In 1961, John F. Kennedy made a statement on his Inauguration Day by taking off his hat. This time around, Melania Trump did so by keeping her hat on.
To be specific, by keeping on the navy boater-style toque that matched the navy double-breasted coat, navy pencil skirt and ivory blouse Mrs. Trump chose for her husband’s, swearing-in.
It’s not that wearing a hat to a presidential inauguration is so unusual. Previous first ladies, including Mamie Eisenhower, Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy, wore hats on Inauguration Day. It’s just that said hats were usually of the pillbox sort, specifically conceived not to hide the first lady’s face.
Mrs. Trump’s inaugural hat, by contrast, had a brim so broad that it shaded her eyes. Whatever she was thinking was impossible to see — by design. (It also made it hard for her husband to get anywhere near her cheek for a kiss, and drew some comparisons to Zorro.) Along with her tightly buttoned coat and high-neck blouse, the hat gave her an air of mystery and inaccessibility that was unusual for an inauguration, when the first family is traditionally put on view as the new face of the nation.
It was, however, in line with the guarded image Mrs. Trump has cultivated since her husband emerged on the political scene. Not to mention the promise of an imperial presidency that President Trump has dangled.
That she declined to remove her hat and coat even inside the Capitol Rotunda, and even while Mr. Trump took the oath of office, only underscored the point. Mrs. Trump may have just written a best-selling memoir, and be producing a documentary about her second stint in the White House, but she is drawing her own borders.
Notably, Mrs. Trump was not alone in keeping on her outerwear. Ivanka Trump in forest green Dior and Usha Vance in peony-pink Oscar de la Renta also stayed coated. In part that’s because most of the inaugural looks had been conceived for an outdoor ceremony, in which the coats, rather than anything underneath them, were expected to take center stage. When the decision was made to move the swearing-in inside, it was too late to change the outfits.
But Mrs. Trump’s ’fit also offered a clear contrast with the image she had conveyed at her husband’s first inauguration, when she went hatless and wore a baby-blue Ralph Lauren look that recalled no one so much as Jackie Kennedy. At the time, the look seemed to imply that Mrs. Trump was, indeed, cognizant of Washington mores and was making an effort to situate herself firmly in the continuum of first ladies who had gone before.
This time is different.
The inaugural hat was like nothing so much as the broad-brimmed white hat Mrs. Trump wore during a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife in 2018, which likewise made waves and which she auctioned off in 2022 as an “iconic broad-brimmed one-of-a-kind hat.” Her reference was herself.
For the second swearing-in, Mrs. Trump did conform to historical norms by choosing an American designer for her hat and coat. And not just one American designer but, for the hat, Eric Javits, a New York milliner, and, for the coat, the New York designer Adam Lippes (whose work she and Dr. Biden had previously worn). Still, there was something removed and uncompromising about the style.
The net effect was less elevated accessibility than British royal walkabout (even if it did have the undeniable air of a governess about it). So, too, the caped Dior coat Mrs. Trump wore to the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, and the long Saint Laurent tuxedo cape she wore over a Dolce & Gabbana white shirt and sequined Carolina Herrera skirt to the candlelight dinner later that day, were more regal than regular (even regular black tie).
That left it to the second lady, Ms. Vance, to go through the motions of playing by the old rules. Which she did with deliberation. (Ms. Vance does not have an official stylist, though she did have some help from a friend who works with a fashion brand. She even bought one outfit — the coat and dress she wore to the Arlington ceremony — online.)
Ms. Vance hewed to the America-first designer narrative, with one important exception, as well as to the practice of wearing designers both classic and new, the better to share the spotlight.
It began on Saturday night at the vice president-elect’s dinner, when she wore a black velvet column from Oscar de la Renta, that being a bipartisan go-to brand for first ladies on both sides of the aisle. The sartorial balancing act continued through the wreath-laying at Arlington, when Ms. Vance appeared in a white Sergio Hudson matching dress and coat, a nod to a Black designer who was favored by Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris.
Her outreach was further underscored at the president-elect’s candlelight dinner, when she wore a strapless dress by the Indian designer Gaurav Gupta to honor her Indian heritage. And it culminated in more Oscar de la Renta at the swearing-in. (Oscar de la Renta also dressed Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush for previous inaugurations.)
Ms. Vance’s clothes, along with Mrs. Trump’s look, reflected that fact that, much as with the tech titans at the swearing-in, some leaders in the fashion industry are creating distance between themselves and the much-publicized efforts of late 2016 to move away from the Trump family and administration. Instead, they are reframing the relationship.
“The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy,” Mr. Lippes said in a statement. “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.”
Alex Bolen, the chief executive of Oscar de la Renta (which also outfitted Ivanka Trump for the Arlington ceremony and the candlelight dinner, and may take the record for most inaugural outfits by any one label), wrote much the same in a text. “Oscar always felt that we should try to associate our brand with women of accomplishment — leaders and doers,” he said. “We would never decline the opportunity to work with a leader based solely on their politics. Further, as an American brand, we are honored to be associated with the wonderful traditions surrounding our presidential inauguration.”
Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH, was also at the swearing-in, as was his daughter Delphine, the chief executive of Dior, and his son Alexandre, who recently moved within the luxury empire from Tiffany & Company to Moët Hennessy.
It’s not just the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali that may be changing.
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