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 °

Palm Beach for Starters

How else to start up 2017 than on a high note? As President-Elect Trump celebrated the holiday over at his Mar-a-Lago estate with his family and friends, Mirabelle is taking over Palm Beach for the New Year! Throughout the coming weeks, Mirabelle's #TrumpPower series will boldly bring you lifestyle examples that make you unashamedly aim high. The mindset is setting the tone for the forthcoming Trump presidency, where everyone will be encouraged and incentivised to aim high for themselves and their families, not to content with little or expect from the State to provide that meal ticket for life.

The new presidency is heralding an era that I define as hope materialised. Hope materialised takes off where the Obama & Co. administration failed as it promised hope and delivered nothing but division and warmongering under a socialist regime, where the idea of a strong, hard-working, ambitious, successful, proud, independent and patriotic America was derided. Hope materialised means the American nation's return to full-scale employment and prosperity. Now I am no fool: not everyone will ever be able to afford the Palm Beach lifestyle, and we do realise that even Palm Beach has its fair share of social problems. Yet I chose the locale specifically for my post because of its overall symbology of success and prestige - and good design. Don't look at Palm Beach as a tall order, look at it as a high aim!

If you seek Coastalicious and prestige rolled into one, Palm Beach - a stretch of barrier island in southern Florida a hop away from the Bahamas - is sure to cut the mustard. I have gleaned a few pictures and thrown in some decorative elements for good measure. Palm Beach shall be unashamedly recreated closer to home, courtesy of a colour trio scheme of pink, white and dark green, a gold lining for good measure, and a tropical theme of palm décor and wicker... and a pink flamingo or two. Entertain a little flamboyance (Chinoiserie) combined with a little restraint (design balance, geometric patterns, treillis and planters) and voilà! the Palm Beach theme is demure and sparkles like a Cotton Candy Champagne Cocktail at the exact same time. I believe Palm Beach has that Gemini kookiness!

"It is this eclectic mix of old and new, of Spanish and Caribbean, of contemporary design and sun-faded WASP thrift, that makes Palm Beach chic." - The Vendome Press

 

Sources: (1) The Palm Beach architectural style and interior design coffee table bibles include Palm Beach Chic by Jennifer Ash Rudick, photography by Jessica Klewicki Glynn, published by The Vendome Press in October 2015. The book gives us a ravishing insight into 25 exclusive Palm Beach homes. Daydreams to your days and sweet dreams to your nights are guaranteed! Book cover photography via The Glam Pad. (2) The essence of Palm Beach is encapsulated in this very picture: design-led poolside lifestyle of showroom quality, overpowering striped awning, oversized luxuriant flora (here hibiscus), rattan furniture, pink and dark green colour scheme, and an overall sense of design formality having fun. Historic renovation and extension ('Windsong Too' pavilion) of Windsong (cf Pict. #7), a 1939 Georgian Revival Palm Beach property, by Thomas Kirchhoff & Associates, interior decorator Mario Buatta. Photography by Scott Frances for the 'Master of Ceremonies' article by Architectural Digest magazine, July 2013 edition. (3-4) More stunning photography by Jessica Klewicki Glynn for Palm Beach Chic, via The Palm Beacher. (3) Welcome to the garden of Eden: lush and evergreen. Better come prepared: your furry friend and you might get a close poolside encounter with a snake or gator! (4) The magnificent stucco veranda serves as an outdoor living room that is anything but stuck up! Tchin-tchin to the blue chintz and rattan! (5) Dahlia Porcelain Flower by AERIN, via Neiman Marcus. No stranger to Palm Beach or to the coastal lifestyle for that matter, Aerin Lauder has produced a range of stylish homewares that will find themselves at home in coastal environments - and elsewhere. If beauty is on your mind, Aerin has it covered too. More about Aerin's collections from a previous Mirabelle post.  (6) The banyan trees of yesteryear are still to be found today around Palm Beach. This one, 'The Banyan Tree' was immortalised by American artist Emile Albert Gruppe (1896-1978); image via The Athenaeum. (7) Talking of banyan, those in the background at Windsong (cf Pict #2), frame this side of the garden in their curtain-like embrace. The stately exterior of the distinguished 1939 property is there to remind us that Palm Beach has been here a while. Traditional exterior designer, Bunny Williams Inc. Photography by Oberto Gili for the 'Glory Days' article by the now-defunct Home & Garden magazine, March 2006 edition, via Architectural Digest. Check out The Glam Pad for more Windsong sassiness! (8) Escape the Palm Beach locale and stay chic; a few miles down the road, quench the thirst of the day with a snazzy cocktail and soak up the retro-vintage ambience at Marion Miami. Take a 360° virtual tour peek here. Take a sip: Sherry Cobbler cocktail photography by Nicole Franzen. (9-10) Playa Grande Beach Club by Palm Beach-based Kemble Interiors marries Dominican insouciance with Palm Beach exuberance in order to produce "a fantastical medley of historic Dominican Victorian architectural elements mixed with the whimsy of Palm Beach garden follies." (11) Mid-century style dinner served with a Hollywood drama of powder pinks, rhododendron luxuriance and chinoiserie chic... in San Francisco, CA! Leo's Oyster Bar may be on the opposite coast to Palm Beach but not poles apart in terms of Palm Beach flavour. Photography by Stacie Flinner.

