As President Donald Trump arrived for Inauguration Day festivities on Monday, Melania Trump was by his side looking as fashionable as ever in a custom ensemble that, according to style experts, may reshape the American fashion landscape.
The first lady, 54, wore a navy Adam Lippes tailored navy silk wool coat, a navy silk wool pencil skirt and an ivory silk crepe blouse, all designed by Lippes and handsewn in New York City.
“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,” Lippes told The Post 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.”
She paired the ensemble with black leather gloves and a navy wide-brimmed hat with white trim by designer Eric Javits atop her slicked-back hair for the day, which began at 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’s FLOTUS playbook.
But Melania’s choice to don two American designers — Lippes and Javits — is noteworthy, Emma McClendon, Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies at St. John’s University, told The Post.
“Adam Lippes is a fantastic, high-end American designer but he does not have the high profile that Ralph Lauren does,” she said. “It’s an interesting choice because it shows her potentially using her platform to showcase, to highlight, maybe lesser-known American designers not as immediately recognizable as those high and luxury global brands.”
McClendon said that Melania’s choice of a very sharply tailored suit and classic hat is a significant moment in American fashion, too.
“There’s a historically grounded sense of taste and appropriateness,” she said of Trump’s recent choices over the past few months. “The inauguration does not exist in a vacuum. This is not her first time around. Fashion is like physics for reaction. It points to a real interest in a return to an older world sense of taste, and returning to tailoring and a classic version of taste and modesty in terms of dressing.”
It could also be a pivotal moment for hats, as first ladies generally choose not to wear toppers at the inauguration.
McClendon said that “hats have not been a major part of an American woman’s wardrobe for decades,” nor do Americans typically wear them for dressed-up occasions.
“That’s actually a trend to watch. We’ve already seen hats become part of the sort of fashion discourse. People are playing with hats more,” she said. “Shoppers might become more interested in hats again.”
“There is something again very old world, traditional in the use of a hat,” she added. “There’s been a return of interest to some of these elements that have maybe faded out of the everyday wardrobe for most people. This is something that’s not happening in a vacuum.”
And apart from Melania, the last first lady to wear a hat at an inauguration was Nancy Reagan in 1985. But the hat could be a signal for a much bigger shift, McClendon said.
“This is a different approach to dressing that we haven’t seen for a long time,” she said of the move towards “resuscitating vintage, historical codes of dressing.”
“Whether it’s brooches or hats, these styles maybe our grandmothers wore but haven’t been part of our everyday fashion codes. That’s what fashion loves. Something new and something we haven’t seen for a while. It comes back and it looks new.”
Classic was also on Usha Vance’s mind, too. The second lady went for something brighter for Inauguration Day festivities, wearing a pale pink overcoat with light gray gloves and knee-high boots. With her hair slicked back into an updo, the lawyer wore sparkly statement earrings.
McClendon said the monochrome ensemble obviously harkens back to Jackie Kennedy.
Meanwhile, Jill Biden chose purple which was a clear message of bipartisanship — and a large trend at the inauguration in 2021.
“Purple traditionally has been used in politics by women in particular as a symbol of bipartisanship. It is the color that we get from literally combining blue and red,” McClendon explained. “It is significant. It’s a transition of power.”
As for Melania, she’s largely opted for neutrals this go-around, like the black and white polka dot Dior shirtdress she wore to vote in Palm Beach, Fla. and the gray 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 gray 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.
Of course, Melania is no stranger to style, so her good taste shows, according to McClendon.
“Fashion is a social language,” she said. “Melania was a model. She’s worked in fashion her whole life. This is not a language that is new to her. She is very aware and so she is going to be very conscious of the messages that she’s sending with her clothes.”
And the fact she’s gotten a custom piece for Inauguration Day could be a major shift, which McClendon said experts will closely watch.
Trump’s stylist Hervé 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.”
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