First lady Melania Trump seems to have a new style strategy for her husband’s second term in office: incognito mode.
On January 20, the first lady stepped out for the day of inaugural ceremonies in a double-breasted navy coat from American designer Adam Lippes, styled with a matching pair of stiletto heels, black leather gloves, and the pièce de résistance, a wide-brim Eric Javits hat, worn low across her brow bone.
“The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our first lady, Mrs. Melania Trump,” wrote Lippes in a statement shared on social media. “Mrs. Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”
Melania’s hat, likewise, was handcrafted by American designer Eric Javits himself. The brand re-shared a photo of the designer applying the white band to the piece that would later grace the first lady’s head and draw comparisons to Google Chrome’s “incognito” logo.
Unlike the powder blue Ralph Lauren ensemble Melania wore to the 2017 swearing-in ceremony of her husband, the navy coat is understated and serious. Her previous look, which included a pristine pair of matching gloves, couldn’t be more different. It seemed to invoke Jackie Kennedy, arguably the first celebrity first lady. A windswept updo and diamond studs completed the picture of a Jackie O acolyte, warm and feminine and approachable.
This time around, Melania’s buttoned-up coat gave her the appearance of a chic, old-timey spy. She seemed reserved and austere, while still retaining the polish for which defined her first four years as FLOTUS. Like a spy, she also seemed to be wearing her outer layers like protection, a physical barrier between herself and the world.
Seated behind the podium where Donald Trump took the oath of office to become the 47th president of the United States, Melania kept both her coat and hat on for the entirety of the ceremony. Her brim, tilted low, cast a thick shadow over her eyes, shielding her from the view of millions of Americans who were lying in wait for some kind of reaction. (This time around, they got that reaction from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who seemed to involuntarily chuckle at the president’s declaration that the Gulf of Mexico would now be known as the Gulf of America.)
Amid the sea of dark suits, Melania was difficult to pluck out of the crowd, unlike, say, Second Lady Usha Vance, who dressed in a pastel pink wool coat, her hair tucked in a chignon to show her face. Was this bit of camouflage an unintended consequence of her chosen outfit, or an intentional attempt to blend in with the crowd, and go (relatively) unnoticed? If we know Melania Trump, she’ll never say.
However, her absence on the campaign trail was the first hint that maybe we’d be seeing less of Donald’s better half in the second Trump administration. Earlier this month, the first lady confirmed that while she will consider the White House her home, she will also be spending plenty of time in Florida and New York City, where her son Barron is in his first year of college at NYU.
Read moreIvanka Trump’s Custom Oscar de la Renta Pre-Inauguration Dress Has Already Caused a Commotion
Welcome to the next four years.
By Sam Reed
During her husband’s first term in the White House, Melania was reported to have hated the press’s obsession with her, the former Slovenian model turned First Lady of the United States. She especially despised the attention she received for the clothes she wore, and seemed to tell her detractors as much in that infamous Zara coat which read, “I don’t really care, do u?”
By dressing in more muted colors at the inauguration, her auburn hair tucked into a low bun at the base of her neck, could Melania could be signaling that we’ll be getting less from her, style-wise, this time around? The better question is probably: Will her incognito style strategy actually work?
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