Yahoo Lifestyle Designers and Politicians Aren’t Always a Winning Combination
With the 60th presidential inauguration ceremony less than two weeks away, the occasion will mark the start of another chapter in U.S. history for politicians and more peripherally branding opportunities for designers.
No longer the much-coveted win it once was, dressing presidents, first ladies and first families can be tricky for brands and high-profile creatives in this politically divisive environment. With Democrats and Republicans polarized like never before, some voters will inevitably be disappointed and many are inclined to share their criticism on social media. Neutrality about dressing political figures may be becoming more in vogue, or maybe designers are just busy. Jason Wu, whose career skyrocketed after creating Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown in 2009 and again in 2013, declined to comment about dressing political figures. Ditto for Markarian’s Alexandra O’Neill, who has suited up Jill Biden for key global photo-ops, and Dennis Basso, who has taken a bipartisan approach to dressing political figures and their families. (In 1994, a failed assassin mistook Basso, who was taking a tour of the White House, as former president Bill Clinton.)
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Clearly, much has changed since designers courted first ladies via personal meetings, floral deliveries, handwritten letters, swatches and sketches. Oleg Cassini first met Jackie Kennedy — sketches in hand for the incoming first lady — at Georgetown Hospital, following the birth of her son John Jr. in the fall off 1960. Cassini had told her at that time, “You have the opportunity here for an American Versailles,” according to his autobiography. And so she did, not only ushering in arts and culture into the White House but also setting the bar for stylishness.
Despite the ever-widening grasp that social media offers, a few designers have made a point of not posting key political figures who have worn their labels. When Usha Vance wore a Badgley Mischka dress at the Republican National Convention, a company spokesperson said the frock must have been purchased at retail. Before Donald Trump was sworn in as president in 2017, several leading American designers including Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and Phillip Lim made it known that they would not dress Melania Trump, if asked. Her stylist Herve Pierre took to shopping in stores to find options, as he often still does for the former model.
While numerous American designers have not sought out the opportunity to suit up Melania Trump, European luxury houses are reaching out to dress the incoming first lady, Pierre said Wednesday. “Some of the designers here in New York are lovely. The Europeans are more open-minded. They see dressing Mrs. Trump, due to the press coverage that she is getting, as a business opportunity to generate sales and free publicity,” he said.
Having faced criticism for not dressing Trump in more American labels for key photo-ops, Pierre said it is worth noting that he was once turned away outside of the front door of an American designer’s store in New York City by a salesperson. “I understand that you can criticize Mrs. Trump, but to say to someone who is coming to shop — full-price, ‘You are not welcome here.’ That is something that I would have never expected.”
Just as the branches of President Biden’s family have offered global attention, as was the case when his granddaughter wore a Ralph Lauren wedding gown for her White House nuptials, Trump’s extended kin could do the same — for better or for worse. His son Don Jr.’s new partner Bettina Anderson, a former model and social media influencer, understands the game. The Palm Beach socialite tagged Elie Saab and Hamilton Jewelers in an Instagram post of her at a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago.
With President-elect Trump’s second administration nearing, a few fashion observers and presidential authors shared their views about the challenges of dressing political figures. Nicole Miller expects that Melania Trump will have more designers looking to dress her, compared to having been “largely ignored” by fashion designers and the media during the first Trump administration. “Usually, the first lady gets a bunch of covers and is all over the place. And she’s a very chic lady,” Miller said. “Melania was largely ignored by fashion designers and did not get the coverage that she should have gotten.”
The designer recalled how Melania Trump used to come up to the Nicole Miller showroom as a model for castings. “She wasn’t married obviously. She was dating Donald at the time,” Miller said. “She was always very professional, polite, and eager with no attitude.”
As for the potential influence of the Trumps’ extended family, Miller said, “Ivanka has plenty of money. I don’t think she cares if anybody gives her a freebie or dresses her. She’s very chic also. We’ve lent Tiffany a few things in the past. There was a mutual friend connection.”
