As President Donald Trump arrived for Inauguration Day on Monday, Melania Trump was by his side looking as fashionable as ever.
The First Lady, 54, wore a navy Adam Lippes overcoat over a white shirt paired with black leather gloves and a navy wide-brimmed hat with white trim by designer Eric Javits atop her slicked-back hair for a prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
The look was a stark contrast to her 2017 powder blue Ralph Lauren dress and coat, which many likened to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Second Lady Usha Vance, meanwhile, went for something brighter for Inauguration Day festivities, wearing a pale pink overcoat with light grey gloves and knee-high boots. With her hair slicked back into an updo, the lawyer wore sparkly statement earrings.
Largely since November, Melania has opted for neutrals, like the black and white polka dot Dior shirtdress she wore to vote in Palm Beach, Fla. and the grey Dior suit for his Election Night victory speech.
For the President’s Reception at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on Saturday, she donned a grey Dior overcoat and Dolce & Gabbana suit.
On the eve of the inauguration, she chose an all-black look — Dior coat, leather opera gloves and Christian Louboutin boots — for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. She later changed into a crisp white Dolce & Gabbana collared blouse and sequin Carolina Herrera skirt topped with a black Saint Laurent tuxedo cape overcoat for the candlelight dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Trump’s stylist Herve Pierre has previously admitted that “ninety-five percent” of Melania’s outfits are purchased off the rack, as opposed to working with designers to custom-make her clothes.
In fact, he told Women’s Wear Daily that he was once shopping in a Madison Avenue store — he did not name the storm as not to “give them this free publicity” — when he was informed he “was not welcome here.”
“The fashion industry is not very welcoming [of Trump.] That’s no secret,” he said.
But the inauguration is heralding in what many expect will be four years of glam in the White House.
“She’s one of the most beautiful women who’s ever graced the White House,” Jayme Franklin, founder and CEO of the Conservateur, told the Washington Post. “I would say she’s on par with Jackie O. And she has incredible style.”
Franklin said that starting the Conservateur was largely inspired by Melania and Ivanka Trump.
“There were a lot of beautiful women who worked in the Trump White House and dressed impeccably and were so smart and sophisticated, and just didn’t get their due from Vogue or other fashion magazines because of their conservative beliefs,” she said.
Read the full article here