Thus, among the highlights of " Uncommon Threads " are the lavishly embroidered velvet jacket and knee pants worn by John Gerard Coster to George Washington's inaugural ball in 1789, as well as the costumes, based on 18th-century French court styles, in which Mr . and Mrs . Cornelius Vanderbilt II welcomed guests to the first ball at their freshly completed Fifth Avenue mansion nearly 100 years later.
