Nothing Else Melania Trump Wears Will Ever Matter Again
The Only Thing I'll Ever Miss About the Trumps
The pussy bows. The capes. The refusal to wear sleeves. I can no longer deny my affection for Melania's bizarre, gaudy first lady mode.
Two weeks removed, I am in almost no manner mourning the end of the Trump administration. From life-or-death matters to more than petty things like the quality of our conversations, Donald Trump'southward tenure in the White Firm made America worse by just about every conceivable metric.
Except one, maybe! Equally Slate's sporadic way contributor, I did not hate the time I spent poring over Melania Trump'southward outfits. The former first lady didn't do many things worth writing almost—and the ones she did were often racist, stupid, or otherwise contemptible—simply her wearing apparel were oft compelling to me, a fact I take resisted long enough. Like it or not, since first ladies have no official policymaking role, fashion is one of the few arenas in which they can polish—and Melania frequently did, in pleasingly strange ways.
At that place were some pieces of Melania's wardrobe I genuinely liked. Ane of the few things she and I share in common is a proclivity for pussy bows and voluminous sleeves, so I had to begrudgingly appreciate the pink Gucci blouse she wore to an otherwise horrifying presidential debate in 2016, and the ii hitting Delpozo ensembles she sported in the fall of 2017. I dug the disco vibes of the broad-legged jumpsuits she wore on a trip to Riyadh in 2022 and at Trump'south campaign kickoff in 2020, which she paired with metallic belts that were gigantic and just huge, respectively. I was somewhat wowed past the oversize goldenrod-and-fuchsia Valentino greatcoat that threatened to swallow her whole during a visit with Prince Charles and Camilla in 2019. It cut a cheeky figure confronting the stuffy properties of the prince's residence, and it looked rather cozy for a Dec trip to London.
Only generally, when I found myself appreciating a Melania outfit, it was because her wardrobe was largely out of step with start lady tradition, and ofttimes directly-up weird. She eschewed both the demure, pastel-and-patriotic mien historically associated with the role and the more recent J. Crew populism of Michelle Obama in favor of bright colors, architectural silhouettes, and relentless stiletto pumps. She wore what she wanted, and what she wanted was large-name European designers, Barbie heels, signifiers of upper-crust leisure, and the sort of oversize sunglasses associated with celebrities who desire to evade the paparazzi. She seemed to give no thought to what message her choice of vesture sent to the hundreds of millions of people watching—fifty-fifty as it was often the only message she delivered. In ane of the Trump administration'southward few forays into honesty, her spokeswoman told the Washington Mail, "She does not worry most her critics or paying tribute to specific designers." Fair plenty!
Some of Melania's choices felt more than in the mode of Fox News anchor than first lady: She wore bare legs nether a red Givenchy minidress in one of her kickoff appearances in the role, and she was no stranger to visible cleavage or high-cut slits in leather skirts. Others were explicit departures from convention: What was the bargain with the first couple'due south matching tuxedos in its final White House Christmas card? Under any other president, at that place would accept been countless analysis of that symbolism-rich epitome. Merely given the steady stream of Trump assistants outrages and the knowledge that there was never any hidden meaning to anything Melania did, it barely registered.
Many more Melania outfits were but bizarre, revealing a total lack of understanding of—or interest in—how her presence afflicted and interacted with her surroundings. Why oh why, for instance, would she wear lime green on the last night of the 2022 Republican National Convention? The Valentino gown was fine on its ain, but information technology clashed with everything else: the plenteous flags, the carpet, the black-and-blue palette established by her family unit members. In photos, brightened by fine art directors for publication, the dress was fifty-fifty more garish, its blown-out color obscuring its corrupt pleats. This was the clothes of a woman who couldn't be bothered to recollect of herself as part of a team, or to consider how her wear might await outside the context of a stylist'due south rack, rails, or red carpet.
Melania'south stunted agreement of fashion also resulted in hilariously on-the-nose getups. She favored cargo jackets and olive drab when visiting the troops. She wore a cherry-red plaid cape for a Christmas-tree issue and an autumnal brocade (a tribute to your grandmother's sofa) to aid pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. A trip to Egypt called for a cream fedora and slacks—Indiana Jones, merely make it manner (and dry-clean information technology). To play up the twin threats of heavily armed civilians and rising nationalism, Melania cosplayed in a militia-chic battle jacket for her 2022 RNC speech communication. The worst in this category was the pith helmet she wore in Kenya, on the aforementioned 2022 tour that included her Egypt moment, likewise every bit several other appearances in olive drab and safari gear. Yes, it was colonialist, but information technology was also a sign that Melania approached her every first lady duty as a kind of themed photoshoot, à la America's Next Acme Model. While the world held its breath waiting for a volatile president'southward next moves, Melania played dress-up.
Still, fifty-fifty as the Trump presidency stretched over an interminable four years, I never tired of keeping up with Melania's wardrobe. My endurance owed in part to her unabashed embrace of luxury—I exercise non rue the minutes I spent ogling the craftsmanship on that $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana coat—and to the satisfying caricature she presented of a rich lady whose entire identity is being proud of being rich. You could encounter information technology in the way she never put her arms in her coat sleeves only made sure to one-half-pop the collars on the button-down shirts she wore for natural disaster visits and other downward-'northward'-dirty occasions. There are plenty of smarmy would-be billionaires, like Kelly Loeffler, who'll force themselves into trucker hats and flannel on the campaign trail to approximate a working-class artful. I'll always prefer the honesty of Melania.
There are no wide takeaways from Melania's four years in the fashion spotlight. Her style just wasn't that deep. She considered the role of political spouse beneath her, and her disdain came through in her dress. She dressed for the cameras, just not for the job. The 1 fourth dimension she did effort to make a statement with her habiliment—the "I really don't care do u?" jacket, which she wore on a trip to visit migrant children—it was a massive fail: Despite the fact that the inane sentence was literally written on her back, information technology was entirely inscrutable. Was it making a mockery of the plight of migrant families? A jab at Ivanka? An try at trolling the "liberal media" she hated?
No 1 e'er figured information technology out. Did we care? Not actually. In the end, the jacket news bicycle was a good metaphor for the role Melania'south style played in the administration, at least for me. In the midst of the sustained man rights abuses enacted by her husband, information technology was a relief to be temporarily diverted by something completely inconsequential.
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Source: https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/02/melania-trump-fashion-fine-its-good.html
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