Presidential Showdown: Triumph for a New Cultural Era

In the wake of the presidential election of Donald J. Trump, the air has turned sharp and crisp with optimism and the promise of a reborn America like our parents had enjoyed. A new dawn is rising over the socialist paradigm swamp that had gripped the West since before our parents were even born (1930s), namely The Frankfurt School, serving under different guises the socialist agenda that is now in full swing.



Thanks to Mr. Trump, the global agenda of the private interests and corporate elites has been exposed to a wider segment of the population, and the new presidency will tackle it. Mr. Trump assured that under his presidency no dream will be too big. The forgotten man and the forgotten woman will rise and the USA will become prosperous again.

Alongside it, the cultural marxism that has infiltrated, compromised and jeopardised the mainstream media (MSM), education, religion, morality, family, employment, private property, cultural identity, national sovereignty, and thought process, will be challenged further and hopefully dismantled by the powers that be. The population will hopefully join in once they come to the realisation that they have been duped all along under the false premise of freedom of speech and freedom of choice.



Political change in America will send ripple effects and political change to Europe. Now unless you were born in Europe and have been enlightened about the detrimental effects of socialism and communism to a Nation, you will have no idea of the levels of mediocrity that European nations have been forced to sink to under the EU-UN umbrella over the last 35 years, and this includes design and lifestyle.

You will understand that as a design blog, Mirabelle has an obligation to report these facts to you and get political. I do respect voters choice yet I cannot help but be baffled by the Hollywood backlash against Trump and the dissent from the college kids who should know better but would rather burn the American flag and envisage their whole lives under a jobless, future-devoid, open-border, state-controlled economy that only serves the likes of Goldman Sachs, Bilderberg Group, George Soros, Monsanto and nefarious trade agreements like the TPP. Get a grip, kiddos!

(Pict source)

Although Mirabelle has strong reservations regarding Trump's policies for the environment, the new presidency will however redefine a new society, and creativity will soar to new heights like skyscrapers. Mirabelle is launching a new series: TrumpPower. Over the coming weeks, we will be exploring and celebrating the representation of prosperity and success in culture, art, design and fashion. Stay tuned!

Source: (1) The Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump John Lewis Christmas Ad, is based upon (2) the British high street retailer John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 that was cleverly 'reworked' by the creative crew at Joe. You gotta love Buster the Boxer... and the garden critters! (3) Congratulations to President-Elect Trump and to Vice President-Elect Pence on their electoral win! Thank You America photograph, via Donald J. Trump's official website.