Melania Trump, what’s behind the first lady’s look on Inauguration Day
The image of Melania Trump at her husband’s inauguration ceremony on Capitol Hill on January 20, 2025 has already been consigned to the history of customs. One of those that was thought out in detail long before the gaze of the world could rest on it. infinitesimal, studied in colors and centimeters, designed so that fabric and accessories were a support for proxemics which, in events of this magnitude, is a formidable tool, a science to be explored in depth to decode a language that does not speak, but he says. Oh, if he says.
Long navy blue coat with double-breasted buttoning, gloves and wide-brimmed hat and ivory ribbon were the distinctive elements of the Flotus’ look which, silent and sphinx-like, occupied the scene more than any other flashiness. A shady choice diametrically opposed to the light blue she sported way back in 2017, when Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States and she showed up wearing a dress by the American designer Ralph Lauren. Elegant yes, but too evocative of the unattainable icon Jackie Kennedy.
While this time Melania wanted to do “Melania” and alongside “The Donald” she has already imposed a presence that seems to want to be cumbersome just by being there.
Who dressed Melania Trump: the stylists
Melania Trump’s coat as well as the skirt were made by Adam Lippes, an American designer with a past at Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta, already the protagonist of the garments crammed into the first lady’s wardrobe in the past. The hat, on the other hand, is the accessory which, with its rigidity and that barely visible white, has captured the attention of telephoto lenses; the austere complement that allowed his gaze to penetrate only for a few fleeting moments (one of these was the moment of the kiss with the mouth extended to Trump’s effort), was created by Eric Javits, also – needless to say – very American .
“She has the inner grace, beauty and presence to transform what was really a very simple and restrained hat style into what became a ‘wow’ moment. The First Lady’s hat was made with love,” she said. wrote the creator of Melania’s ornament on his social profiles, accompanying the video which demonstrated the meticulous creation almost entirely by hand and the photos which enhanced the effect on the wearer’s top model appearance.
“Sign of a change”
Before Melania, the last first lady to wear a hat to an inauguration was Nancy Reagan in 1985. Could it be the push towards a return to the past also in terms of fashion? “The hat could be a signal for a much bigger change,” Emma McClendon, associate professor of fashion studies at St. John’s University, told the Post: “It’s a different approach to dressing that we haven’t seen in a long time.” . A reflection which, in light of what was claimed before the Inauguration day by the Mail OnLine, according to which Melania would not find any stylist willing to dress her as Trump’s wife, seems to go in the direction of those who whisper that for this very reason the first lady would have been “forced” to rely on the resources of a wardrobe that reworks the glory of the past to propagate it as a trend of the future.
But be that as it may, whatever happens, ultimately fashion is, and always has been, a flow of courses and references that cite without copying. A style that this time puts a wide-brimmed hat on his head and warns that the scene is his and he will take it, he has already taken it. Like it or not. De gustibus.
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