Was there a mysterious double meaning in Melania Trump's black and white outfit at the inauguration ball?

Something very complex emanated from Melania Trump's style during her husband's inauguration on January 20. When I saw her through my screen climbing the steps of the Capitol, wearing her strange navy blue boater hat matching her severely designed coat, I understood that deciphering her look was not going to be an easy task. Firstly because I immediately knew that his headgear, which obscured half of his face throughout the event, contained a coded message designed to question the crowd and get Internet users to react (bingo ). After all, Hillary Clinton was the last politician to wear a hat at her husband's inauguration. But it was 1993, and he didn't cover his eyes…

Then because all my questions were once again put to the test a few hours later, during the big investiture ball. This moment when, as if nothing had happened, the First Lady of the United States arrived all smiles on her husband's arm in an immaculate strapless silk crepe dress with a very tight cut. A piece tied with a band of black silk gazar, which wrapped around her waist and accentuated this feeling of compression. Without forgetting her choker, this XXL ornamental band of black fabric which fitted tightly around her neck, stitched with a Harry Winston diamond brooch from 1955. There too, I saw through the dress a double meaning.

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The look First Lady ultra-powerful

“Melania Trump gives off something quite severe, she is in control of herself, analyzes for Madame Figaro Jamil Dakhlia, sociologist and media specialist. With this dress, she embodies this role that was written for her, the one that goes in a very gendered direction.” For the expert, the First Lady symbolizes with this piece a certain idea of ​​the tradition of American glamor of the 1930s and 1940s. Like him, I had no trouble distinguishing the faces of Rita Hayworth and Audrey Hepburn while admiring the cinematographic silhouette, to say the least. Old Hollywoodby Melania Trump. “It corresponds to a conventional image which often concerns first ladies. Melania is the embodiment of the trophy wife, she is there to highlight her husband, and she has the plasticity needed to achieve this.

A retro image, certainly, but also in tune with the times. Already, her dress is not signed by the latest fashion designer, but by Hervé Pierre, her personal stylist with whom she has been collaborating since 2017. The choice of fidelity, but also of minimalism, with this black and white duo timeless. No pop color, no eccentricity or spectacularity, which thus avoids the false sartorial note and a possible first bad buzz. What's more, this structured and tailor-made dress hugs and magnifies all the shapes of her body. She projects the image of a confident woman, in great shape, ultra-powerful… Ultimately, that of a First Lady more than comfortable in this role that she knows and masters. “The outfit can also express a dominant side, with this choker necklace that is both SM, dominated and dominant, it’s all its ambivalence.”

yin and yang

However, something more enigmatic is hidden beneath this seemingly sober silhouette. Starting with this black and white, which Jamil Dakhlia immediately points out: “She is the negative of her husband, in a yin and yang relationship. The black and white combo translates all this gender binary that Donald Trump puts forward, of a black and white world. Besides, he is all black with a little white, she is all white with a little black. And then, black and white are also the colors of prisoners in the United States.”

Her choker, for example, transmits this idea of ​​domination, of belonging to her husband. Here she presents herself as the anti-Jackie Kennedy.

Jamil Dakhlia, sociologist

I have to make up my mind: Melania Trump's outfits remain an enigma. With the First Ladywe are in constant mystery, in the shadow of a husband who takes up a lot (too much) space. The more the years pass, the more clothing becomes the preferred means of communication for this woman with a reserved, severe and hermetic temperament. “Her choker, for example, transmits this idea of ​​domination, of belonging to her husband. Here, she presents herself as the anti-Jackie Kennedy, she will rely on sober, austere, even military and masculine colors such as navy blue, black, khaki, dark beige,” notes the sociologist.

A rather refined style – far from the neon palettes that she adopted eight years earlier – adopted in this “have you seen me” America, and which clashes with the eccentric politics of her husband. What, perhaps, further marks his desire to move away from this environment. Last June, the media Page Six claimed that she would have signed an agreement with her husband not to “be a First Lady on duty 24/7” if she won. Five months later, an anonymous source revealed to New York Post that she “will be First Lady, but only on her own terms.” Whatever we think, Melania Trump still finds ways to convey messages through clothing. This time, through yin and yang. In other words, this strategy of being there, without being there.