It is even worse if the formal party is at the White House, and the guests include the President of the United States.

But when you are the First Lady and no fewer than three of your guests arrive wearing the same Oscar de la Renta outfit as you, there is only one thing to do: run upstairs and change.

The offending black-tie White House reception on Sunday night has already become known as the Ladies in Red party.

In a fashion faux pas not seen in Washington since Jimmy Carter persisted in wearing a very unpresidential cardigan in the Oval Office, Laura Bush arrived to host the black-tie reception only to see that three of her guests were wearing exactly the same gown.

“Evidently Oscar is very popular this season,” Mrs Bush’s press secretary, Susan Whitson, said of the £5,000 red Oscar de la Renta embroidered tulle jacket and floor-length trumpet skirt that was on a four-way simultaneous display in the White House. “It just goes to show that no one can resist a beautiful red gown.”

When Mrs Bush saw the other guests, she made an executive decision and went to change into a black lace dress.

“She didn’t want the other guests to feel uncomfortable,” Ms Whitson told The Washington Post. She added that the First Lady and the President had laughed about the incident.

Sadly for Mrs Bush, the fashion faux pas will be hard to forget. Earlier that evening she had posed with President Bush for the official White House Christmas card, which will be sent to thousands of friends and political allies. Her dress? The Oscar de la Renta number.

Letitia Baldridge, who was Jackie Kennedy’s chief of staff and White House social secretary, said that Mrs Bush’s dress was undoubtedly beautiful, but finding three others in the same room was unprecedented and very embarrassing.

“Jacqueline Kennedy, when she was First Lady, made sure — and her couturiers made sure — that nobody else wore that dress that season,” Ms Baldridge told CBS News. She added that Mrs Bush’s decision to change “was the right thing to do, [to] take the heat off the other women.

“They all should have congratulated one another on their good taste and the fact that they could afford the dress,” Ms Baldridge said.

She also had some sympathy for the three women who had no chance to slip upstairs and change. “I would have laughed and laughed and I would have said, listen, I’m not going to stand next to her because I’m fatter than she is. But other than than that I think it’s a hoot.”

Mrs Bush has a fondness for both red dresses and Oscar de la Renta. She wore a red lace gown for Mr Bush’s first inauguration in January 2001.

For the myriad balls she attended on the night of her husband’s second inauguration last January, she donned a pale-blue embroidered evening gown designed by de la Renta, who dressed Hillary Clinton for her husband’s second inauguration.

Mrs Bush is also a sponsor of the charity Heart Truth, which raises awareness about women and heart disease through a collection of red dresses. She has donated previous red de la Renta creations to the organisation.

While Mrs Bush has successively navigated the sharp pens of Washington’s fashion watchers, Mrs Clinton was less successful. The former First Lady — and possibly the next president — was frequently criticised for her hairstyle and dress sense.

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