Suggesting that Trump has a lot of very attractive offspring including grandchildren like Ivanka’s 13-year-old daughter Arabella Kushner, Miller said, “They’re going to be out there and looking very chic.”
Just as Ronald Reagan’s administration brought a little bit of glamour back to Washington after Jimmy Carter’s more relaxed run, there are traces of that being repeated with the incoming administration, according to Joshua Kendall, author of “First Dads: Parents and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama.” He said, “What’s interesting about Trump is that he has older children. His daughter Ivanka is so stylish. If she likes a certain type of sweater, pantsuit or something that well could take off. She is almost like a princess in America. That’s also rare in American history. Typically, presidents have had much younger children. She is very much her own woman and could be a trendsetter.”
Making the point that Jackie Kennedy was in her 30s when she was first lady, Kendall said that is “an optimal age to be a trendsetter. Ivanka isn’t that much older. She’s 43.” Tiffany could be another, as well as Trump’s grandchildren, he said. “They’ve got a lot of children and grandchildren. They’re very prominent and very well-known. It’s almost becoming like a royal family and their ability to influence fashion trends is huge. We know them already in the way that the Brits know all of Queen Elizabeth’s kids.”
While first ladies have traditionally been the ones to influence fashion, “in this case, the wife is so young, it’s going to be the wife and the daughters,” Kendall said. “The thing about the Trump family is they are very photogenic, and they are used to the publicity. The odds of them having a huge influence on fashion trends is high.”
The issue of having had much older presidents has opened the door too to the prospect of grandchildren being trendsetters too, Kendall said. That could apply to 17-year-old Kai Trump, who spoke at the Republican National Convention. An accomplished golfer, who has verbally committed to the University of Miami, she has more than 1.3 million followers on TikTok and 853,000-plus followers on Instagram. (Her election night vlog has more than 4.5 million views on YouTube.)
Trend forecaster Paco Underhill said any influence that the Trump family could have on fashion would be “very marginal.” He singled out Jackie Kennedy as the last true influencer of fashion, and said that Trump is still wearing the same uniform — a blue suit, white shirt and red tie — that he has worn for the past 30 years that is “one of the best ways of concealing that he is 35-plus pounds overweight [per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s standards.]”
“Fashion is influenced from a wider variety of places than Washington, D.C. I think they will have a very marginal impact on fashion,” he said. “Part of what we’re looking at is the control of fashion has tended to migrate from the capitals of New York, Paris, London and Milan to eminently more local control. There are certain things that are perfectly accepted in Texas that no one would think about wearing in Boston.”
Underhill also highlighted how the U.S. fashion industry is largely anchored in New York and it includes many Democrats.
Dressing political figures and their relatives has become more polarizing in recent years, due to politics becoming more and more divisive, said Summer Anna Lee, author of the forthcoming book “Presidential Fashion: An Illustrated History” that will be published by the Yale University Press. “We definitely see that affecting the fashion industry through whether or not brands want to dress the president and first lady, or whether they want to be associated at all. We saw this the first time the Trumps entered the White House.”
Last year dozens of American designers turned out to join Jill Biden at the CFDA’s “Fashion for Our Future” event in New York. Lee pointed to Ralph Lauren, who designed the incoming first lady’s custom pale blue suit for her husband’s swearing-in, for being bipartisan about dressing political figures. “That can be admirable. Ralph Lauren as a person is very private about his political leanings, and he doesn’t involve that in business. Also, I don’t think it’s inappropriate for some American designers to be vocal about what their values are,” Lee said.
Considering that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket sold merchandise created by Prabal Gurung, Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg, and Gabriela Hearst (who also has said in the past that she would not dress Melania), “it would feel strange if they were also dressing the Trumps in the White House,” Lee said.
In addition, she said, “There absolutely could be a backlash for designers who choose to work Trump.”
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