10 Jul 2017

Melania Trumps Fashion

Ladies and gents, when was the last time we took such an interest in a First Lady's attire? Jackie Kennedy set a fashion precedent back in her day for sure but her successors did not follow suit, either by choice or disregard to becoming a style ambassador. Fashion became irrelevant, it faded into backgrounds of tame wallflowers and obligatory tea parties, sugared out and watered down in a self-imposed protocole of blandness and drabness, epitomised by a middle-aged dress attitude and safe colours of creams, magnolias and other sickly pastels worn conservatively in designs unchanged and unchallenged, the sort that typifies English royalty of a certain age.

Dress by Hervé Pierre and coat by Bottega Veneta, Hamburg City Hall, Germany

I mean, who could have gushed over Barbara Bush's granny-like attire, or even Nancy Reagan's, one blue rinse and two carat diamonds up from your grandma's Sunday best. I will not even talk about Laura Bush because we are then in garden society board meeting territory. And I doubt Michelle Obama ever transited from her office job to FLOTUS in all honesty.

Scuba-knit découpage dress by Delpozo, Copernicus Science Center, Warsaw, Poland

Now a soft revolution is taking place in the closets. Melania is a fashion ambassador that fashion designer dreams are made of. Apart from the likes of Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and Zac Posen who adamantly chose to shun her at their peril. Beware because wherever Melania goes, the garments she wore that day sell out like hot cakes! A boon for designers like Dolce & Gabbana who are making sure the world knows how proud they are to dress the First Lady who to them personifies the #DGWoman par excellence!

Dolce & Gabbana floral coat, G7 First Ladies visit, Catania, Italy

Aside from certain high-ticket accessories (her ethical fashion faux-pas Hermès crocodile-skin Birkin handbag and her $51,500 D&G floral coat), Melania's dress attire generally does not exceed the $2,100-$3,000 bracket, a snip by billionaire standards - and only a little extravagant by middle-class standards: either mummy gets her designer dress or the family takes a two-week vacation in the sun.

FL Melania in a $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana coat. The price tag will trigger liberals, but -- too bad! The Trump family epitomizes the American Dream.” - TrumpAdmin.daily.updates

Scuba-knit découpage dress by Delpozo, Warsaw, Poland

Talking of crocodile skin, every Melania fan who supports her style but refuses to compromise on their animal advocacy values at the same time, dreams that Melania will one day soon enough add another feather of compassion in her cap by wearing fur and animal skin no more. Well, fret not because Pamela Anderson took up the challenge earlier this year by sending Melania a fur-free coat from ethical faux-fur Russian company Only Me that did not go unnoticed. Melania pledged to ditch the fur, while this could be the start of a beautiful friendship for those two ladies, you never know!

“Amid all the mania at the inauguration, you looked stunning in an outfit by Ralph Lauren—one of many fur-free designers.  I am so happy that you chose not to wear fur! As first lady, you will help set style trends, and by remaining compassionate with your choices, you will warm the hearts of many.” - Pamela Anderson in a letter to Melania Trump

We never expected a lady like Melania to fade away in a background of magnolia wallflowers. She has the demure elegance, the grace, the poise, the features, the shape, the beauty all rolled into divine proportions to carry off much more than her predecessors' safe shades and patterns. She knows how to hold herself, carry herself and project a statement of sensibility and confidence. So far as the FLOTUS, she has worn items by couture houses as diverse as Ralph Lauren (on inauguration day) and Hervé Pierre (on inauguration night), Dolce & Gabbana, Emilio Pucci, Delpozo, Diane Von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Bottega Veneta, and high-heel footwear maestros Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin. Rest assured that the list will have reached stellar heights by the end of the Trump presidency.

Floral-print crêpe gown by Emilio Pucci, The White House, Washington DC

On an interview last year with Harper's Bazaar, Melania was asked which First Lady she admired most and found most inspirational in terms of style and was prompted with the names of Jackie and Nancy. She brushed those away in a snip and replied emphatically that her fellow fashion model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (former French First Lady) was her inspiration. What a statement! Why fade away between the teapot and the Bourbon biscuit when you can carry on being what you were made famous for: an attractive, confident, head-turning fashion icon!

First Lady Melania Trump, wearing a Dolce & Gabbana outfit, official White House portrait

Yet Melania goes beyond the superficiality of fashion. She carefully chooses her dresses to bring a message, like her Delpozo scuba-knit dress she wore on her visit to Poland and whose pop art colours carry a strong nationalistic message (they reflect the colours worn by the Polish military). Prior to her husband being elected, she also wore a vibrant pink Gucci pussy-bow blouse at the second presidential TV debates, following her husband's notorious 'Grab them by the pussy' line. If this was not her tongue-in-cheek way of diffusing a hyped-up situation, I wonder what was.

Gucci pussy-bow blouse, second presidential TV debates (October 2016)

Melania is proving that a former fashion model is not a clothes horse. She has come a long way since inauguration day where her reserve, nervousness and slight reticence at times were palpable, especially under the magnified anti-Trump media scrutiny. Melania is blossoming out right before our very eyes as a First Lady who has managed to incorporate her love of fashion into her political agenda. She is a Trump powerhouse all to herself and will be remembered in her own right by bringing more than just fashion personality (back) into the political arena.

Sharp and crisp on her way to Bedminster NJ! 

We can thank Melania for the fact that she is putting feminity back into both the fashion and political agendas. She makes a woman proud to be a woman once again. She shows us that you can be in your mid-forties and still be and look relevant, dapper and (so be said) a smouldering sex bomb. And with that, Melania slaps feminism in the face: no you shouldn't be sloppy in looks and attitudes in order to prove yourself to the world. Feminity is to be celebrated and embraced, not diminished and ridiculed!

She's a woman, a mother, a wife and a lady too! (pict source)

You watch my words: by empowering women through their reaffirmed graceful feminity and the values she stands for, Melania will come to be remembered as the best FLOTUS ever. The irony of it all is that she wasn't even born in the US and yet she incarnates American values more than her predecessors, some of whom harboured a strong anti-American stance (anti-prosperity, anti-ambition). Overall Melania is proving that being of foreign origin and having an accent should not prevent you from rising to the top - with grace. When it comes to the improbable marriage of politics and fashion, you seek a complimentarity of style between the two and Melania struck the balance effortlessly.  

I might not be American and not approve each and every one of her fashion choices but Melania sure is my First Lady.

@pamfoundation

More of Melania on Instagram: @trumpadmin.daily.updates ° @flotus ° @theofficialmelaniatrump ° @realdonaldtrump ° @stefanogabbana °

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