On the final night of the Republican convention, just in time for her husband’s official nomination as his party’s presidential candidate, Melania Trump finally took her place by his side — sort of.
She was the last Trump family member to make her entrance at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, stoking the will-she-or-won’t-she anticipation to the end, arriving well after Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who have also been largely absent during the campaign; Don Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Eric Trump and his wife, Lara; and Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos. (Barron Trump, Donald Trump’s son with Melania, did not appear, but assorted grandchildren did.)
She walked in alone, in a red suit and towering red heels, hair down, bestowing queenly waves on an adoring crowd.
If the suit struck a chord, that may be because it had been seen before. Mrs. Trump had worn the ensemble — from Dior, with a New Look silhouette — in 2017, when, as first lady, she visited Paris with her husband for the Bastille Day celebrations. For anyone who remembers that suit, seeing it again was like sliding down a wormhole to the recent past when the Trumps occupied the White House — a further reminder, like the virtual White House projected behind Mr. Trump as he made his speech, of the point of the whole shebang.
Mrs. Trump was offering something of a preview of how she may again play her part. (Not to mention the fact that, despite Mr. Trump’s statements about manufacturing in America and buying American, she has never seemed all that interested in that idea.)
It was a reminder, really, of just how formidable an accessory the former first lady can be when she so desires: both in the art of image-creation and in the game.
Accessories have been something of a thing, at this convention. Outré details are always part of the scene — the Wisconsin cheese hats, the Texas Stetsons, the creative uses of stars and stripes — but this time, more than most, they have played an outsize role, thanks largely to the white gauze bandage over Mr. Trump’s ear.
As much as a protective covering, the bandage was a symbol, if any were needed, of the assassination attempt at a rally last Saturday, an event that Mr. Trump recounted somberly at the beginning of his speech. It became a repository of emotions and meaning for the watching crowd: a sign of their candidate’s “defiance”; of his sacrifice; of, as speaker after speaker said beforehand, his God-given rescue. And it became not a rallying cry, but a rallying accessory.
(It also became, to Trump skeptics, an object of suspicion, with numerous commentators on social media questioning its validity.)
The bandage appeared on Day 1 of the convention, and by Day 2, a few attendees were sporting makeshift white rectangles of their own. By Day 3, free ear patches were being handed out outside the convention site, and faux bandages had become a trend — a sign of “love,” one attendee said. By Day 4, wearing a bandage had become a meme, with a video comparing it to the lemming-like high school trends satirized in “Mean Girls.”
“Everybody in the world is going to be wearing these pretty soon,” a delegate told CBS News.
Still, no one wore their bandage with as much aplomb as Mr. Trump himself, from beginning to end. That was when the Trump family, as well as Senator J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, joined Mr. Trump onstage to wave to the crowd, a picture of unity so patriotically color coordinated, it was the fashion equivalent of talking points.
There was Mr. Trump in his signature blue suit, crisp white shirt and bright red tie — and there was everyone else in variations on the theme.
Not only was Mrs. Trump in red, but so were Mrs. Vance and Ms. Guilfoyle. Ivanka wore a white skirt suit, and Tiffany wore trousers. In blue suits: all the Trump men and Mr. Vance, who — like his running mate and like Eric — wore red ties.
The one exception, Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair, wore a black suit. But it didn’t negate the effect, especially as red, white and blue balloons, accentuated by gold, rained from the ceiling.
Mr. Trump has always understood the promise implicit in his tendency to dress à la flag, the association of self with country that it connotes. With his family arrayed around him in matching outfits, he took the image to the next level.
It left a final picture that recalled nothing so much as a family greeting card, the “Trumpomania” version (to quote Hulk Hogan, who spoke at the convention just before Mr. Trump). Albeit one sent out to the world.
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