Keen fashion watchers on Inauguration Day have noticed a further instance of Melania Trump “borrowing” from yet another First Lady.
After all, her speech at the Republican National Convention last summer had blocks of text plagiarized from a speech Michelle Obama had given. Of course, her husband blamed it on the poor speech writer – but it did paint his wife in a rather awkward “borrower” kind of light.
Now, Mrs. Trump is garnering high braise for the sky blue Ralph Lauren double faced cashmere dress, wrapped jacket with funnel neck and 3/4 length sleeves, five inch heels, pale blue matching long gloves and clutch – all by America’s most American designer, Ralph Lauren. No, it’s nothing resembling Michelle Obama’s style: Michelle goes for reds and blacks and burgundy tones, full skirts, longer length, etc.
But Melania’s all monochromatic look: matching shift dress, jacket, shoes, gloves, etc. – is reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s look at her husband’s inauguration in 1961: she also wore a high collar, matching gloves, and a jacket over the look.
Now, Jackie O – probably the most praised FLOTUS for her original fashion sense and a total style icon – is a good First Lady to emulate – if you have to emulate at all. She was famed for monochromatic one-color looks, gloves, pillbox hats, feminine colors: you might remember the famous pink suit the tragic day JFK was killed. Even after she was long out of the White House, crazed paparazzi followed the new Mrs. Onassis everywhere, down the streets of New York, wanting to catch a glimpse of her white jeans and big black sunglasses.
Michelle Obama was also extremely stylish in all her eight years, getting three Vogue covers – but her style was completely original, completely her own. She wasn’t borrowing from anyone.
If Melania wants to raise the bar to style icon status – and being a New York society woman, that’s no doubt quite important to her – she’s going to have to develop a more original – or just – original – style of her own. And the tight-sexy-chic she sported in New York City is probably not going to cut it. It won’t play in Peoria, as they say.
Our advice: hire a great stylist from the fashion world to help create a new look that’s specifically all her own. Of course, the new FLOTUS did ask Vogue contributor Andre Leon Talley to help her dress for the inauguration – but he got so much flack from fashion insiders, he had to turn her down.
