Hillary Clinton made her first appearance at the Met Gala after more than two decades and wore a red carpet dress embroidered with the names of historic American women she admires.

The former first lady and Secretary of State had 60 names, including Madeline Albright, Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Lady Bird Johnson, and her mother, Dorothy Rodham, sewn into the custom Joseph Altuzarra gown.

Altuzarra told Vogue his handwriting was used to write the names of historic women important to Ms Clinton, which were then hand-embroidered onto the maroon gown.

“I knew that I wanted the dress to have a personal component for her,” said Altuzarra.

“When someone like Hillary goes to the Met, it’s not just like, �?there’s Hillary at the Met and she’s wearing a dress.’ It has a lot of significance.

“I felt like I had to be very thoughtful about what the dress would mean to the theme and to the occasion.”

It was Ms Clinton’s first appearance at the New York event since 2001, and she told the magazine’s Hamish Bowles that she had “promised” to come “every 20 years.”

“For better or worse, whatever she wears is dissected and analyzed so thoroughly that you have to be very thoughtful about the choices that you make,” added Altuzarra.

“Obviously I was thinking about making her look great, but I was also thinking about the story she’s going to be telling through this dress, and how she would actually vocalise that when people ask her about it. I wanted that story to be something she felt a personal connection to.”