, Welch designed hostess outfits—short, metallic sequined dresses accompanied by silver shoes and sheer silver stockings worn by Nixonaires (airline stewardesses who supported the campaign)—and a commemorative scarf for Richard Nixon’s presidential inauguration. Reflecting Welch’s enterprising attitude, the chair of the inaugural committee noted that they selected her to design for the event “because ‘she got to us first.’”
