From the Jackie Kennedy styling at the inauguration to the misguided stilettoes she wore en route to meet flood victims, we can learn an awful lot about US politics from Melania Trump’s 2017 wardrobe
The first lady does not dress like a first lady. She doesn’t dress like a politician’s wife at all. Melania Trump’s look is that of the wife of a wealthy businessman – it is about money not people. But then her husband, the US president for the best part of a year, does not identify with being a politician. “I’m a businessman” remains one of his catchphrases, a year after his inauguration.
On inauguration day, when Melania made her debut appearance as first lady, there were signs that she intended to adopt the aesthetic of a traditional White House chatelaine. The raised collar of her skirt suit was a nod to Jackie Kennedy’s iconic tailoring, and duly remarked on as such by every fashion commentator, as was surely the point. The Tiffany-blue colour and the matt glow cashmere suggested the kind of patrician east-coast elegance with which the Kennedys are closely associated and which the Trumps are not. That Melania had been dressed by an iconic American designer – Ralph Lauren – was a retort to Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs and the other New York fashion names who had publicly snubbed her business.
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