Designer Says Melania’s Hat Was a Right-Wing Political Message

The man who designed first lady Melania Trump’s unusual inauguration headwear has revealed the true meaning behind the hat that went viral.

Designer Eric Javits told ABC News the hat was supposed to be “simple,” “understated,” and “classic.”

“I think she was thinking of protocol and looking very elegant and very simple in a way,” he said, explaining a political motivation behind the look. “It’s a time of some restraint, and it’s really sort of a turning point to more conservative values.”

Fashion critics, however, said the navy boater-style toque, which had a wide brim that covered Trump’s eyes, was more evocative of a masked bandit, transmitting “mystery and inaccessibility.”

Pairing the hat with a tightly buttoned navy coat and high-neck white blouse was “in line with the guarded image Mrs. Trump has cultivated since her husband emerged on the political scene,” the New York Times’ chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, wrote.

The outfit also evoked the “promise of an imperial presidency that President Trump has dangled,” Friedman added.

The fact that Melania Trump refused to remove her hat and coat even when she was inside the Capitol Rotunda—and during the incoming president’s swearing-in—further unscored the point that she is dressing the part of an imperial functionary, according to Friedman.

Optics aside, the hat also served a more immediate and practical function.

“The brim is so wide, Donald can’t get anywhere near her face,” the president-elect’s niece, Mary Trump, commented in a video she uploaded to the social media platform X. The choice was absolutely “intentional,” she predicted.

And indeed, when Melania’s husband went in for a kiss during the inauguration, he couldn’t get past the hat.