Yahoo Lifestyle Designer Reveals Hidden Message Of Melania Trump's Viral Inauguration Hat
Eric Javits, the designer and creator of the boater hat that Melania Trump wore to Monday’s inauguration of her husband, President Donald Trump, has revealed the meaning of the headwear.
“It’s a time of some restraint, and it’s really sort of a turning point to more conservative values, I think,” Javits told ABC News of the wide-brimmed garment that became a meme and went viral for the way it appeared to get in the way of a kiss between the couple.
The first lady was likely “thinking of protocol and looking very elegant and very simple in a way” when it came to the hat choice, Javits told ABC.
“It still was a very powerful visual message,” he added.
Javits on Instagram called it “my great honor and privilege to create the hat our First Lady, Melania Trump wore for the inaugural swearing in of our 47th President!”
“She has the inner grace, beauty and presence to transform what was really a very simple, restrained hat style into what became a ‘wow’ moment,” he added. “The First Lady’s hat was made with love.”
However, the hat almost didn’t get worn.
The first version that Javits painstakingly created — after being commissioned to put a twist on one of his existing hats by the first lady’s stylist Herve Pierre — arrived for the final fitting in New York “irreparably damaged” in a wet and crushed carton, he told Vanity Fair.
Javits crafted a replacement in just four days.
The president on Monday was prevented from kissing his wife because of the wide brim of the hat.
“I know there’ll be plenty of kissing later,” Javits joked to NBC News.
“Whenever women wore hats in the old days, that was always an issue,” he added. “But a lot of them wore hats with big brims so no one would try. You know, that was their boundary.”
Donald Trump himself mentioned the hat during an Inauguration Day speech, talking about how his wife was almost blown away because of it during high winds.
“He’s funny,” Javits said. “I know it was secured very nicely to her head because I sort of engineered a little invisible elastic in the back and there were some loops towards the front where more pins could be applied. It wasn’t such a huge brim that it would fly off her head. I think he was just being funny.”
